| Voice Tale (Speaking Song) |
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Workshop with Ditte Berkeley Sat-Sun 27–28 April, 5–8pm Na Grobli Studio Language of the workshop: English A voice has a tale to tell. In fact, the voice has a million tales to tell, depending on the song it’s singing, the experiences it goes through, the person who is listening, the sounds surrounding it, the state I, who am singing, am in. As an actress I enter into a dialogue with my voice every time we sing a song. I ask, “How are we going to sing this today? What about this sound, how does it feel? What does it say? What tale does it tell?” The exploration takes me further and brings more questions. This is the work of the performer who wishes to make the song a tool for a very deep exchange of experience between the singer and the listener. The voice is naked – it allows us to share on a level that we are not used to and where we often feel unsure. The exploration of its borders and its connections with the physical experience, with images, with associations, enriches our communication tools and allows for a space of discovery. The work session focuses on an exploration into our own voices and our voices reflected and fused in the voices of others; on the strength of standing confident with the sound of our own voice, exploring its richness and building the foundation to support it – through breath, physical support, imagination; on discovering its strength when appearing singly, and its power when it adds to the richness of a common sound created by other voices.  Ditte Berkeley is a performer in Teatr ZAR theatre company and researcher at the Grotowski Institute in Wroclaw. As well as being a theatre practitioner she is responsible for the VoicEncounters festival meetings. She was born in Denmark, brought up in Spain and currently lives in Poland. She trained as an actress and graduated from the Rose Bruford College of Speech and Drama in London in 2001. Ditte performs in and is co-creator of Teatr ZAR’s Gospels of Childhood. Fragments on Intimations of Immortality from Recollections of Early Childhood (2003), Caesarean Section. Essays on Suicide (2007), Anhelli. The Calling (2010). She has performed Lazarus with Teatr ZAR, a work in progress collaboration with the Butoh dancer Daisuke Yoshimoto (2003, 2004, 2005), and is currently working on Teatr ZAR’s new performance, Armine, Sister, which will premiere in November 2013. Alongside her work with Teatr ZAR, she collaborates with Studio Matejka in their vocal training and musical work. She is the vocal and music supervisor for their performances Awkward Happiness, or Everything I Don’t Remember About Meeting You and Charmolypi. In collaboration with Teatr ZAR, she leads the workshop “Into the Sound”, which focuses on Georgian traditional polyphony. She also collaborates with Matej Matejka in his workshop “Awakening the Listening Body”. Independently, she leads her own workshop entitled “Voice Tale (Speaking Song)”, based on her vocal/musical practice as a performer and vocal work developed with Studio Matejka. In 2009, in collaboration with the Centre for Performance Research in Aberystwyth, Wales, she co-organized the international festival “Giving Voice”, which focuses on the voice and brings together vocal artists from all around the world. This edition of the event took place at the Grotowski Institute in Wroc³aw. In 2010 she organized in Wroc³aw the first session of a cyclical event called VoicEncounters: “Reclaiming the Voice”, focusing on the research and sharing of vocal cultures from around the world. The first edition of the event, The Phenomenon of Latin Confraternities, took place in November 2010 under the auspices of the Grotowski Institute. The second edition, My Silent Sister, was held in November 2012 and focused on Armenian musical heritage and history. As part of her vocal research, she has carried out numerous expeditions with Teatr ZAR as well as individually, amongst others to: Georgia, Bulgaria, Spain, Ukraine, Corsica, Morocco, Sardinia, Armenia. |