Welcome to our International Summer School Program 2024 !

Our International Summer School 2024 offers performance makers from around the world over four weeks an exciting opportunity to connect with us and each other – for professional development and exchange and also an exciting summer experience in Berlin, still considered to be “Europe’s wildest child”. As an internationally recognized training and research center in the field of devised theatre and performance, we have welcomed students from over 60 different countries – performers, dancers, actors, writers, directors, choreographers, architects, designers, etc – all interested in exploring the links between practices of embodiment, Self-growth and the development of one’s own artistic voice.

The Program
The program, offered in the format of independent workshops, reflects the diversity of our research practice in the ever-changing landscapes of devised theatre and performance. It allows you to choose your favorites “a la carte”, giving you the autonomy to create your own summer school curriculum. No matter which workshop/s you decide to attend, they all aim to introduce you to practices of embodiment and how to use them for the creation of original work. From weekend workshops to 5-day Intensives, we hope you find something of interest for you in this year’s summer school program.

The Teachers
The teaching team comprises independent practitioners from Argentina, Belgium, Germany, and the United Kingdom. All of them have also been members of the arthaus.berlin teaching team, whether in the international school or the Thomas Prattki Centre for Integral Movement and Performance Studies. Most of them have completed one of the MA, MFA or certificate programs at arthaus.berlin and/or regularly collaborate within the different courses we offer. This allows them to link their own performative research practice to the pedagogical matrix of arthaus.berlin, which is rooted in the pedagogy of Jacques Lecoq and the integral performance practice of Thomas Prattki as the founder and director of arthaus.berlin.

The Participants
Whether you are interested in performing, acting, directing, filmmaking, composing, writing or choreographing, whether you work in the performing, healing or educational arts, whether you are an advanced practitioner or in the early phases of your career, you are very welcome to apply for our summer school program. Participants come from around the world, are curious and open-minded, interested in new horizons, whether around or within. They wish to move the world and be moved by it, discover their own voice and contribute to the voice of their generation.So if you feel this talks to you, come and join us this summer. We very much look forward to meeting you.

Participants considering to apply or wishing to receive more information about our MA/MFA and certificate full-time programs at arthaus.berlin, please contact us so we can set-up an individual meeting with you or a group conversation with arthaus.berlin staff members during the summer school. 

With best wishes,

The entire arthaus.berlin team

05 – 09 August 2024, five days

Led by Jelle De Wit

Berlin, with its rich tapestry of history, culture, and innovation, offers us a unique canvas to explore. During this workshop, you will traverse through different parts of Berlin, both by day and by night. As we wander through the city, we’ll absorb the architecture, the people, and listen to the diverse sounds that make up Berlin’s essence. Later, back in the studio, we’ll embark on a transformative journey, turning our experiences of the urban space into performative forms. As a tool we will use a platform made visible on the floor of the studio and create composition work with bodies and materials. A street art mural might turn into a soundscape, a video or a movement choreography. Through embodied exploration, we’ll delve into how we’ve perceived the city with all our senses – what we’ve seen, heard, touched, and even tasted. By self exploration, devising group-work and performative tools proposed by the facilitator, you will be able to create your own performative vignette of Berlin.

Times: 10.00-16.00 ( inclusive of a 60-minute break ) (some outdoor trips may take place outside regular workshop hours)
Fees: 500€

Early Bird Fee (book before 15th April 2024) : 450€

Additional 10% discount for booking four or more workshops!

10-11 August 2024, two days

Led by Maria Eugenia Blanco

In Bali, masks are understood as capable of momentarily collecting a portion of cosmic energy, the vital life of the universe. As such they are understood to help visualize the divine powers, as well as providing them momentary material manifestations.
The play with the mask is, hence, the attempt to illuminate and the dare to connect to bigger themes than the individual. In Bali it is known that through the mask both extremes, the universal and the individual, can be connected. The workshop will offer an exploration of these beautiful, rich masks, of their dynamics and structures, and how they can enrich your deeper playfulness and aliveness and inform your understanding of different levels of play in life and art. For María, mask research is a journey to be pencipta, which is Balinese for a certain “creator“ who wrestles with being an interpreter, investigating into a mask, daring to let the mask live fully, and sharing stories through them.

Times: 10.00-17.00 ( inclusive of a 60-minute break )
Fees: 240€

Early Bird Fee (book before 15th April 2024) : 216€

Additional 10% discount for booking four or more workshops!

12-16 August 2024, five days

Led by Cat Gerrard – and with Adi Weinberg

“It matters what stories we tell to tell other stories with; it matters what concepts we think to think other concepts with.” ~ Donna Haraway

This workshop is an exploration into the capacious possibilities that story has to offer us and how we might bring them into our bodies, into the space and alive through puppets. With myth and fairytale, paintings and poetry as our starting points, we will work with archetypal movements and images and with the poetic body. We will take the opportunity that puppets offer us: the invitation to make the object into a subject. To dive deeper into multiple subjectivities, multiple perspectives of the same story, to uncover multiplicitous stories. Perhaps we will find some new kinds of stories or new ways of telling stories, ways that we might urgently need in the world in which we are living.

