Hitlahavut is ‘the burning,’ the ardour of ecstasy. A fiery sword guards the way to the tree of life. It scatters into sparks before the touch of hitlahavut, whose light finger is more powerful than it. To hitlahavut the path is open, and all bounds sink before its boundless step. The world is no longer its place: it is the place of the world. — Martin Buber
Project: Judaica
Leader: Ben Spatz
Participants: Socorro López Anadón, Luisa Benito, Rebeca Vecino Bilbao, Arantzazu Sanz Fica, Daniel Sances Ghersi, Beatriz Grimaldos, Niurka López Gutiérrez, Javier Liñera, Miguel Ángel Suarez Martínez, África Clua Nieto
Date: 16-20 July 2013
Venue: Réplika Teatro, Madrid
This workshop will introduce the training and performance techniques of Urban Research Theater. Participants will engage in personal and collective discovery through a rigorous work on songs, physical actions, and storytelling. We will explore the relationships between individual and ensemble, actor and audience, training and performance. Each day will begin with dynamic physical and vocal exercises, emphasizing rhythm and flow, to invite the cultivation of a strong and flexible body and voice. We will also develop structured improvisations based on images, characters, and stories from Martin Buber’s Tales of the Hasidim. The workshop will show how training, research, and performance can come together in a creative process.
Song-action is the exploration of how the act of singing can transform bodies, spaces, and attention. Urban Research Theater draws materials from a variety of traditional and contemporary sources to sustain a dynamic flow between physical and vocal action. In this workshop, we will work through techniques of impulse, sensitivity, and association to find moments of meaningful nondiscursive contact with ourselves and with each other. Emphasis is placed on commitment and play within simple but rigorous structures of the body and voice. This workshop is intended for practitioners of martial, healing, or performing arts who wish to extend the depth, precision, and strength of their practice by connecting breath, sound, and action.
[…] the flame of ecstasy. This reflects my understanding of studio practice and what I try to offer in workshops. I am interested in the motivation for effort, the seed of joy that allows one to hunger for […]