How can we bring action to life? How can we combine precision with openness to the unexpected? How can we listen with the whole body and find our own voice within shared work?

“Zarzewie” offers seven days of intensive physical and vocal practice — time to deepen attention, develop personal technique and encounter others through action. We invite you into the daily practice of Studio Kokyu, which for over ten years has explored the meeting point of theatre and aikido, performer training and warrior practice.

The Polish word “zarzewie” evokes the embers from which a fire begins. Keeping them alive requires attention, patience and commitment. We approach training in a similar way: as sustained work through which we can recognise our potential, move beyond ingrained habits and develop the capacity to act consciously. Shared practice allows us to undertake this process in relationship — with a partner and with the whole ensemble.

During the school, we will work with body, breath, voice, rhythm and text. Through individual, partner and group tasks, we will explore how an impulse becomes action, how action builds a relationship, and how a shared composition emerges from that relationship. Precise structures and repetition will help us examine our technique while discovering room for improvisation and a living response to another person’s presence.

Our work will be guided by questions explored within the “Practicing Action” programme and the research surrounding “Action Trinity – The Letter”: how does training become a creative process? How can we keep a repeatable form alive? How can words guide action? We will approach these questions through practice, experiencing concrete tasks and working together to refine their quality.

Areas of work

Kokyu training — the Studio’s original practice integrating body, breath and voice, bringing individual work into choral action. We will develop coordination, presence and responsibility for a shared rhythm.

Contact running — a dynamic group practice that develops alertness, spatial awareness and mutual listening. It offers a direct experience of how individual decisions affect the movement of the whole ensemble.

Partner training — work grounded in aikido’s understanding of contact. We will explore balance, direction and the flow of impulse, alongside the readiness to follow and take the lead.

The global resonator — exercises that explore the vibratory qualities of the voice and its connection to the whole body. We will seek a voice rooted in breath, movement and physical presence.

Text as action — work with words as living material: rhythm, impulse and task. We will explore the physicality of text and discover how spoken words transform our actions and our relationship with the person we address.

The Winter School welcomes people working in theatre, dance, performance or voice, as well as those wishing to begin such a practice. Previous professional training is not required. What matters is curiosity, openness to meeting others and a willingness to commit to regular, intensive work throughout the week.

We wish to create a space where each person can develop their own technique while experiencing the strength of shared action. Seven days allow us to enter the rhythm of practice, recognise emerging challenges and discoveries, and find questions and tools to carry into our work beyond the school.

We invite you to join us in tending these embers.

Places are limited. Applicants will be accepted on a first come, first served basis following the workshop leader’s approval.

The organiser reserves the right to cancel the event or reschedule it for reasons beyond the organizer’s control no later than 7 working days before the event. If the event is cancelled by the organiser, each applicant will be reimbursed 100% of the payments they have made, excluding other costs (e.g. travel tickets, currency conversion costs, etc).