Choreography masterclass at SUGLA

18 Jan Choreography masterclass at SUGLA

Last December, we returned to Ljubljana to teach an acrobatics and creative choreography masterclass at SUGLA, one the few Street Theatre Schools in Europe.

We’ve been teaching this module ever since the  1^st generation of students walked through the school’s doors in 2007. Developing the module has been a great learning curve. It has helped us formalise our experience and intrinsic knowledge of performing on the street and forced us to ask ourselves some questions about practice: why did we choose acrobatics as the language to tell stories?  How can such a high impact language support the stories we tell? How can it merge seamlessly with the content of our performances?

It’s these kind of questions that we also try to ask throughout the module in an effort to encourage our students to think about their movement and encourage a more critical eye to the expressive potential of acrobatics.

We spent five days working with the 6^th generation of SUGLA students and saw them grow and flourish within the relatively short time spent together. This year Goro Osojnik (director of Ana Monro Theatre and SUGLA) proposed to spend some time of the module outdoors, and whilst initially we welcomed the proposal with a bit of scepticism (thinking the students were going to freeze on the streets of Ljubljana…), we were very impressed and pleased with the results. The students’ creation to came to life once outside, they owned the space they worked in and organically improvised a playful game that unexpectedly involved  curious passers-by.

This experience really confirmed how powerful physical language can be if well applied, and how having an open mind and a ‘see what happens’ attitude opens-up a world of possibilities and play. We were particularly impressed by the students’ ability to improvise and create a very strong group dynamic as well as an honest connection with the public, which is definitely a clear growth since our early days teaching at SUGLA. …

It feels that throughout the years both Mimbre and SUGLA have gained more confidence in showing to the students a good pathway to create street arts and construct something special for audiences.

I hope we’ll keep enriching this path together!

Photo credit: Luka Dakskobler

https://www.flickr.com/photos/anadesetnica/sets/72157677768726215/with/31491100391/

You can also read an interview with Silvia about the workshop here:

http://anamonro.si/domov-home/arhiv-novic/445-silvia-fratelli-na-cilj-je-posrkati-obinstvo-v-trenutekour-goal-is-to-absorb-the-audience-into-the-moment.html