IMMERSIVE SUMMER WORKSHOP – 2024 EDITION
From August 5 to 15, 2024
The immersive summer workshop, offered every year in Lavauzelle for 13 editions, is aimed at people interested in performative and multidisciplinary practices: theater, singing, dance, martial arts, ritual arts… and their effects on the individual body and collective.
They aim to nourish and expand the individual experience of the stage, which involves encountering the unknown, but also to constitute a space-time for introspection as well as an immersion in a collective experience. It is an opportunity to question the boundaries established a priori between artistic creation and work on oneself.
These proposals are open without hierarchy or distinction to people wishing to engage in a process, whether they are professionals (theater, dance, music, or circus), or in training or retraining, or even to amateurs with or without experience, eager to take a step aside, outside the French professional performing arts system.
Each module ends with an informal meal meeting with a small local and caring audience, an opening of the work, often participatory, where the public is invited to accompany the investigation with the group, then at a festive moment which allows the continuation of informal way meetings and curiosities
This year, we are offering four different modules, spread over 3 periods, with 6 speakers. The immersive workshop is designed as a whole, but it is also possible, for those who want to or who cannot do otherwise, to follow only one module.
FIRST MODULE
August 5-7 (3 days)
Jakub “Kuba” Gontarski (Wroclaw, Poland) developed his practice as a stuntman, martial artist (Jiu-Jitsu and Capoeira), contact improvisation, physical theater, movement coaching. He develops a somatic technique, which places an increasing emphasis on relationships and breathing.
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SECOND MODULE
August 8-12 (5 days)
SentierS IntérieurS – dance research – body weather/butoh,
by Ephia Gburek with Vincent Valente
Ephia Gburek (USA) is a dancer and choreographer based in Saint-Etienne where she founded FabKa. Close to the butoh movement and in particular Body weather, she develops with the company “Djalma Primordial Science” a movement design attentive to infra-intensities, and to all human and non-human textures and qualities, in particular to the environment and specificly enjoys working outdoors. She is accompanied live by accordionist Vincent Valente who has faithfully and subtly accompanied the company’s journey for years.
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THIRD AND FOURTH MODULES
August 13-15 (3 days)
– mornings: Sardinian Chants, with Rita Piga and Jean-François Favreau
– afternoons: The musical gesture, with Soledad Zarka
The dancer/musician Soledad Zarka and the singer Rita Piga live in Estagel, in the Pyrénées Orientales, where they run a collective place of artistic and social creation, La Remise. They offer a workshop with two entrances, which can be used separately.
The Chants Sardes workshop (the plural is important) will be a space for discovery and experimentation around the island’s numerous repertoires, where the work of timbre and harmonics is particularly physical and spectacular. Rita Piga will be accompanied for the occasion by singer and collector Jean-François Favreau.
In the afternoons, Soledad Zarka, a dancer trained in instant composition, but also a second-hand musician, visual artist-collector and makeshift puppeteer, will offer research on the soundtrack of everyday life, attentive to the quality of the sound gesture.
At the end of the day / the two workshops will be able to converge to develop a sound dramaturgy made from the meeting of the two worlds.
Process
The topography of the work will take into account fatigue, the need for rest and the energy level of the group, but the attention of the participants is drawn to the fact that it constitutes a significant energetic immersion.
Through the juxtaposition of different practices, by taking care of the moments of meeting and tiling between the different modules, we put ourselves in a position to meet, to decenter, at the risk of sometimes getting lost… in order to better find ourselves, by weaving individual itineraries and collective processes. We bet that this time anew, the juxtaposition of the proposals will allow the creative emergence of links (individual or collective) between practices.
It is possible to follow one or more modules independently of the whole, without harming the overall process… (by meeting, before or after the module, the participants of the other modules).
The workshops will be conducted in French or English (translation in both directions is possible). They will be held in a renovated 80m2 barn and in the surrounding countryside.
