Cyprus Mail
CyprusEntertainmentWhat's On

Creatives get together for Radiant Storyteller Cyprus retreat

polyphonic body

A week-long retreat in the village of Vavla will welcome performance professionals and students to examine how the body, voice, imagination and ensemble can be utiliszed to find new sources of creativity within the powerful context of the nature and history of Cyprus. The Polyphonic Body: The Radiant Storyteller, on April 8-14 will take place both in nature and indoors and is a collaboration of local creatives and international artists.

Led by Julianna Bloodgood supported by Rafal Habel, Eirini Koubarouli and Lefteris Moumtzis, this retreat is both physical and vocal at its core and ensemble based. Performance training and physical activities will aim to create a deeper sense of listening and body-voice connection while it explores where sound comes from and how it is experienced. All this will work towards understanding the voice and its possibilities for song, text and vocal improvisation.

“We all have within us hundreds of voices, characters, and possibilities of creative manifestation,” say organisers. “The Polyphonic Body is an approach which allows all the elements of the performer’s inner life, vocal possibilities and physical expression to be channelled in a harmonious and contrapuntal way. This workshop is designed to open and integrate all aspects of the performer. Each exercise and experience will cultivate presence, and reveal a voice and body that is open and free, expressive and capable of communicating emotional truth, thus bringing our most authentic, vulnerable and creatively powerful state to the fore; the path to becoming a radiant storyteller.

“This workshop,” they add, “contributes to the classical actor’s technique, dance, physical and musical theatre by awakening a sense of internal and external rhythm, working with physical impulse, spatial awareness and focus. Each exercise will deepen the body’s connection to impulses and stimuli and gradually interconnect all aspects of the craft. The manifestation of the work is dynamic, contemplative and entirely musical with strong integrative and healing components.”

Julianna will lead the daily practices, supported musically by Rafal while the evenings will be led by different members of the team exploring Greek circle dances and singing, sound healing, body integration, and a rebirth ceremony. The evening programme will also include music performances which will be open to the public.

Retreat participants can stay and dine together as the organisers aim to enrich the sense of community through all of the activities of the workshops. The €450 participation fee includes the 30-hour workshops, evening events, airport transport for those coming from abroad and food which will be fresh and local as the organisers make sure to support local farmers, bakers and restauranteurs. Just a few weeks remain until Vavla village welcomes performers from all over the world and dives deep into the multi-layered facets of sound, voice, body and song.

 

Polyphonic Body: The Radiant Storyteller

Week-long retreat by Julianna Bloodgood supported by Rafal Habel, Eirini Koubarouli and Lefteris Moumtzis. April 8-14. Vavla village, Nicosia. €450. Tickets on www.louvanarecords.com

Follow the Cyprus Mail on Google News

Related Posts

Traffic fines: same penalties, longer payment period

Elias Hazou

Festival explores experimental music scene

Eleni Philippou

Mixed-marriage Turkish Cypriot loses appeal for citizenship

Tom Cleaver

Two years in jail for killer driver

Jonathan Shkurko

‘Feverish pace’ over monk scandal investigations

Andria Kades

Man threatens to incinerate own mother

Tom Cleaver