sun aug 18th- sun aug 25th
coed dylan, carmarthenshire, wales
Spend 8 days in idylic retreat; in the depths of West Wales, and the depths of your creative Self.
Experience innovative approaches to acting + directing,
weaving diverse methods together to
complement and enrich your practice as
a Contemporary Performance Maker
Meisner Technique + NLP facilitated by actor + acting coach ROBERT BOWMAN
Stanislavsky’s Active Analysis guided by
directing coach ELEN BOWMAN
+ director/artist THAN HUSSEIN CLARK
Devised/Improvised site responsive text + performance led by LESLEY EWEN
additional methods explored:
Le Coq, Alexander Technique, Linklater Voice work
Drawing + Meditation hosted by Living Pictures facilitator team POLLY WALDRON, FLORRIE DOBSON CASSIDY McCARTEN and ADRIAN GREENSMITH
...simply wait, be quiet, still and solitary.
The world will freely offer itself to you to be unmasked,
it has no choice, it will roll in ecstasy at your feet.
- Franz Kafka
Embodied Creation is a way of generating performance material from deep within your 'bodymind'; the level of consciousness that lies beyond judgement, ego, or desire for product and perfection.
Over three afternoons Lesley will guide you through a series of practices that will support your journey deeper into your creative consciouness. She’ll ‘hold space’ that enables you to work without the usual judgements that stymie unique creative impulses. With ‘a willingness to see what wants to appear’, and the courage to be present in each moment in order to open your ‘doors of perception’, you'll allow a richer stream of creation to flow through you. With practice this way of working can become an invaluable skill that will rarely fail you...in Art and even in Life.
day one
to be…in a new way...?
we’ll begin with breath to which we’ll add form, and challenge
we’ll review the results;
how we feel in our bodies now?
how now feels in our bodies?
we’ll spend time + pay attention
…to the world as we sense it
in our deep stillness
we’ll journey through the natural world of Coed Dylan, guided by sense
…feeling…smell…sound…taste...thought
being present with our Selves, respecting our senses, open to the journey
the story that arises
that our senses share us with
day two
we’ll begin with breath...
we submit to our embodied impulse...
add time + the freedom to play in space....
we’ll breathe again and trust…
in our selves, nature and creation;
we move, add curiosity, move again
+ see what happens
we’ll reflect on place and space...
what draws us when we open from deeply
within our bodies, from Self?
what arises in big Mind? from open hearts?
how does place + space + nature
ask us to move? impulse us?
what attracts us? what delights?
from this organic communion we write;
no head, just heart and flow;
experience + image expressed in sentences;
then sentences expressed
in movement + sound, reverberating with the images + thoughts + ideas that arose
we allow it all, play it out and practice, we Be with a willingness to see what wants to appear
without judgement or editing
or trying to make a beautiful thing
(that comes later)
day three
we combine it all
we shape it into a journey through time
in green a place
which we’ll share
with some lovely people