WORKSHOPS PROGRAM AFI XII2023-01-26T13:12:38+00:00

WORKSHOPS PROGRAM

Workshops

The Platform is a host to monthly Workshops featuring Internationally renowned choreographers and artists with focus on widening the attendees’ knowledge and enriching the workshop participants’ experiences, visions and professional competences.

KIDD PIVOT IMPROVISATION TOOLS AND CRYSTAL PITE REPERTOIRE

By Jiri Pokorny

Claudia Greco©

By Jiří Pokorný

Born in Prague, 25.07.1981

Jiri Pokorny is a Czech choreographer based in The Hague, Netherlands. He graduated from the Prague National Dance Conservatory in 2000 and went on dancing with Laterna Magika in Prague. Three years later he joined Nederlands Dans Theater 2 in The Hague and continued his carrier with NDT1. After seven years in NDT, Jiri joined Vancouver based company KiddPivot under the leadership of Canadian choreographer Crystal Pite. Jiri has worked with many renowned choreographers such as Jiri Kylian, Mats Ek, Ohad Naharin, Paul Lightfoot, Sol Leon and Crystal Pite among others.  Jiri has performed in prestigious theatres world wide, including Paris Opera, Sadler’s Wells London, Teatro Real Madrid, Teatro Liceu Barcelona, Joyce Theatre New York and many more.

In 2013, Jiri transitioned on to making his own works as a freelance choreographer and since then he has collaborated with companies and production houses across Europe and North America. To name few, he created pieces for NDT, Aterballetto in Italy, Basel Ballet, National Theater Mannheim, Budapest Dance Theatre, Chamber Ballet Prague, North West Dance Project in Portland ( US ) and Korzo productions in the Hague.

Jiri’s engagement with dance education has also its importance due to a numerous collaborations with dance schools such as Royal Conservatory in The Hague, Juilliard School in New York, Arts Umbrella Vancouver, NDT’s Summer Intensive and Architanz Tokyo.

Jiri directs his own educational program for young choreographers The Pioneer Project in Korzo Theatre, The Hague.

Forsythe Workshop

FORSYTHE WORKSHOP

READ MORE

Forsythe Improvisation Technique

READ MORE

One Flat Thing Reproduced

By Thierry Guiderdoni

Thierry Guiderdoni was born in Nice, France. He undertook his dance education at the Academie de Danse Princesse Grace in Monte Carlo under the direction of Marika Besobrasova. In 1982 he was awarded the Professional Prize at the Prix de Lausanne; he joined The Stuttgart Ballet the same year. From 1991 to 2004 he was a member of Frankfurt Ballet. In 2005 he was appointed Ballet Master and Artistic Assistant to William Forsythe, and also his Agenda Manager at The Forsythe Company. Thierry Guiderdoni is currently freelance stager and rehearsal director for The Forsythe Productions

FORSYTHE REPERTORY

© Dominik Mentzos

READ MORE

SIDER

By Brigel Gjoka

Brigel Gjoka, choreographer teacher and professional stage dancer.

His artistic work engagements have taken him around the world to more than 31 countries.
Brigel was born in Albania and trained in Tirana Ballet School 1997-2004. He was a member of Cannes Jeune Ballet during his studies 2004- 06 at the Ecole Superieure de Danse de Cannes-Mougins.
In 2006 he was engaged by the Ballet De L’opera National Du Rhin, where he had the opportunity to perform different roles and work with choreographers from the international dance scene. Wanting to expend his vision, he joined Staatstheater Mainz in 2009 for one season, then joined the Nederlands Dans Theater in 2010.

In January 2011 he became member of the The Forsythe Company, where he participated in new creations by William Forsythe and also performed a wide range of Forsythe’s repertory until the closure of the company in 2015. As a unique experience also in 2015, he was part of “Life in Progress,” the farewell world tour of Sylvie Guillem, traveling and performing Forsythe’s DUO2015 around the world.

Together with Riley Watts, he was awarded the ‘’Leonide Massine’’ Prize in the Positano premia la danza, Italy, as Dancer of The Year on The Contemporary Dance Scene in September 2015.

He has choreographed Evo-Revolution for the Cannes Jeune Ballet (2009), the installation Front to Confront with Leggere Strutture Company, supported by Tonino Lamborghini (2012), SWTH for Maggio Danza Italy and RECRECiT for Kwang Tung Dance Company Malaysia (2013). SYNC with Hector Solari for Staatstheater Passau and BMW (2013), Eksod with Leggere Strutture Italy (2014) and Among Fog for National Academy of Performing Arts Karachi (2015), where he participated in the International Dance & Theater Festival Karachi, and DELEGATET for the Theater Vorpommern Germany (2016).

September 2016 at the Philadelphia Musuem of Art, Museum as Score he performed DUO2015 from W.Forsythe at the Eighth Annual Anne d’Harnoncourt Symposium.

Since January 2014 he has been Artistic director of the Art Factory International Bologna.

