Openings
An international workshop in the performing arts
to develop creative relationships and performance situations
through dramatic play and improvisation
opening, definition: an aperture or a gap, especially one allowing access.
Openings is a process-oriented workshop, an experimental journey of diverse cultures,
languages, and artistic backgrounds.
The workshop has three main goals:
First, we aim to share and to further develop improvisational performance practices based in contemporary variations of (Inter)acting with the Inner Partner (IwIP) with workshop participants. Second, we would like to generate new collaborative connections among performers based in Finland who may not know each other and who have not yet worked together. Third, we aim to provide the artist community with a means of supporting performative well-being by providing an encouraging space to play, study, and create together.
The workshop invites the participation of people with a foreign background who are interested in the performing arts and who live in Finland. Applicants need not be professional artists.
The workshop is organized and produced by Kulttuuriyhdistys Culture Current ry, a Helsinki-based arts and education non-for-profit organization.
It is offered at no cost to participants.
The working language is English, but participants will also have the opportunity to work in the language(s) of their choice, usually their native tongue(s).
Application deadline: February 4, 2022, 23.59 (Helsinki time)
Interviews with selected applicants: February 10-11, 2022
Final decision to selected applicants: February 18, 2022
Workshop begins: March 1, 2022. Workshop ends: May 27, 2022
Time commitment for participants: 6-12 hours a week during daytime hours (9AM-5PM).
Contact
alexander [at] culturecurrent.org
+358 404 110 706
Kulttuuriyhdistys Culture Current ry
Support for this project
This project is made possible by the generous financial support of the Arts Council Finland, Finnish Cultural Foundation, Helsinki City, and The Swedish Cultural Foundation in Finland.
For more detailed information about the project and how to apply, please scroll down.
Openings
An international workshop in the performing arts
to develop creative relationships and performance situations
through dramatic play and improvisation
You, sent out beyond your recall,
go to the limits of your longing.
Embody me.
Let everything happen to you: beauty and terror.
Just keep going. No feeling is final.
From “Go to the Limits of Your Longing” by Rainer Maria Rilke
Detailed Project Information
Goals
Through Openings, Culture Current and the working group would like to:
1) Open up a dialogue for developing performance and creative practices
We would like to open up and to share (Inter)acting with the Inner Partner (IwIP) and the practices we have developed through it with people who are interested in performing and improvisational practices. We also hope to work with people who are curious about IwIP’s principles, values, and methods. At the same time, we hope participants will bring some perspective to our work. We would like to develop our practices in collaboration with participants. Also, we are curious about how workshop participants’ own practices, values, and experiences can enrich and influence our improvisational performance methodologies…and perhaps enrich influence their own practices.
2) Enable intercultural dialogue and exchange and promote inclusion and participation of cultural minorities in Finnish life and culture
Through this workshop, we would like to enable intercultural dialogue and artistic collaboration among various linguistic and cultural communities in Finland. We would like to share our own cultures and languages – our many selves – and be enriched by other cultures and languages.
We understand that foreign background artists are often confronted with particular challenges in pursuing their professional work and personal development. We hope that this workshop will open up future opportunities for foreign-background people living in Finland to participate in and contribute to Finnish cultural life.
3) Provide the community with a means of supporting performative well-being, play, have fun
The pressure to produce, usually at a fast pace, can sap artistic and existential energies and lead to burn-out. We need ways to maintain and to support performative well-being. In this workshop, we aim to create an encouraging, creative space without the pressure of having to produce art.
Our motivations for the Openings workshop
Since 2013, Kulttuuriyhdistys Culture Current ry has organized numerous courses and performances in Helsinki and throughout Finland. Our association’s purpose is to organize and implement educational, cultural, and artistic activities that create and promote empathetic, critical, and mutual interaction between different individuals, groups and ideas on topical themes. You can read more about Culture Current goals and values here.
Content of the Workshop
The workshop consists of two parts.
Part 1
An intensive introduction to IwIP for workshop participants who have not studied the discipline before. These sessions will be led by Alexander and other members of the working group. For more information about IwIP, see below.
Part 2
Strand 1: Participants will continue to study IwIP with Alexander and other members of the working group.
