25 years again and again : on repetition, time and articulated knowledge at The Bridge of Winds' group

The Bridge of Winds is an ensemble of actors and theatre artists from South America, Europe and Asia, that, guided by Iben Nagel Rasmussen (Odin Teatret’s actress), has been since 1989 researching and exploring the complexity of the actor's stage presence through a psychophysical training based mainly on 5 physical exercises. The group meets to work together every year, for more than 25 years now. Their main energetic exercises may have simple external form but are rather difficult to master. They allow a performer to access and explore an intimate, creative and meditative world of physical theatre impulses, stories and actions. While the structure and essence of the exercises remain the same for all the years, the group members grow old and change both physically and mentally. The age of the group participants ranges from the late 20’s to late 50’s. Moreover, Iben N. Rasmussen, now 70 years old, is still an active participant in the meetings. What are the vital matters keeping the group together for such a long period, investigating, re-thinking, actualizing a training system? What is this path from training to ethos made of? This article proposes to look at a very special relation between repetition, creation and the ethos of the performer through the lenses of the long-term work of the Bridge of Winds. I have been participating in their activities throughout this year and this paper will be based on an empirical experience with their exercises as well as on a series of interviews with Iben Nagel Rasmussen. Along the way, I will look at the concept of repetition as proposed by Gilles Deleuze, I will touch upon neurological matters, to draw an understanding of ethos, which is implicated on the artistic work of the group

Contemporary paradigms on actor training methodologies : articulated knowledge at The Bridge of Winds' group

The Bridge of Winds is an ensemble of actors and theatre artists from South America, Europe and Asia, that has since 1989 researched the actor's physical and vocal training. Guided by Iben Nagel Rasmussen, the Odin Teatret actress, the group explores the variety and complexity of the actor's presence through a psychophysical training based on 5 different kinds of exercises developed and researched by the master Rasmussen and her pupils during their 25 years of existence. This January we had the chance of witnessing their yearly practice meeting, something quite exclusive and special to be part of. This paper intends to analyse a few aspects of the group´s training methodologies in relation to contemporary politics of knowledge within their pedagogical system. We want to discuss the ways actors are learning nowadays, the contact with masters, aspects of collective (self)education and production of shared knowledge, in opposition to new ways of auto-didactism, coming from the relation with new media technologies (youtube, MOOC’s, live-stream, skype). We will begin by looking at the Bridge of Winds knowledge transmission systems, their very particular way of understanding the master/pupil relation, their group dynamics in time, the transformation of its structure and the aging process of its members throughout the existence of the group. After that, we will relate these notions to contemporary Politics of Knowledge, particularly Ranciere’s approach to it, in order to re-read and actualize the notion of the ‘master’. Then we will discuss and question aspects related to new methodologies of learning theatre training, which engage with new media paradigms, in the light of Ranciere and Agamben’s contemporary works, as well as of digital material and online learning tools available. We want to ask how is the paradigm of new technologies in performance affecting the ‘ethos’ of the performers’ training. In which ways are the learning technologies influencing the content of the work of the actor in opposition to being simply learning tools that eventually are replacing books and teachers? The paper will also make use of a series of interviews we made with the group in relation to the theme and our own observations of the 2015´s meeting activities

Performing ethos and digital behavior : the genealogy of WEeP

Through the genealogical analysis of the theatrical performance ‘The Werther’s Effect e-Project (WEeP), to be premiered in the beginning of 2016, we will discuss new possibilities of creation made viable by digital media. WEeP puts together a group of international performers, living in different cities during the creation process, to discuss suicide and copycat phenomena influenced by online events. Having as first inspiration the classic “The Sorrows of the Young Werther” by Goethe (1774), we want to approach the mysterious ways a (digital) event or a product influences on suicide in contemporary times, leading to, sometimes, the extreme cases of copycat suicide chains, phenomenon known as the “Werther’s Effect”. By tackling this theme, we intend to raise questions about contemporary affects and ways of dealing with the ephemeral aspects of the digital life, tracing the propagation of information and the influences in our analogical and online behavior. The conditions set by the international composition of the group led us to begin to experiment with rehearsals online and/or loaded on digital spaces. Skype, think tanks, multimodal platforms for notation, mobile apps… These experiments raised many questions regarding creation and the craft of the performer. What is this new ethos of the performer, driven by different creative and corporeal models, rooted in a digital environment? What is presence in this context? What are the new improvisational tools and how to actualize analogical ones? What matters to be recorded/archived/posted? The great deal of information we have access to brought us to question our selective skills. So far, we are dealing with a great amount of new dance models within this context, but there is very little regarding the specificities of theatre. Therefore, this paper intends to bring some directions to theatrical/ performative creative processes, within WEeP’s nomadic and digital creation, by tracing new paradigms of the performer’s ethos

