Workshop led by Przemysław Błaszczak

 When: 14–15 October 2023, 10AM – 6PM

Where: Na Grobli Studio, the Grotowski Institute

Language: Polish, English

Apply by 30 September 2023, more about: http://bitly.ws/S5LC

‘Performer- with a capital letter is a man of action. He is not somebody who play another. He is a doer, a priest , a warrior: he is outside aesthetic genres’ – Jerzy Grotowski, ‘Performer’.

Following the questions and thoughts present in Jerzy Grotowski’s text Performer, as well as those that have appeared on my personal path of exploration, I propose a work session that will allow you to confront the basic issues of the performer’s practice and shed light on the extremely important issue of working on yourself. The one indicated by Konstantin Stanisławski and then taken up by Jerzy Grotowski.

Listening to his (Grotowski’s) searches, combining the baggage of my experiences both theatrical and those related to practicing and teaching Aikido, I invite everyone interested to travel together between the fascinating worlds of precise practices, the main goal and issue of which is the question of working on oneself, pushing boundaries, discovering possibilities, potential and shaping it by working on technique.

As part of the workshop, I will propose exercises in the field of aikido basics, physical and vocal training, and those related to the so-called “internal martial arts” with an emphasis on focus, attention, mindfulness, relationship to space and partner / partners, lively responding to their impulses. Training, movement, breath, sound, voice, word, text, rhythm, timing, structures – these elements will be the right working environment. Through observation, provocation, confrontation and recognition, together with the participants, we will deconstruct both the above-mentioned functions and ourselves – to discover the potential of the body-mind instrument of both the performer and the warrior. We will check whether it is possible for these two functions to wake up, activate in one acting person. The key here is the concept of continuous, careful work on oneself, deepening awareness in action, which naturally refers to Stanisławski and his concept of the actor’s work on himself and the method of physical actions.

The research and educational cycle "Performer Warrior" was created as a result of research conducted as part of the Ministry of Culture and National Heritage scholarship in 2022. As part of it I will want to share the results of my research, and, together with the participants, ask myself new questions and look for new challenges. The space of exploration between the path of the Performer, especially in the perspective set by Jerzy Grotowski in his text "Performer" and the practice of Aikido, which in my opinion is completely unique among all martial arts, offers an enormously inspiring field for research on the essence of action and the actor himself.

In a series of five meetings, we will in turn deal with:

1. Contact in aikido and work with a partner. Basics of aikido training and individual and partner training of the performer.

2. The internal aspect of martial arts training. Awareness, observation, work on structures. The role of breath in the process of conscious recognition of the inner aspect of the performer's training.

3. The internal and external nature of the activity. The role of structures in individual, partner and group improvisation. Voice as sounding breath. The body as a global resonator. External movement as a manifestation of iinternal action.

4. Psychophysical provocation as a way to deconstruct a text. Breathing, action, partner, and their role in the process of text decomposition and deconstruction. The physicality of the text. Word as action. Provoked intensity at the level of physical actions and vocal actions.

5. Broadening awareness, presence, and attention. Multilayer and composition of formal action. Structure of activities as a path to the freedom of the performer. Organicity as a result of training. The vertical aspect of the performer and warrior training.

The cycle is a continuation, and it is only possible to participate in the entire course.

Perfomer / Warrior

workshops led by Przemyslaw Blaszczak