Strand 2: Participants and the working group will meet together for two sessions per week to explore different variations of IwIP and methods and practices derived from IwIP. One session per week will be lead by Alex. It will explore various individual, pair, and group improvisational exercises developed from IwIP. The second weekly session will be led by other members of the working group. These will explore improvisational practices in the fields of acting, performing, dance, and writing.
Working Methods
Our primary working methods are based in contemporary variations of (Inter)acting with the Inner Partner that have been developed in Finland, and practices developed from IwIP in various fields. We will also discuss, write, play games, etc. Participants will be invited to share their own cultures, languages, and artistic practice through the work we do together.
Workshop Timetable*
*The timetable will be finalized by the end of January/early February. Participants should count with 6-12 hours a week in 3-7 hour sessions sometime between 9AM-5PM. The final week will have one evening demo.
Part 1 – Weeks 9-12
We will meet two days a week. Each day we will have a 3-hour IwIP session.
Part 2 – Weeks 13-21
We will meet two days a week. On one day, we will meet for a 3-hour IwIP session in the morning, have a lunchbreak, and then continue with a 4-hour group workshop session in the afternoon. The other day, we will meet for 4-hour group workshop session in the afternoon.
Workshop size and make-up
The maximum group size is 13-14, including the core working-group. We will be accepting between 8-9 participants. Our aim is to have a diverse group, especially in terms of culture, language, and profession.
Workshop languages
The working language is English, but participants will also have the opportunity to work in the language(s) of their choice, usually their native tongue(s).
Cost
The workshop is offered at no cost to participants. Participants need to provide their own meals, snacks, and appropriate clothing for physical work.
Take with you to every session
Comfortable clothing for movement work. Plain clothing, preferably dark with no large visuals, logos, text, etc. Shirt should be short-sleeved (no sleeves passed your elbows, please). If you have long hair, please tie/pin your hair back completely so it does not hang in your face (no hanging bangs, please). Water bottle. Pen and notebook. Face mask.
COVID-19 Note
We kindly request that only people who are vaccinated against COVID-19 participate in the workshop.
Core working-group
The core working-group consists of long-time IwIP practitioners, teachers, and researchers who have developed IwIP through their artistic, pedagogical, and research work. We are active professionals in our fields.
Malin Kivelä: writer, performer
Alexander Komlosi (workshop leader, artistic director): actor, teacher, researcher
Cecilia Paul: actor
Hanna Raiskinmäki: actor, singer, teacher
Jenni-Elina von Bagh: choreographer, dancer
Project manager
Diego Ginartes
Dramaturgical and directorial feedback group for workshop (based on availability) includes: Mikaela Hasán, Otso Huopaniemi, Eeva Muilu, Riku Saastamoinen, Milja Sarkola
Main Organizer
Openings is organized and produced by Culture Current, an arts and education non-for-profit organization based in Helsinki, Finland.
Support for this project
This project is made possible by the generous financial support from Arts Council Finland, Finnish Cultural Foundation, Helsinki City, and The Swedish Cultural Foundation in Finland.
Partners
Our project partners include Caisa (communication), DuvTeatern, Globe Art Point (communication), Restart.
Applying
Application deadline: February 4, 2022, 23.59 (Helsinki time)
Invitations to selected applicants sent: February 8, 2022
Interviews with selected applicants: February 10-11, 2022
Final decision to selected applicants: February 18, 2022
Application: Please send your CV along with answers to the following questions to:
alexander [at] culturecurrent.org. The CV and answers must be in English.
Application questions:
- Please give a short snapshot of who you are and what you do (max 1 page). Please state your English language level.