The bruise scores moving session

An investigation of the transformative power of traumas through physical dramaturges by articulating repetition, interruption and failure. Can we create traumas? Find pleasure in them? The workshop will be divided in two sessions where we will – explore different corporeal states through the lenses of alternative models for pre-expressive work. – apply these states in compositional strategies for performance creatio

Affective topologies and virtual tactile experiences in theatre training

My experience as a performer is largely informed by my long-term connection with the Bridge of Winds group, led by Iben Nagel Rasmussen. As a practitioner-researcher however, I am engaged on a new journey, where my embodied knowledge is guiding the construction of a virtual archive for theatre practices. During this process, one of the main issues we are facing is that of renegotiating the sense of touch in virtual spaces. As the refined tactile feedback from my masters has taught me to reconnect with the present continuously; is it possible to create this sense of learning via interactive, virtually designed spaces? While aiming at building an immersive space which one can train in and with, what tactics can we imagine to evoke touch-like experiences of force, weight, pressure, connection and above all, care? Furthermore, can such spaces shift the boundaries of what we might understand as touch? These writings are informed by an experiment which translates Odin actress Roberta Carreri's workshop Dance of Intentions into a virtual archive. Whilst critically approaching this textural translation process and raising the social-political implications of such translations, I will suggest ways in which designed immersive environments can renegotiate tactile experiences in theatre training

Transforming the past into presence : in dialogue with Eugenio Barba and Julia Varley

In this dialogical article, Patrick Campbell and Adriana La Selva of international research platform Cross Pollination interview Eugenio Barba and Julia Varley of Odin Teatret, with a focus on the activities of the recently inaugurated NGO Fondazione Barba Varley. Having left their institutional base, Nordisk Teaterlaboratorium, in December 2022 after 56 years of being rooted to a concrete theatrical space, Odin Teatret now work nomadically, developing new projects both within Denmark and beyond. The Fondazione Barba Varley extends and builds on the legacy of Odin Teatret, with a specific agenda to support and promote the 'nameless' – theater groups and independent artists working silently on the borders between theater and activism. Derrida’s writings around the politics of friendship (Derrida 2005) serve as a loose critical framework for articulating the potential dialogical avenues available once one abandons the appropriative drive on institutionalization. The conversation follows an organic flow, with a focus on dialogue and communication, the embodied dialogical tactics of the theater laboratory practitioner, and the current activities of the Fondazione, such as the Constellation of the Nameless, ISTA New Generation, The Journal of Theater Anthropology (JTA) and the Living Archive: Floating Islands. Theatrical legacy and its transmission are articulated as relational and interpersonal, grounded on a deeply personal process of 'creating signs': the generation of poetic forms that translate a pragmatic know-how forged over a lifetime dedicated to art as activism

25 years again and again: on time and articulated knowledge at The Bridge of Winds' group

The Bridge of Winds is an ensemble of actors and theatre artists from South America, Europe and Asia, that, guided by Iben Nagel Rasmussen (Odin Teatret actress), has been since 1989 researching and exploring the complexity of the actor's stage presence through psychophysical training based on 5 various physical and other vocal exercises. Group meets to work together every year, for more than 25 years now. Main energetic exercises may have simple external form but they are rather difficult to master. They allow a performer to access and explore an intimate, creative and meditative world of physical theatre impulses, stories and actions. While the structure and essence of the exercises remain the same for all the years, the group members grow old and change both physically and mentally. The age of group participants ranges from the late 20’s to late 50’s. Moreover, Iben N. Rasmussen, now 70 years old, is still an active participant in the meetings. The paper will be based on a series of interviews we made with the group in relation to the theme and our own observations of the 2015´s meeting activities. Its goal is to analyze few basic relation between knowledge transmission from master to pupils, group dynamics in time, transformation of its structure and aging of its members