Towards the Egoless Theatre
3 Week Intensive for Actors
at Purnati Arts Center, Batuan, Bali, Indonesia
August 2- August 21, 2010
(check in August 1 and check out August 22)
This Year 2010 we combine it with The Peliatan Dancers and hold in the name of Antonin Artaud
Please continue to read at BALI ARTAUD FRINGE FESTIVAL at this Web Page.
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The following text will be a part of the workshop in August 2010
“… [There is an extreme creative force] found in the Balinese dance exemplifying the maximum movements for the energy of the body, which is the ultimate gesture. The longer the dancer allows himself to move in the dance with the precision of each choreographed posture, the more energy he will gain, until a moment is reached when he begins to radiate the sublime.”—Per Brahe, Training of the American Actor
The Bali Conservatory is a 3 week acting workshop focused on stirring imagination and creativity in the theatre, awakening and maintaining one’s ability to improvise, and searching for the ultimate performance energy of the body. Upon arrival, participants will spend the first two days recuperating from the 12-hour jetlag with spa treatments, and visits to the healing energy of the black sand beaches. On the third day, participants will work daily from 7am to 6pm training in Balinese Dance, Kecak voice, Mask work, Michael Chekhov, Fitzmaurice voicework, Butoh Dance, and they will have a mask custom made from an image they have painted, carved by world renowned mask maker Ida Bagus Anom. All activities and housing will take place at the Bali Purnati Arts Center.
Mask Work
Using masks in actor's training gives an actor a huge experience of the body and unlocks the huge knowledge of the physical body and the inspiration, expression and release that accompanies this freedom. Many actors who go deep into the inspiration of mask work find the compassion of the actor's body. This compassion is not "pity," but a sense of carrying a character's burden on one's shoulders allowing the actor to live freely through out a scene or improvisation from the character's perspective.
Masks show the important connection between Body and Voice. The Greek word “personae” means “Mask,’ the personae was a projected image through the voice. Almost everyone at one point in his or her life is conscious of his or her voice and the sounds that the body makes. The power that exudes through the deep connection of body and voice is easily accomplished through masks.
Lead by Per Brahe
Michael Chekhov
The group will apply and explore the acting technique of Michael Chekhov whose material has an unknown to him, a variation of old Hindu and Buddhist exercises for the mind, body and spirit. This is most apparent when one studies Balinese dance.
Lead by Per Brahe
Kecak Voice
The human voice replaces instruments in cak, the vocal gamelan in which the chorus imitates the sounds of the gamelan percussion. Inspired by earlier trance dances, cak is better known in the form of the modern kecak, which accompanies choreography of the epic Ramayana. All students will train in Kecak voice.
Lead by Ida Bagus Anom
Balinese Dance: Training an Egoless Body
The egoless body that crosses the threshold of the Balinese dance into the dance’s traditional metaphysical shapes and forms can suddenly experience TAKSU (the greatest achievement in Balinese art). Since the Balinese believe that everything has already been accomplished by the spirits, there is no need to change the tradition of the movements, but this does not mean that there are dancers who are not more popular than others. Although the dance may be fixed, the different personalities and souls of the dancers are as original as every lotus blossom. Most expressively, TAKSU can be found in the Balinese dance, which exemplifies the maximum movements for the energy of the body, which is the ultimate gesture. The longer the dancer allows himself or herself to move in the dance, the more energy he/she will gain until a moment is reached when he/she begins to radiate his/her fire. This is Taksu.
Lead by Ida Bagus Alit & Ida Bagus Anom
Bali Purnati Centre for the Arts
The Purnati Centre for the Arts is the international hub for prominent artists from around the world to work and is the same facility where Robert Wilson developed and rehearsed his famous production of “i La Galigo.” It is a securely guarded full service arts complex, with two training halls, an amphitheater, and a swimming pool, hidden away in the village of Batuan on the banks of a sacred river where the Balinese retrieve their holy water. All fresh organic meals are prepared daily by the center’s executive chief. The rooms are two single bed dwellings that are prepared daily by the staff. There will be an extra charge of $1,800 USD for single rooms.
