Living
Art workshop – with Claire Elizabeth Barratt
This
workshop is for anybody who has a body
– to investigate the
body as a medium for art.
Dancers,
actors, artists, Yoga and bodywork practitioners
– and
anybody who just wants to move!
As
a performing artist, I have been developing a teaching
method
that allows the individual to explore Self as a raw
material
with which to create.
More
organic than a dance technique, Living Art investigates fundamental
motions of the body and combines them with imagery
in a creative response.
It’s
a fun and immersive way to move your body and engage your
imagination!
As an MFA
candidate I spent two intensive years under the guidance of performance art
legend Linda Montano and Dr. Laura Gonzales in the process of honing my
performance method into a pedagogy for performance art. I call this method
Living Art.
As an on-going
practice it includes four main categories of study:
Body Tuning,
Creative Response, Performance Art History and the creation of new Original
Work.
I would like to
offer an introductory workshop to Living Art that allows participants to
explore the fundamental concept of the practice – that of Self-as-medium. Just
as a sculptor must understand the medium of clay or wood or metal – for
example, the performer must understand the medium of the body and psyche as
materials for the creation of art.
For information
about the Living Art method, please visit the following links:
Pedagogy – method
development
Workshop Reports:
MFA Final – Workshop
at Weaverville Yoga studio - Weaverville NC
images –
Weaverville Yoga
Workshop with Circle
Modern Dance company - Knoxville TN
Community
workshop and performance - Salisbury MD
Comments:
*
This was a very accessible,
well structured workshop. The exercises were very well sequenced and it
was flexible enough to appeal to and be suitable for all levels. Claire
did a very good job of creating an atmosphere of open, safe space which made me
feel comfortable in the context.
*
I enjoyed the workshop
immensely. I found it engaging, intriguing, meditative, and
immersive.
*
I found the workshop very
informative and very stress-less. As a 64-year-old non-limber person, I
wasn't sure if I would be able to do everything I was asked to do, but the way
you conducted it put me at ease - basically, just do what I was comfortable
with within the parameters of the exercises.
*
Claire's workshop changed my
whole perspective on movement and bodily control, and through the Web (physical
not virtual web), my entire life. I received such a sensation of renewal and
freedom. The more control I gained over my muscles, particularly through my
breathing, the freer I felt. The workshop opened my eyes even wider to the
power of even, deep, and intentional breathing. If you completely relax, you
end up with more energy, as if the more energy you release the more you
receive. As if you're breathing in divine source energy. I believe with a clear
and focused mind you are. She taught me how to more efficiently practice moving
mediation.
*
It allows you to experience on
a more literal level that you are part of a bigger picture. All parts equally
important and dependent on one another. Claire shows you how to observe that
you naturally are already a work of art.
*
I felt so much of myself moving
and opening up. New forms developed, I felt myself connecting the vision
of what I saw my body doing connecting with the movement.
It was a powerful and
transformative workshop for my dancing practice.
*
The whole experience was
relaxing, and I found myself in a very serene state the next day.
Unfortunately, that serenity left me the day after that. The workshop taught me
to feel in touch with every change that was happening in my body while doing
the movements.
There is certainly something
poetic about this approach.
*
This
work seemed similar to other somatic practices that I have experienced-
particularly Body-Mind Centering and contact improvisation. A difference
is that I don't recall anyone organizing their process into semi-distinct
segments the way you have with the raw materials. I like the approach because
it defines and codifies practices that can be very nebulous, but still leaves
room for the raw materials to be explored many different ways through many
different lenses.
This
method seems like a great resource both for getting started and getting
un-stuck in a creative practice
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