Since 2015 he is Artistic Curator of Albanian Institute New York and correspondent of the Institute in Berlin, Germany.
As a lecturer and teacher, Gjoka has worked in Italy, Switzerland, France, China, Denmark, Greece, Albania, Germany, Malaysia, China, Singapore, Australia, and Japan. He teaches dance and choreography workshops based on his own work and inspired by the long rich investment of William Forsythe and The Forsythe Company.

FORSYTHE REPERTORY

photo©  by Dorothea Tuch

an insight into Catalogue

Catalogue is a fantastic piece to understand the rules and the historical context of how ballet evolved, as well as offering an artistique approach to the canon of classical dance. The goal of this two day workshop will be to change the perception of a material which is usely “fixed” in choreography by offering a playground in which the participants can experience and discover themselves differently. This will include the practice of listening, timing, rhythm, articulation and improvisation by using the inspirational force of the material. We will explore the importance of creating a dialogue together and the question of how we want to present ourselves to the audience. We will also focus on working without music, just using our breath and discover what this might change. Melanie Suchy (tanz, November 2016) said: „It is a delightful duet, celebrating togetherness and a shared sense of doing.“

photo©  by Dorothea Tuch

By Brit Rodemund

Born in Berlin, Brit studied at the Staatliche Ballettschule Berlin. She was a finalist at the Prix de Lausanne in 1989 and a year later won the Grand Prize in the National Ballet Competition in the GDR. She began her career at the Deutsche Staatsoper Berlin, where she became a soloist after one year and subsequently joined the aalto ballett theater Essen where she was recognized with the Aalto Stage Prize for her portrayal of Tatjana in John Cranko’s “Onegin”. She later joined the Ballett Nürnberg.

In 2000, she made the decision to work with an array of choreographers and artists, among them Marco Santi, Christian Spuck, Nina Kurzeja, Efrat Stempler, Dansity Amsterdam, Maya Matilda Carroll, Tomi Paasonen, and Tim Plegge. In the critic’s poll for the journal tanz in 2011, she was voted Dancer of the Year for her performance in Helena Waldmann’s production “revolver besorgen ”.

From 2015 to 2018, she was a founding member of the Dance On Ensemble under the artistic direction of Christopher Roman, initiated by Diehl+Ritter, where she collaborated with Matteo Fargion, Lucy Suggate, Rabih Mroué, Kat Valastur, William Forsythe, Deborah Hay, Jan Martens, Johannes Wieland and Ersan Mondtag.

In 2018, she worked on William Forsythe’s production “A Quiet Evening of Dance”, produced by Sadler’s Wells London, and performed the production for the first time in Helsinki, in August 2019. Since the fall 2019, she has toured with the production, to New York, Paris, Rom, Amsterdam and Lille.

She has also been teaching and coaching for dance companies, at professional-level studios, and in university programs since 1999.

Marco Goecke Repertory

MARCO GOECKE REPERTORY

MARCO GOECKE REPERTORY

By Giovanni di Palma

The workshop has been envisaged as a working process, not only as a study of a choreography already performed by many international companies, but as an occasion to provide the participants the opportunity to acquire a new language and put it into practice.
Marco Goecke is one of the most important and interesting contemporary dance choreographers of our time. At times his style blurs with the grotesque but provides the dancer with the possibility to explore and research different facets of beauty.

After finishing his dance studies at the National Academy of dance in Rome, Giovanni Di Palma started to work at the Théâtre de l’Opéra de Nice, a few years later accepted a position at the Dresden Semperoper before joining the Leipziger Ballett of Uwe Scholz in 2000. After only six months Scholz promoted him principal dancer and created major ballets on him such as the famous solo of the piano version of Stravinsky’s “The rite of the spring”.
In 2001 the “Ballettanz International” magazine gave him recognition as “new talent of the contemporary dance” and received the prestigious “Leonide Massine” award for the art of dance in Positano (Italy) In 2006 the aforementioned ballet magazine awarded him as “most outstanding interpreter” after perfoming G. Tetley’s Pierrot Lunaire. In 2008 he received the award of the 5th edition of “Les étoiles du Ballet2000” (France) In 2009 the “Anita Bucchi” award (Italy) for the production of Giorgio Madia’s “Swan Lake”. Invited as guest star he performed on stages all over the world (Tokyo, Miami, Rome, Marseille, Lodz, Mexico City, Riga and many others).
Since 2005 he has started to work as an international guest teacher among others in Japanese capital’s most renowned dance studio “Architanz. In 2009 he decided to focus on his work as a pedagogue, ballet master and choreographer.
Since then he has been invited as a guest teacher by international companies such as Istanbul State Ballet, Croatian National Ballet, Sao Paulo Companhia de Dança, Scapino Ballet Rotterdam or National Conservatory in The Haague.
Since 2009 another key aspect of his work has become to restage choreographic works of Uwe Scholz and Marco Goecke with international companies such as Paris, Vienna, Rotterdam, Den Haag, Poznan, Brno, Istanbul, Sao Paulo, Tokyo and Toronto.