Book List:
Training of the American Actor, Ed. Arthur Bartow
Mahabharata, Translation by William Buck
Because the Balinese understand life through the Mahabharata, in fact, the entire island is based on it; each student is required to read this ancient poem.
For The Theatre and Its Double, by Antonin Artaud
The Power of Myth, Joseph Campbell with Bill Moyers
Island of Bali, Miguel Covarrubias
TUITION: $2,600
Tuition Covers: living accommodations and training facilities at Bali Purnati Center for the Arts, teacher fees, all classes, materials & supplies. AIR TRAVEL AND LUNCH AND DINNER ARE NOT INCLUDED.
Different payment schedules may be arranged
For more information or to schedule an interview contact:
Per Brahe: 917-686-2236; Email: pertopeng@earthlink.net
PER BRAHE, Artistic Director of Studio 5 in Brooklyn New York, has been a professional director, writer, actor, teacher and painter since 1967. He is a world-renowned Mask teacher and Master Teacher of Michael Chekhov technique and an expert in Balinese Mask. He taught at Gitis in Moscow and at the International Summer School in Irkusk, Siberia, and has been an invited Master Teacher at the Moscow Art Theatre’s celebration of its 100th year anniversary. He is full-time faculty at NYU Tisch School of the Arts and The Actors Center. He is on the faculties at Yale School of Drama, the National Theatre Institute, and the Bill Esper Studio. In 2000 he was the Artistic Director for the Michael Chekhov Conference in Siberia. In 1991 he founded the Michael Chekhov Studio, Aarhus, Denmark. He is the Artistic Director for the annual Bali Conservatory. As a theatre director, he has directed more than 85 plays throughout the world. He recently directed a modern adaptation of Shakespeare’s Hamlet entitled HAMLET MY HAMLET. He is currently developing his translation of Vladimir Mayakovsky’s monodrama, A Tragedy.
IDA BAGUS ANOM is known internationally for his handcraft and the strong images of his masks. After his appearance in the Ring of Fire and Bali: Masterpiece of the Gods documentaries, he gained his international acclaim. The phantasmagoric, traditional masks of Ida Bagus Anom are in high demand by topeng dancers and pantomimes all over Bali. During the fall of 2001 he received an invitation from a Japanese television program to exchange work with one of Japans greatest mask makers and dancers. The major question of the Japanese was "how could Anom create Japanese style masks so close to the original style without training under the great masters of Japan or even setting foot on Japanese soil?" This meeting began transforming Anom's work. Now one can see the Japanese influence in Ida Bagus Anom's most contemporary works. As a "modern" mask maker eager to find his own artistic style and craft, Ida Bagus Anom spent most of his life as an outcast in the Balinese mask maker tradition. Now in Bali, his work is known as outstanding artistry. Today he has a major influence on Bali's new generation of woodcarvers. As a traveler and fluent in English, he has taught hundreds of students and visitors in making masks and in Hinduism. His artistic skills range from storytelling, music, and dance. He also teaches the special use of voices in the famous Kecak trance dance.
IDA BAGUS ALIT, born in Latondu near Ubud, is Bali's most celebrated mask maker and mask dancer like his father and ancestors before him. Alit has been dancing since 1973 and carving masks since 1967. He is most know for his contribution to Bali’s spiritual community for his wood carvings of the Barong and Durgha masks which are the most important images in the Balinese Hindu culture. He is the Vice president of the Latondu village cultural ministry. Alit is a very important spiritual leader in the village community conducting rituals and cleansing ceremonies His dance troupe is one of the most popular in Bali. Traditional ceremonies must be accompanied by a canon of mask dances, which Alit is most famous. He specializes in the Penasar or clown mask, which connects the community to the traditional stories of the dance and acts as the social voice allowing current village issues to be debated. He is also a noted teacher of Balinese dance and mask carving to overseas students. He is on the faculties of the Bali Conservatory sponsored by Brooklyn based acting school Studio 5 and the Bali Purnati Center for the Arts, Batuan, Bali. After his travels to Japan in 1995, he received an award of excellence from the Japanese ambassador. He has carved masks for the Japanese and East Javanese government.