Practice days will include an average of 8 hours of work, with a break for lunch. Each leader will be able to propose, depending on the work and energy of the day and in agreement with the group, slight variations in the timetable: deciding the time and duration of the lunch break, or even offer a break or an exceptional session in the evening, for example.
Registration
Please let us know about your desire to join the process as soon as possible.
In good agreement with each participant, we will make a final selection during the month of June. This aims to constitute a balanced group and to ensure homogeneity of presence. Requests regarding the entire workshop will be given priority.
If your participation is confirmed, you will be sent a registration form at the end of June and asked to pay a deposit corresponding to half the cost of the course and accommodation and food costs to definitively reserve your place.
If constraints force you to organize your trip in advance, do not hesitate to contact us.
Meals: except in special cases, meals will be prepared together on site, mainly using fresh, local products. This concerns the workshop days, as well as the dinner the day before (the evening of the 4th), for those who wish.
Participation from everyone (allow approximately 45 minutes on average) will be requested daily for the preparation of meals, washing dishes, and preparing the work space, according to a fair and egalitarian schedule. Experience teaches us that this is an important moment in the life of the group, in order to meet in a different way (the pairs will be redefined each day).
Accommodation: guest houses (shared in groups to significantly reduce costs) are available in the area around Lavauzelle, a maximum of 5 kilometers away. The rooms generally have two beds. Carpooling will be organized daily to reach the accommodations. Please contact us well in advance.
Journeys: it is advisable to arrive the day before the first day of the workshop and plan to return the day after the last day. We recommend that you use carpooling and will connect the people concerned and volunteers. Please contact us if you need help with transport (shuttles possible to Guéret station or La Souterraine).
To express your interest, please send an email introducing yourself in a few lines or for additional information to Valérie Vivier
valerie@lavauzelle.org • 06 20 48 06 46
Prices
WORKSHOP PARTICIPATION FEES
Full immersive workshop (August 5-15)
€720 / Reduced rate*: €620
* The Reduced Rate (TR.) applies to job seekers, intermittent workers, students, partners of the association. In case of doubt, or special cases, contact us.
Separate modules:
• August 5–7: martial partnering – Jakub Gontarski: €225/180
• August 8-12: Sentier(s) intérieur(s) – Ephia Gburek and Vincent Valente: €350/275
. August 13-15: Sardinian songs and The musical gesture – Piga, Favreau, Zarka: €225/180
(each of these last two modules can also be followed separately: €130/110)
ACCOMMODATION AND CATERING
Accommodation is possible in the surrounding area: In the event of a grouping of requests, we can offer accommodation in a shared gîte (rooms of 2) for 16 euros per night (indicative amount). It is imperative to contact us in advance, specifying the exact dates on which you wish to be accommodated.
Food (based on fresh produce mainly of local origin, mostly vegetarian, prepared together on site): €15/day, including a breakfast basket in each gîte.
Please specify your request in the form that we will send you for final registration well before the start of the course.
TRIPS
It is advisable to arrive the day before the first day of the workshop and to plan to return the day after the last day (i.e. 12 nights on site).
We encourage you to use carpooling and will connect the people concerned and volunteers.
We can, upon detailed and advance request, organize a free shuttle to pick up and return participants to Guéret station (bus), or even La Souterraine (Paris-Austerlitz/Toulouse rail line). To do this, it is desirable that arrivals be coordinated: please specify the options available to you when you register.
Equipment
Please plan comfortable outfits for workshops, with enough changes and variety to adapt to variations in weather (sometimes spectacular) and intense physical work.
Bring what you need to work outdoors, including in the forest, including protective pants, shoes, and headgear. It is also often possible, if the group wishes, to go swimming in a nearby lake.
Also bring something to take notes.
In Lavauzelle, you will find wifi access (fiber) and can, with a localization effort, receive the 3G telephone network. To preserve an atmosphere of concentration, we recommend that you limit external contacts during lunch and evening breaks.
Looking forward to seeing you in Lavauzelle…
Information: valerie@lavauzelle.org