Summer Academy for Sensory Theatre presentsWORKSHOP PERFORMANCE: “The Imagination as a Protagonist”Introduction to sensory language by Gabriel Hernandes, Teatro de los Sentidos

This is an intensive workshop – a laboratory that introduces a particular sensory language and its application in the performing arts and other disciplines.It is a course for actors, dancers, artists, facilitators and professional investigators.

>>>>> „We can question our memory to create our future“
Imagine therefore a proposal for a journey of exploration through the past, present and future, through memories and spaces, through the intimate body and the landscape body, between a personal and a collective map.
>>>> „Senses are windows to ourselves, and you could learn to explore your senses, in order to see through those windows.“

In this 5-day workshop the participants will learn how to create their own sensory portals and also how to link their cultural tradition and heritage. The workshop aims to re-establish the primacy of individual experience and in doing so, to re-awaken the memory of the body. By remembering our bodies and our senses, we may access some fundamental truths and memories, which we ourselves had conditioned our bodies to forget.

The objectives of the 3rd Summer Academy for Sensory Theatre in Hotnitsa are:
– To discover different possibilities for expression and communication beyond conventional interactions thus creating a sensory language.
– To rediscover our body and its environment, letting us be guided by sound, fragrance, taste.
– To stimulate the dormant senses in order to develop our expressive potential.
– To learn how to use sensory theatre methodology to animate any space and re-create it poetically.
– To create exercises of balance, weight, equilibrium, and stability, to awaken all the senses – many more than the five we know.
– To sharpen our capacity to perceive through body memory work.
– To use the game as the main tool for performing
– To use fragrance and its relation to memory.
– To research the relation “actor- inhabitant : public –traveller”
– To explore the art of Listening – the Silence
– To sculpt in darkness and create a blind and guided experience

Once the body is prepared, we will work more deeply with sensory memory, smell, taste, touch, surroundings. As a final result of the workshop we will create a sensory instalation – performance open for outside audience. Working with the memories of the space, we will allow the audience to acknowledge their environment converting the perception of the familiar space into something playful and new.

>>>>> WHEN: 26th – 30th of JULY 2019
The workshop will finish with a labyrinth performance on 29th July which will be a result of the training. If you would like to visit it, please write us in advance at info@sensorytheatresofia.com

>>>>>> WHERE: Hotnitsa village is a beautiful and mystical village close to the city of Veliko Turnovo, Bulgaria. The village is famous for its beautiful waterfall and nature and the ancient gold treasure found on its territory.

>>>>>> PRICE OF THE TRAINING: 160 euro

>>> TRANSPORT AND ACCOMMODATION: the participants should organize and cover themselves the costs of transport and accommodation in Hotnitza. There are several possibilities for accommodation: guest houses and geodomes in the village of Hotnitsa. Contact us for more information.

>>>>>SUBSCRIBE FOR THE WORKSHOP: If you want to attend the training send us a brief presentation of yourself by July 20th, 2019 – a short bio, if you have any past experience with sensory theatre and your contact information at info@sensorytheatresofia.com or call us on 00359 885617207

Working language of the workshop: English

Who is Gabriel Hernandez?
Gabriel Hernandez is a coach, theatre director, actor and co-director of Teatro de los Sentidos, Colombia- Spain, co-founder of Navigators – Sensory theatre and Research in Belgium, Co-director of PLANETA 15, sensorial platform for families and youngsters. Through the research on sensory experiences, he has developed his skills of designing and creating interactive installations, performances and re-creating sensory spaces worldwide.
Gabriel is a founding member of Teatro de los Sentidos since 1989 and since the year 2018 he has been the co-director together with Enrique Vargas, as well as technical director of the company, responsible for the design of the labyrinths and experiences, the scenography and construction of the different installations. He has been touring extensively throughout the world, making sensory experiences and art performances, introducing the sensorial language to the world. Learn more at www.gabrielhernandez.eu

Our Summer Academy for Sensory Theatre is a unique venture that has its unusual history. It is located in the village of Hotnitsa, 15 km away from Veliko Tarnovo, and by a strange vision it was blessed during its very first edition by the creator of the sensory theatre worldwide – the Colombian anthropologist Enrique Vargas. As early as the first year, the old house of Ruska and Ivan in Hotnitsa seemed to come to life during the workshop performance and became a mystical portal between the worlds! In its second edition, the Summer Academy was facilitated by the Welsh director and theatre researcher Iwan Briok – a teacher and founder of the sensory labyrinth group in Bulgaria and other European countries. In that year, the old chitalishte (cultural community center) in the village became the home of a real magical labyrinth performance. With their presence and work in Hotnitsa, Enrique Vargas and Iwan Brioc planted the seed of the summer academy, creating a fertile ground for the next edition, which this year will be facilitated by Enrique Vergas’ successor at the Teatro de los Sentidos in Barcelona – Gabriel Hernandez.{:}