A performance-based workshop exploring
body and spatial awareness, rhythm and movement

Ever wondered what makes a performer compelling to watch? How they can stand still, holding the space, holding the gaze of audience? How that suspended moment can be simultaneously calm and full of energy? And how the smallest physical movement can shift space palpably and change our experience of time?
Explore all this and more in this workshop.

The body is the primary instrument of expression for any performer, and his or her unique personal identity.
Train it
Tune it
Open it up
To an acute awareness of itself, and the energy, space and time it inhabits, commands, creates and changes

This workshop focuses on breaking down the simple acts of standing, sitting, walking, turning, looking, and gesturing, to develop and experience
an internal physical perception of movement and stillness,
an understanding of individual and collective energies,
a relationship between the architecture/geometry of the body and the architecture/geometry of the surrounding space,
a feel for performative pace and rhythm

The training methodology draws from my own extensive work with the kathak-informed body over the last two decades, somatic practices from my on-going work with contemporary dancer Preethi Athreya, and workshop exercises from my work with Italian performance maker Firenza Guidi.

The workshop module spans 8 sessions of 2 hours each over 4 weeks.

Current Dates
Every Tuesday and Friday between 1 and 26 December 2017

Time
7pm to 9pm

Venue
The Ranan Workspace
(Ground Floor, 8 Sultan Alam Road, Calcutta – 33. Near Rabindra Sarobar Metro)

Fees
Rs. 4000/-
All fees must be paid in advance by cash, cheque or bank transfer. Receipts will be given. Fees are non-refundable once the workshop begins.

Limited places. To sign up and receive more information, please email iyengar.vikram@gmail.com with a brief description of your own background and interest – you need not be a performer yourself. Places will be confirmed on payment of the workshop fees.

“Going deep into each particular region and muscle, and especially exploration of the spine and the core’s role in shaping our walk was enriching. I was constantly thinking about how this awareness can be useful in characterization, in inhabiting other imaginary bodies which are not our own. What struck me after Walking Tall is how the slightest of micro gestures, internal bodily turns, and variations in finger movements can completely change a space and it’s dynamics. It really helped me in understanding how to work with performers as a director/scenographer. It made me understand how to create and develop an unique vocabulary of gestures and movements for creating a devised piece of work.”
– Aritra Sengupta, WALKING TALL participant, June-July 2017

“Amazing sessions… complete synthesis of body and active neurons… learnt a lot and still so much to learn and so much to collect, comprehend and absorb…”
– Nabina Gupta, WALKING TALL participant, June-July 2017