KEYNOTES

Refining Perception: Performative practices and mindful practices in times of crisis

http://farol.ufsm.br/transmissao/seminario-internacional-de-praticas-meditativas-e-artes

Synopsis:

The talk will address the possibilities of transformation of perception patterns through procedures related to performing arts and contemplative traditions, especially Buddhism. From that, we rethink the possibilities of art in face of the complexity of the crisis we have been going through, approaching it as a privileged place for reinventing life forms.

About Cassiano:

Full professor at the Arts Institute of UNICAMP (BR), with a postdoctoral research in Theater Studies at the University of Lisbon (PT). Leader of the research group “Expanded scene and cross-cultural dialogues”, member of the “Laboratory of Dramaturgy and Performative Writings at UNICAMP”, award-winning playwright, vice-leader of the ABRACE work group “Performative arts, Perceptive modes and practices of the self”. Dr. Quilici is also author of the books “Antonin Artaud: Teatro e Ritual” and “O Ator-performer e as poéticas de transformação de si”. He is co-founder of the Theravada Meditation Centre “Casa de Dharma ” in São Paulo (BR).

Subjectivity and Public Spaces

http://farol.ufsm.br/transmissao/seminario-internacional-de-praticas-meditativas-e-artes-2

Synopsis:

Subjectivities and public spaces.

Theatre arts as a potential field of shared imagination

We divide actors and actresses’ performances in “good” or bad,” “working” or “not working.” On what is our judgment based upon? If this field of efficacy is based on cultural conventions, then we ought nowadays to revise our conception of two subjects and of their interactions: the performer on one side and the concrete efficacy of her/his actions, and on the other side what we generally call “public”: the spectators, the place they are in, the irradiation and echo of the theatrical work through them towards a larger sphere of resonance. The third element being: what goes on between the stage and the public? And: isn’t theatre a public space as well? Mario feels the need to interrogate his language and thought about these concepts, questioning what is often assumed as granted.

Perhaps, one of our vocation as theatre professionals or theatre lovers has to do with what we share during the collaborative and aesthetic experience of theatre. Perhaps, our task is to enlarge the sphere of what is first happening between the actors and the director, and then between the actors and the viewers. Perhaps, what we are looking for, as theatre creators and theatre sectators, is the creation of new fields of shared imagination, the capacity to dream together alternative ways of being and living together, a future world which we will not see with our own eyes.

About Mario:

Mario Biagini, currently Associate Director of the Workcenter of Jerzy Grotowski and Thomas Richards and Director of the Open Program, has been a central contributor to the practical research carried on at the Workcenter for more than thirty years. Working in the team led by Thomas Richards since 1986, Biagini quickly became a key figure of the Workcenter’s research in the domain of art as vehicle, as well as in the performative field, and eventually in the terrain of social action.

A HUGE SILENCE: artistic approaches to contemplation / contemplative approaches to art

http://farol.ufsm.br/transmissao/seminario-internacional-de-praticas-meditativas-e-artes-3

Synopsis:

Drawing on sources derived from a range of disciplines - from the arts to cognitive science - this paper will explore relationships between contemplative, poetic, and embodied ways of being and knowing. It will consider how artistic and contemplative practices can be mutually supportive in cultivating our capacity to make wise responses to a world in crisis.

About Deborah:

Leads the research project Mindfulness and Performance at the University of Huddersfield (UK). She has several publications on mindfulness, meditation and Buddhism in relation to contemporary performance practices. She is co-editor of the Journal of Performance and Mindfulness, with professors Daniel Plá and Franc Chamberlain. Under the pseudonym Deborah Templeton she writes short fiction and performance texts. Her action as a writer is closely linked to her practice as a Kripalu yoga teacher and meditation. Her contemplative training includes: shamatha-vipashyana meditation with Archarya Lama Tenpa Gyaltsen and Mudra Space Awareness with Mitra Lee Worley. She has shared her contemplative approach to creativity in workshops and presentations in the UK, the United States, Mexico and China.

The art of making a true move

http://farol.ufsm.br/transmissao/seminario-internacional-de-praticas-meditativas-e-artes-3

Synopsis:

In this talk Arawana Hayashi will speak about the role of contemplative practice in co-creating performance work and in the art of performance. In addition, Arawana will describe a social arts residency held in Yucatan, Mexico, and express an aspiration that Social Presencing Theater might contribute to performance training in schools and universities of the future.She will also invite the audience to engage in a couple of simple practices.

About Arawana:

Arawana’s pioneering work as an innovator, performer, and educator is deeply sourced in both improvisation and the ancient Japanese court dance, Bugaku. She currently heads the creation of Social Presencing Theater for the Presencing Institute. She brings her background in dance and meditation to the creation of a movement practice that makes visible both current reality and emerging future possibilities. Arawana teaches meditation and creative process in Shambhala, a community committed to the creation of enlightened society. She is the author of Social Presencing Theater: The Art of Making a True Move.