The Center for Ancient Greek Theater of Epidauros, IMALIS, in partnership with the Municipality of Epidauros announces the 2012 Research Workshop Series  titled “Shed the skin, trace the path, set the post: Approaches to the performance and staging of Ancient Greek Plays”  with master instructors  Atsushi Takenoushi (Jinen Globe), Paul Goodwin (Drama Center London), Prof. Demetrios Lekkas (Imalis, Open University) and Vasilios Arabos (Imalis).

The first laboratory workshop of 2012 will take place in Ancient Epidauros from June 2nd - June 9th and will be taught by Atsushi Takenoushi and Vasilios Arabos:

Jinen Butoh as Orphic Descent Into the Role

                                                                            
                                                                                                                                    Photo by Yayoi Ogata

Dates: June 2nd - June 9th, 2012  (Atsushi teach until June 8th )                    

Duration: 8 hours/day, 64 contact hours, total.

Description: 

Shamanic in both its motivation and approach, Atsushi Takenouchi’s Jinen Butoh is a dance-form developed as a fundamental act of healing and remembrance.  Just as Imalis means Return to the Source, Jinen means Breath of the Universe and River of Life, and Jinen Butoh its contact through dance.   Jinen Butoh shares with the Orphic tradition out of which theater evolved as a Bacchic art-form a concern with touching these primordial principles through our living body, and cleansing through a process of acknowledgement and expression the imprints left upon it by the forgotten and rejected creatures of the world in which it exists: the pariahs, the abandoned children and old people, refugees, prostitutes and failed revolutionaries, the sick and the insane, animals, plants and places on the road of extinction...

We could add to the list, the insane matricide Orestes, the hopeless Electra, her murderess mother, the weak and vain Menelaus for just one play, or span outwards into the tradition with the cursed Hippolytus, Oedipus the damned, the defeated Persians...  All figures, roles, masks, which for some obscure reason, the Orphic tradition of the theater of Dionysos was driven to construct and animate before the eyes of its public as an act of collective reparation, cleansing and healing...  It is this metaphysical dimension that our workshop with Atsushi will be exploring, its basis in technique, and its implications in performance.  What we term, in Imalis, the “vertical dimension” of the theater of the ancients.  The premise of our workshop will be that if acting the ancient role, was song, then this primordial “goat-song,” the voice of the body that is moved to song, is raised upon the goat-dance, and the setting of the mask as artifact upon the head of the performer, both its crowning and initiating act. 

During this eight-day intensive, Atsushi will lead us through a process of immersion into the body, the breath and its inner movement   and basic mask work and help us build the foundation of individual work-demonstrations of Butoh as a movement-basis of the rhythm and tone of our chosen roles which will be drawn from Euripides’ Orestes.  He will be assisted by Vasiliios Arabos in the development of scene-study, vocal and mask work for an integral approach to ancient performance as the return to a groundless stage of memories, symbols and impulses residing in the body and the voice, in which the Orphic dimensions of performance will be revealed as the liberation, ritual expression and cleansing of the elements in space and the performer's body.  In this way, our workshop with Atsushi strikes at the core of Imalis’ research and the theme of this workshop series “Shed the skin, trace the path, set the post.” 

Orpheus, who revealed to our ancestors the mysteries of Dionysos, taught that our body was a mantle woven by Kore, daughter of Demeter and Queen of the Underworld, and that within it lay the path for healing.  It is this skin, as skenoma, that lies at the origin of the skene, or scene.  In his Sacred Discourses, he sang the praises of Dionysos, Guide of the Souls of the Dead and the Lost, celebrating him as the God of the Vine of the Universe to which cling all beings, and the Great Healer to whom the ancients would turn to be restored to their First Health through music and theater.  It is for this reason that his temple that was theater was located next to the temple of Asklepios, the "eliminator of that which goes counter to our nature," the restorer of our Second Heath, that health which came second to our First Health and which belonged to the Vine God.  

Atsushi Takenouchi’s “dance of forgotten human’s history” is the means by which we will set the post by raising the body of the performer within a new healing space, as an “archeology of the living body.”  The texts will be worked in their original ancient tongue.  Atsushi will be teaching until the 8th. The last day is reserved for further extension into collaborative work with Imalis Ensemble members on the practices of the Ancient Role.

The premise of our workshop is a simple one:  if acting the ancient role, was song, then this primordial “goat-song,” the voice of the body that is moved to song, is raised upon the goat-dance, and the setting of the mask as artifact upon the head of the performer, both its crowning and initiating act.  Jinen Butoh, for us, is like the goat-dance of the ancient Technicians of Dionysos.

House of Neuse is a non-profit organization which only accepts charitable donations. While we organize one meal a day and book lodging arrangements for our guests, these are paid by us to the venue operator.

Expenses: 330.00euros (Asteroa) or 370.00euros (Sunny Gardens).  This payment covers one Lunch meal per day (workshop days, not including days off or break days), accommodation (7 days - 8 nights, see below), two (2) transfers to and from the Ancient Theater, and Teachers’ fees.

Airport transfers are not included.

Donation: 110.00euros (suggested).  Please bear in mind that we are a non-profit, and larger donations are always welcome.  We can provide provide pertinent invoicing/receipts for tax purposes.

Please register early, space is limited.

To register for this workshop, please visit  Dance of a Tragic Figure II and click the link “Register for this workshop”.

To register directly, click here: Registration Page.