External Projects
Weekend Intensive Workshops
Urban Research Theater is offering a series of intensive weekend workshops in April and May, 2009. Each workshop is team-led by Ben Spatz (Urban Research Theater, NYC) and Maximilian Balduzzi (Teatro della Pioggia, Italy) and runs Friday through Sunday evening.
The essence of each workshop is playful, rigorous, and creative exploration in and around precisely repeatable sequences of physical action and song. Every element in the sequence has its own rhythm, quality, and intention. Each of us has spent years developing a particular research at the intersection of song, movement, and action.
Our workshops generate an intense ensemble environment while ensuring that every participant receives individual attention. Each day we will focus on specific elements of physical and vocal work, and on how this work can grow and be tested in a theatrical situation.
Workshop Dates:
Friday - Sunday, April 3-5
Friday - Sunday, April 17-19
Friday - Sunday, May 1-3
Participation Fee:
$300 for a single workshop
$250 per workshop for more than one
Location in NYC to be determined
Workshops and showings announcement.
Additional photographs in the gallery.
Body + Song Workshops
This workshop is a rare opportunity to explore the organic intersection of song, movement and action.
Each session begins with the discovery of active silence, as the group follows its leader through elementary movement explorations in search of the playful, the rigorous, the dynamic, and the subtle. We then move into singing, using fragments of traditional and original vibratory songs to unlock the freedom and vitality of the body-and-song, the body-in-song, the body-of-song...
This workshop touches on all aspects of performance and is designed to serve the inner and outer lives of dancers, actors, singers, martial artists, yoga practitioners, and anyone with an interest in embodied practice. Every participant receives personal attention and guidance, and is invited to encounter the present moment in a safe and open space. Beginners and advanced participants are welcome.
Another City
Another City is a seasonal event, taking place at the peak of summer (August) or in the depths of winter (December). During an intensive period of between two and five days, participants enter into a completely different rhythm and experience of New York City. Previous experience with singing or performance is not required.
Another City: Joyful Days
August 22-24, 2008
New York City
group singing - theater craft
individual work - urban pilgrimage
In the heat of the New York summer,
experience another way - another city - another self.
Registration Fee: $150
Limited to 8 participants.
This event is a unique chance to rediscover your world through the techniques of Urban Research Theater. You will never experience your city or yourself the same way again.
Each full day begins at sunrise in the serene half-wilderness of Central Park's North Woods. Here we will slow down, breathe deeply, and step out of the busy rhythms of urban life as we walk, sing, and explore simple physical exercises among the trees and waterfalls. Afternoon and evening sessions will take place in and around the Chez Bushwick studio, where participants will learn to work with traditional and original songs as a basis for developing short performance fragments.
To register or ask questions, email:
ben@urbanresearchtheater.com
Practitioner Exchanges
Urban Research Theater continuously seeks to arrange 'practitioner exchanges' with qualified groups and individuals, particularly in the New York area. Through these exchanges, we seek to expand our network of partner organizations and to share in the broader community of embodied practitioners.
We propose to meet with practitioners in the following fields:
- martial arts
- yoga and meditation
- physical fitness and cross-training
- alignment and massage techniques
- classical and opera singing
- traditional religious and folk singing
- contemporary dance
- drama and dance therapy
Every practitioner exchange encounter is tailored to a specific group. Our initial proposals will be for a single, full-day encounter, but we are also open to exchanges ranging from just a few hours to several days. Time will be reserved for discussion as well as for practical exchange.
This project is part of our ongoing investigation into alternative models for supporting long-term performance research in New York City. By developing lasting relationships with practitioners of these diverse forms, we hope to build a new urban constituency that unites the communities of art and practice.
Participant Testimonials
There is some very strong evocation of something deep inside my spirit ... I can't put it into the words now, but following your voice I could feel something very archaical, old, essential in myself ... This kind of 'work' is very intimately and it was good for me to experience it in a small group. Michele was such a great 'wave' and invocation to move with freedom and joy. Opening inside - creating inner spaces and sharing its vibrations - that is the image which I have after your workshop...
- Tatyana Sehic, Another City, Winter 2008
I want to thank you again, and this time in a more aware way, for the wonderful workshop that you guys led. It's been such an important time for me as actress and as human being . . . As I mentioned right after the end of the workshop, something happened to me that hardly happens: I felt that I could totally trust you and let you direct my work . . . And again I have to thank you for this. For the working environment that you've been able to create.
- Giorgia Zago, Another City, Winter 2008
Thank you so much for the truly beautiful 'otherness' you sculpted with such grace. It was a tremendous gift. I felt like I was in another city, or even another country. I felt like a foreigner in this city where I have lived for six years . . . I am used to doing street theater that is very political and in-your-face. It's different when you're behind the mask of a message or image, or if you have costumes of any kind. Here we were just ourselves, doing this. I felt vulnerable in the city. Vulnerable in a radical way.
- Monica Hunken, Another City, Summer 2007
It was very liberating for me, truly inspiring and I still feel a surge of energy. Thank you for creating that welcoming and encouraging space that allowed us to explore our voices and bodies and explore some of our boundaries. I amazed myself how quickly I felt comfortable expressing myself in public - both in the studio and in the streets. The use of song really succeeded in creating imaginary spaces and perceptions within the city.
- Eddy Shoeffman, Another City, Summer 2007
From what I experienced, it seemed that what was at the heart of this method was that the actor gets to a place where they are feeling something, experiencing something within themselves that is also not shut off. There is an awareness generated that is apparent from the outside, and this visible internal awareness is what an audience or viewer would be drawn to and be able to connect with, as if they were experiencing the movement, the scene and the mental state of the performer through the performers eyes.
- Christina Spangler, Another City, Summer 2007