meeting #1

May 25-26, 2007
Methods of Developing Text in the Performing Arts
Entré Scenen, Aarhus, Denmark

Meeting # 1 was an unconventional mixture of live experiments, knowledge sharing, discussions, performance and a party. We welcomed performing arts professionals, artists, researchers and students to experience presentations and to participate in talks, e.g. with:

• Actor and director Marcello Magnifrom the British Theatre Complicité
• Director Eugenio Barba and performer Julia Varley from Odin Teatret (DK)
• Performance artist Thomas Hejlesen and different directors/choreographers from Kulturhus Aarhus’ artistic laboratories
• Janek Szatkowski from the Centre for Theatre Laboratory Research
• Danish director Isabelle Reynaud and German director Clemens Bechtel
• Director/researcher Adam J. Ledger (UK) and performer Jill Dowse (UK) carrying out a live site-specific experiment;
• Club Fisk/Kasper Daugaard Poulsen presenting a performance on Saturday evening: Forestillinger
  Forestillinger is a performance with two dancers, two costume changes, two black markers, an easel, and an illustrated explanation of the piece and its structure. What happens to us and our reception of a work of art, when everything is obvious, having been explained to us beforehand? Review extract: “Liberating, hilarious choreography.” Danstidningen (SE)

Furthermore, a young performance group presented the results of an experiment about developing a performance based on the German sociologist Luhmann’s philosophy; the audience could also participate in a live experiment with improvising musicians and dramatists and study the results of the past 2 years of experiments in the Laboratory, presented as a mixture of documentation and installation.