The work will include:

• Kokyu training. This is a precise structure, enabling you to concentrate on movement and breathing in unison, in order to improve focus, strengthen the body and prepare for work with the voice.

• ‘The herd’, or contact running, which is used to build group awareness, to ‘tune’ the group. The process awakes the global listening of the body, requires attention as well as being in the present moment.

• Partner training, work on acrobatics in pairs, as well as on the more subtle relations involved in following/leading, communication through physical contact and channels.

• Aikido elements, aikido is a Japanese martial art, based on the idea of exploiting and diverting the energy received from your attacker. You will be working both on physical elements of training and with weapons such as the bokken, wooden jo, Japanese sword and stick.

• VoiceInProgress, an original research program combining techniques for unleashing the voice through intense breath training along with techniques for body self-awareness and imagination (derived from the Kristin Linklater, Jo Estill and Roy Hart methods and the work of Emma Bonnici).

• Breathing–voice–singing, rediscovering your natural habitus of your own voice as a communication tool: how it works and its possibilities in our everyday life as well as on stage.

• Resonators–vibrations–voice, introduction to the resonating spaces of our bodies; making them vibrate as a single sound, as well as in consonance with others.

• Harmony of Common Singing, practice of meeting one another in polyphonic song, songs that act both as an individual channel for expression and improvisation, and as a united experience of spending time in polyphony. Storytelling: disappearing in polyphonic unity.

• Improvisation and creation of voice/movement-based structures which can be used as performance material.

The main aim of physical training is to awake participants’ awareness of their movement potential; to force them to awake their inner sight and to listen to themselves/their partners/the ensemble. The voice training and work with songs will focus on the voice as a communication tool in everyday life and on stage.

Joanna Kurzyńska, Marie Walker, Marta Horyza and Przemysław Błaszczak are experienced theatre performers and leaders of Kokyu Studio. Their commitment to continual deepening of their practice and to a never-ending process of research will lead workshop participants through a deep artistic journey.

The ember. The point at which something begins to smolder. The place where I am today. Me, my breath, my body, my voice. To draw flames from an ember – flames which will warm up the house – takes attention, care, focus and effort. And time. Thinking about our work as an ember asks us to focus on its beginning, its centre. The reason for which we move, take a breath, make sound.

Anyone interested in movement, singing, dancing, acting and paratheatrical activities is welcome to join the work. The workshop is open to all levels of experience, from people beginning their studies in theatre to professional performers looking to perfect their skills.

The Ember: V Winter School

Kokyu Studio’s fourth winter school will be seven days of intensive physical and vocal training. The focus will be on discovering/developing the actor’s or performer’s presence within the group, and awakening his/her inner energy and creative imagination while working with movement, voice, text and song. The workshop will be very intense, both physically and vocally, but adjusted to open character of the group.