Dramaturgy Practices Cycle

La Bellone returns in 2024 with a new series of seminars on Dramaturgical Practices.

Rather than a history or theorisation of dramaturgy, participants are invited to grasp, define and practise dramaturgy by attempting both to map out dramaturgical practices and to situate themselves within them. The aim is not to define a practice which, as such, is outside the definitional framework, since it has no fixed ends and no fixed contours, but rather to propose a method of double singularisation: singularising what makes up the dramaturgical landscape today and then seeing what makes each of us unique in our own method of doing things. This is the starting point for a process of situated study, along which participants can recognise more clearly the specificity of their own method and tools, but also experiment with other ways of using them or refining them in the light of the specificities of others. The aim of the seminars is to share knowledge and experiment. Each invited practitioner will share a questions they are faced with in their work as a starting point for group reflection. These seminars are an opportunity to get to work and share ideas more than a form of academic training.

'Public Space Dramaturgy'

Cifas and La Bellone are co-producing on these seminars : 'Public Space Dramaturgy' by Danae Theodoridou.

In this seminar, dramaturgy will be treated as the (political) practice of ‘working on actions’ (Georgelou, Protopapa, Theodoridou, 2017) that relates closely to the sociopolitical environments wherein our work is taking place. In its frame, we will explore dramaturgies able to (re)construct public space but also ‘public time’ through performance.

Performance theorist Rebecca Schneider, defines politics as a primarily performative practice, closely related to the forms that the body takes in front of others in public space. As she writes, politics is the act of “appearing to others as others appear [to me]”. Such understanding denotes the fundamental relationship between performance and politics. Drawing on Schneider’s ideas, particular focus of the workshop will be the visual forms of the ‘public body’ and the relation between dramaturgy, audience participation and political emancipation. If indeed, performance today should operate as an act of ‘public_ing’ (Theodoridou, 2022), namely as a frame for constructing publicness anew providing alternatives to capitalism, how could we -as makers and/or dramaturgs- use and position the body in public contexts, in order to achieve such aim? How might such embodied positioning contribute to the empowerment of democratic exchange; And how can public spaces be returned to citizens through such practices?

Through sharing and experimenting with concrete examples, tasks and processes we will examine forms and operations of the ‘public body’, as well as the conditions under which art can create communities able to question established social configurations and power relations. Moving beyond divisions between theory and practice, the dramaturgical here will be approached through specific principles of work, as they arise from within enquiry-led artistic processes of questioning, speaking, writing, reading and debating. Participants will be asked to either bring in the workshop specific projects they are working on, and/or design prototypes for possible interventions that could create public space.

Danae Theodoridou

Danae Theodoridou is a performance maker and researcher based in Brussels. She completed her practice-led PhD on contemporary dramaturgy in Roehampton University in London (2013). Her artistic research focuses on social imaginaries, the practice of democracy and the way that art contributes to the emergence of socio-political alternatives. She teaches in Fontys Academy of the Arts (NL), curates practice-led research projects, and presents and publishes her work internationally. She is the co-author of The Practice of Dramaturgy: Working on Actions in Performance (Valiz, 2017) and the author of PUBLICING: Practising Democracy Through Performance (Nissos, 2022). 

www.danaetheodoridou.com

Who for ?

People with experience as dramaturges, beginner or confirmed. The seminar will exclusively be held in English.

Applications

Call for applications now closed.