I (Esther Eij) want to invite artists from all kinds of artdisciplines (performing and non-performing!) to join me in a 6 session research on the balance between groupwork and individuality.

WHEN: 1, 8, 15 oct. + 3, 10, 17 dec. 2015 between 13.00-15.30
Each cycle of three will end with an open session in wich we share our findings with others.

WHAT: In group improvisation there is always a balance to be found between the group and it’s individual members. This makes group improvisation an exciting way to research the role of the individual in the process of the group.

In the sessions I want to focus on the questions:

• • What does it mean to work as a group?
  • What does it mean to be an individual within a group?
  • How do the two influence each other? And how does group improvisation influence the solo work?
  •  How do you want it to influence your individual work?

Themes that we will focus on are e.g.:
leading-following
initiating, waiting, timing
taking and giving space, time, attention, focus.
solo work- group work

WHO: To research this, I would like to work with a group of artists from different disciplines, performing and non-performing! The mix between artists who more often  work alone (e.g. visual artists, writers) and performers who mostly work in relation to others (e.g. musicians, dancers, actors) will create a rich context to look at both interdisciplinary improvisation principles and your own artistic practice.

HOW: It’s my intention to work with the same group of people for these 6 sessions, so we can find the time to explore and experiment and maybe develop a way of working that helps us use our individual qualities during group work.

Please announce yourself if you would like to join in by writing a comment to this blogpost (below) or emailing me directly esther@bureaueij.nl.
Participants contribute between 5-10 euro p.p. per session as a Carpet donation for helping to keep the studio open all year for improvisation research. For more info on the Carpet Sessions: What are the Carpet Sessions? / Where is the studio?

About me:
I come from a theatre background, teaching, directing, performing. More and more i started to focus my work on how we communicate with one another, how we interact, and how we experience ourselves and the ones around us. I call this:Practising Communication. Under that name I organise different forms of conversations,Socratic Dialogues, training- and improvisationsessions, performances in daily live.

Hope to see you in october. And please share this invite!