- We would like participants who can attend most (90%) of the workshop sessions. Can you commit to the workshop timetable? (max 1 sentence)
- Workshop participants need not be professional artists or performers. However, it is important that participants are interested in performing. Also, they need to be willing and ready to work in an experimental way through improvisation. What experience do you have performing? What are some of the challenges you face when performing? What does performing give you? Are you interested in exploring new ways of performing? Why? (max 1 page)
- As a solo improvisational practice, IwIP involves experimenting (performing) on stage alone. It also involves self-reflection and a commitment to practicing openness, and communicating personal questions in a public situation. How do you feel about this kind of work? (max 1 page)
- What do you think you may get out of participating in this workshop? (max 1 paragraph)
- How do you think you could contribute to this workshop? (max 1 paragraph)
- As a working group, we believe in creating a working atmosphere based in respect, cooperation, active encouragement. We are committed to resolving conflicts through mutual understanding and dialogue. What values do you think are important in group processes like this? What experience do you have with working with people of different cultures, languages, and viewpoints? (max 1 paragraph)
For information Inter)acting with the Inner Partner, please see below.
About (Inter)acting with the Inner Partner
Our primary working methods are based in contemporary variations of (Inter)acting with the Inner Partner (IwIP) that have been developed in Finland. Following, is some background on IwIP.
IwIP is a solo improvisational discipline. It is open to all interested in exploring performing through their selves, and exploring their selves through performing in a spirit of dialogue and partnership. It is not just for actors, nor is it an acting method. It is a methodology of performative research and training. IwIP is studied by a wide-range of people who are interested in acting, performing, self-development, self-understanding, creativity, and dramatic play, among other themes and questions they discover along the way.
A dialogical approach to the person based in empathetic group dynamics and grounded in our social ecology…
IwIP is rooted in an understanding of the performing person as a constellation of perspectives or different “partners.” As we explore how these partners interact with each other through dramatic play in a performance situation, we experience and learn about ourselves as performing, creative people. We may discover playful performance, new performing possibilities, individual curiosities, and personal and artistic questions. We are also likely to discover difficult questions, conflicting themes, and ways we relate to ourselves that are less than fruitful. Those who pursue IwIP tend to be willing, interested, and need to explore and play out the different ways our selves relate to each other through dramatic play.
Studying dialogical dramatic principles and improvisational approaches that support us in various performance situations…
IwIP explores principles and practices that enable us to develop existing artistic forms and create new ones. We study how to be creative partners to ourselves and to others in our particular performance situation and social ecology. We learn dialogical dramatic play principles and improvisational approaches to advance our personal performing capabilities and learn performance skills. We propose and practice how to transform what we perform and how we perform. This can support us in creating fruitful performance situations in a spirit of partnership.
Some of the themes and questions IwIP explores include:
Who I am when I perform
When I perform, who am I being? Who am I not being yet?
How I am when I perform
How do I feel? Am I calm? Frightened? Am I stiff and tense? Am I relaxed and responsive? How am I thinking? Am I critical and judgmental? Am I open and accepting? What is my well-being like when I perform on stage and how does this connect to my well-being in other performance situations?
How I perform
What are the qualities of my performing? How are my voice and body expressive? Do I rush? Do I give myself time? How do I get in my own way? How do I support myself? How do I listen to myself? How do I avoid and take risks? What new actions could I risk and why? How does the way I act affect myself, others, and our shared situations?
What I perform
What offers to do I give myself and others? What offers do other partners give to me? How can I interact through them to create new shared meanings and possibility?
A Brief History of IwIP
IwIP was originally created at the Academy of Performing Arts in Prague by professor Ivan Vyskočil, a renown Czech actor, writer, pedagogue and researcher. In Finland, IwIP has been taught, researched, developed, and applied in the professional artistic community for almost fifteen years. Originally introduced by Milja Sarkola and Eeva Muilu through their performance work, Alexander Komlosi has led its pedagogical and artistic develop in collaboration with artists and other professionals in the field since 2012. He has taught courses and at the Theatre Academy (University of Arts Helsinki), University of Tampere (NÄTY), Aalto University, professional theatres, and as part of Culture Current’s non-for-profit educational and artistic work. A research grant from the Finnish Cultural Foundation allowed him to develop IwIP’s pedagogy at the Performing Arts Research Center (TUTKE) at the University of Arts Helsinki (2017-8) with students and long-time IwIP practitioners.
IwIP is an open and opening methodology, so members of the IwIP community have developed its pedagogy and artistic applications in their own unique ways in the fields like acting, dance, choreography, performance, research, and pedagogy.