Besides that in 2013 he very successfully created his first full evening choreography – Romeo and Juliet – for Sao Paulo Companhia de Dança.

Followed by a new choreographic version of Pulcinella and few more works.

GAGA Workshop

GAGA WORKSHOP

By Elena Bolelli

Elena Bolelli is an artist in the field of performing arts and a Certified Gaga Teacher, the movement language developed by Ohad Naharin. 

She trained professionally in the Uk with a BPA and a MA from Northern School of contemporary dance and in Israel ( Jerusalem Academy of Music and Dance). 

In 2017/2018 She joined the postgraduate company Verve under the direction of Matthew Robinson. During her time in Verve she performed and toured nationally and internationally pieces by Sita Osthaimer, Lenka Vagnerova, Hannes Langolf and Matthew Robinson.

In 2019 she joined Holstebro dance company; during her time with the company she performed and toured pieces by Jason Mabana, Stephanie Thomasen, Thomas Bentin, Marie BrolinTani and Tim Rushton.

In 2020  Elena started a collaboration with Nunzia Picciallo and their project Overwhelming has been selected and founded by MOVIN’UP SPETTACOLO – PERFORMING ARTS 2020 promoted by MIBAC, Italy. 

From 2020 to 2022 Elena danced and collaborated for Sweetshop Revolution in Uk.

In 2021 Elena created the Marconi Arts Festival where she aim to develop and share arts with many people as possible.

Elena recent creations Porcellum and “La Famiglia”  are been selected for : Florence Dance Festival , Antefestival , Crudo Festival and Mobile Dance Film Festival . 

Elena held classes of Gaga/people and Gaga/dancers and workshops . She had the opportunity to teach for different dance companies and institution like : Scottish School of Contemporary Dance, Centre for Advanced Training (CAT) at Northern School of Contemporary Dance and London contemporary dance school, the University of Wolverhampton , DTA program (Denmark), Jazz arts theater (South Africa), Studio Danza Ensemble (Italy), Contemporary art project (UK), Ballet akademie Stockholm , Theatre Alliance , IL Dance , Scottish Dance theatre, RegionTeater Väst, Teatro Off Ferrara,Ateneo della Danza Forlì Cesena and others .

JOS BAKER WORKSHOP

Jos Baker has envisaged a workshop which draws from and combines the following two aspects of artistic research.
Physicology works with a combination of analysis and experimentation to develop a deeper understanding of the physical, psychological and evolutionary principles that affect human movement. The work looks at ways of deepening physical and intellectual understanding of how movement can work while also developing tools to handle some of the psychological factors that can hold us back in learning and in performing. These principals are then expanded through both fixed material and improvisation, building to richly detailed, technical and highly physically dance phrases.  As the classes develop the emphasis turns to performativity and musicality while keeping a fun and high energy spirit of exploration.
Creative tools is an exploration of ways of making material for stage performance. Exploring physical extremes and characterisation; this workshop will look at ways of creating scene ideas using theatrical and physical tools, and then on how to develop and refine those ideas.  How does a dancer approach a character, how does a character dance?  We explore methods of generating material that play with the personality, image, and the strengths and weaknesses of the individual in the attempt to find unique and specialised material.

Jos Baker

Jos worked for Peeping Tom as a dancer, actor and collaborator, principally with the productions 32 Rue Vandenbranden, and A Louer. Since then he worked for DV8 Physical Theatre on the production of John then began directing and performing in the promotional events for Petit Bateau’s Cedric Charlier collection. Other stage works include In the process of.. by Zoi Dimitriou and Plastic Junkies by Antonin Comestaz.
On film Jos made several music videos and short films, including: Forgot to live by Ay Wing, and Let it Roll by Mustard Gas and Roses directed by Koen Mortier, J’te Ramene directed by Yves Housmann and Biegga savkala duoddariid duohken lea soames by Elle Sofe Henrikseni, as well as several commercials.
He has created several of his own works, including: Creature Man Don’t Tell Me, Feedback, What do you do?, We were youth, Tidal Breath, Let us not ask where it leads, Understanding Sugar and Of no fixed abode.
He also teaches internationally, offering a range of classes and workshops for professional dancers at intstitutions including SEAD, Ballet Junior de Geneve, PARTS Summer School, TrinityLaban, The Place, Amsterdam Thea- tre school, Northern School of Contemporary Dance, Codarts, Deltebre Dansa, El Danseu Festival, Tripspace Projects, Ravnedans, Jetsummer, Staatstheatre Kassel and many others.
Jos started his dance training at the age of 7 with Oxford Youth Dance and then continued his formal education first at The Laban Center London and then at PARTS [Performing Arts Research and Training Studios] in Brussels. Throughout this training he has studied many techniques and approaches, including: Ballet, Release, Cunningham, Graham, acting, Capoueira, Popping, Salsa, Tango, Contact Improvisation, Flying Low, Passing through, Forsythe improvisation Technologies, Labanetics, Physiology and Physics.

PROGRAM
TRAINING
RESIDENCIES
ADMISSION