Times: 10.00-16.00 ( inclusive of a 60-minute break )
Fees: 500€

Early Bird Fee (book before 15th April 2024) : 450€

Additional 10% discount for booking four or more workshops!

17-18 August 2024, two days

Led by Michelle Madsen

This two-day collaborative laboratory will explore writing as a political, physical and playful practice in the three-dimensional space. Using aspects of Pochinko clown technique, instant composition and the embodied poetics of Jaques Lecoq, we will ask how the body can be the author of the unknown, creating new realities in space and on the page. Participants will be guided in solo and group work through movement and visualization to write from the inner microcosm, and then engage with the human and non-human environment beyond the studio to play with the poetics of the space, asking how do we as bodies open ourselves to be written upon?

Times: 10.00 – 17.00
Fees: 240€

Early Bird Fee (book before 15th April 2024) : 216€

Additional 10% discount for booking four or more workshops!

19-22 August 2024, four days

Led by Michelle Madsen

This 4-day workshop will enlist help from the clown, the shaman and the fool to playfully explore the liminal and take bold leaps into the unknown.

How can we be spontaneous in our creativity and surrender to the freedom of failure? In this laboratory space we will explore the clown state as mask state – a portal to new narratives and expressions. Using the ‘Clown Through Mask’ work of Richard Pochinko, we will touch on different territories which the clown mask opens into – butoh, the bouffon and the grotesque. By harnessing the embodied poetry of the fool in both group and solo work, we will explore what needs to be created to meet the moment – bringing light into the darkness within.

Times: 10.00-16.00 ( inclusive of a 60-minute break )
Fees: 400€

Early Bird Fee (book before 15th April 2024) : 360€

Additional 10% discount for booking four or more workshops!

24-25 August 2024, two days
Led by Valentina Bordenave

A vigorous, physical and refreshing journey for actors, dancers and other movement performers interested in experiencing the huge potential of movement in theatre.
One, two or many… bodies in the space, levels of awareness, themes, stories. The work focuses on physical interaction with a partner and with the group. It invites us to improvise and compose in the moment, using the body, the voice, time and space, respecting the uncertainty whilst adapting to constant change. We receive, process and propose material in a continuous feedback flow exploring different strategies to compose scenes of dramatic tension.
By applying the Unfold method (unfoldmethod.com) throughout the research, we can expect our improvisations to be born from an awakened and more finely tuned state. Elements of the Alexander Technique and dance provide clear information and concrete tools to detach from habits of movement and creation.

Times: 10.00-17.00 ( inclusive of a 60-minute break )
Fees: 240€

Early Bird Fee (book before 15th April 2024) : 216€

Additional 10% discount for booking four or more workshops!

26-27 August 2024, two days

Led by Patrick Soul

In this workshop you will explore the rhythms and musical instincts of your body and mind through movement phrases, vocal explorations and rhythm games, leading to instant group compositions and improvised musical worlds. You will be challenged to improve the coordination between the different parts of your own body, and the coordination between yourself and others within the ‘body of the group’.

At the intersection of community, ritual and art, the Circle Song as popularised by Bobby McFerrin is a form of music-making which has been around since the first human songs were sung. During the workshop, you will create improvised ensemble music with each other in large and small groups, guided and assisted by the workshop leader. Ranging from free and abstract soundscapes to highly structured rhythmic grooves, the Circle Song experience can cover many territories and infinite moods. Training the mind and body in musical sensitivity, awareness and coordination within oneself and the ensemble is an essential practice for the actor-creator-collaborator.

Times: 10:00-16.00 ( inclusive of a 60-minute break )
Fees: 200€

Early Bird Fee (book before 15th April 2024) : 180€

Additional 10% discount for booking four or more workshops!

28-30 August 2024, three days

Led by Rachel Karafistan

Are you eager to transform your research or ideas into a performance? Do you want to better understand how to incorporate movement, text and maybe even song or puppetry into a performance? How can an improvisation lay the groundwork for a potential scene; or a painting or piece of music unravel the hidden layers of a narrative? Whether you’re a performer seeking embodied expression, a writer looking to breathe life into your stories, or a director craving inspiration; this workshop is designed to equip you with a range of creative ways to make compelling theatre.

Times: 10.00-16.00 ( inclusive of a 60-minute break )
Fees: 300€

Early Bird Fee (book before 15th April 2024) : 270€

Additional 10% discount for booking four or more workshops!

Early bird discount: 10% discount on all fees if you book and pay before 15th April 2024
Please quote the Early Bird discount when applying.

Additional Discount:  a further 10% discount if you book four or more workshops !

Application
We require a CV and a short letter of motivation, along with the booking form (available here PDF | DOCX or by contacting the school using our Contact form below)
Once we have received your application, we’ll contact you as soon as possible to let you know whether you have been accepted.

Locations

All our summer school workshops will take place at either DOCK11 or the Eden Studios in Berlin:
dock11-berlin.de/raeume

Facilitators
You can read more about the workshop facilitators at the arthaus website here.

We look forward to welcoming you at arthaus.berlin !