The Lab aims to make available time, space and mentor support in order for artists to regain a space to question and experiment, to be able to establish dialogues with other artists, as well as become acquainted with current debates affecting dance practice today. The Lab aims to nurture articulate practitioners who are able to engage with three aspects of creative production: concepts, practice and analysis which are seen as mutually interdependent in artistic experimentation and growth.
What is unique about the Lab:
The Lab is an important innovation within the dance sector in Greece. It is designed as a self contained ten week MA level module providing further development under the idea of life-long-learning. Since summer 2012, the Lab is now delivered as a four week-100 hours intensive. Participants follow a taught-period of 50 hours with sessions led by international and high profile guest artists-researcher. This is then followed by a further 50 hours of independent research time that leads to the creation, management and delivery of an independent project of artistic research. As part of the skills acquired in the Lab, participants are introduced to reflective writing and archiving processes. The outcomes of the Lab are shown to the general public in a series of presentations and performances in the Studio. Participants receive a certificate of learning in line with the ECTS which details the learning hours and outcomes.
What we have achieved:
The first Kinitiras Choreography Lab took place from January to April 2011, with a pilot group of nine artists coming from a wide range of backgrounds and experience. The closing presentations took place on the 5th & 6th of April 2011 to full house-audiences at the Studio. Over two nights, nine events were presented which engaged with a wide and varied range of concerns; from experiments in open-interdisciplinary scores, experiments on performing-presence and re-engagements with the audience, solo works redefining authenticity in performance, to research exploring interdisciplinary dialogues. The Lab has created a blog in order to engage in remote dialogue with practitioners internationally. Participants archived their processes in an individual page within the blog. To date, the blog has been visited by over 3500 people from Greece, Europe, USA, Latin America and Asia. The blog can be accessed at www.kinitiraschoreolab.blogspot.com.
Following the Lab, three projects moved on to further development and production, presented as part of the 10th Festival of the Choreographer’s Association as well as the In Progress Festival at the Studio. In the summer 2011 a sister project was established in San Juan, Puerto Rico, establishing further concrete ties between artists in Greece and abroad (see www.proyectoensolo.blogspot.com).
The Autumn 2011 session of the Lab, took place from October-December 2011 and welcome back Michael Klien (Ir/Au) and John Paul Zaccarini (UK) and welcome for the first time Unterweg Theater Heidelberg. We are established short-term intensives with similar objectives for those artists who want to engage with choreographic research but who may not be able to commit to the longer 10-week project. Roberto Olivan led one of the intensives in December 2011. The Lab concluded with two performances on 21-22 December which were positively reviewed by Dancetheater.gr. you can read it at: http://www.kinitiraschoreolabautumn11.blogspot.com/.
As a response to interest from international dance artists and practitioners to participate in the Lab the summer 2012 session was retructured as a four week-100 hrs intensive in order to facilitate the participation of international artists who would not be able to come to GR for a ten week period. Seven participants- from Greece, Germany, Puerto Rico and Scotland participated in workshops led by Robert Clark (UK), Roberto Olivan (SP), Michael Klien (AT/IR), Kiriakos Spirou (CY) and Ana Sanchez-Colberg who continues to direct and act as main mentor to the project. For more information on the summer 2012 session see: http://kinitiraschoreolabsummer2012.blogspot.com.
The 4th edition of the Lab took place from the 4th to 27th of July 2013 and on Summer 2014 it will celebrate its 5th edition hosting new as well as from the previous Labs participants.
For more info about past Labs:
http://www.kinitiraschoreolab.blogspot.com/
https://www.facebook.com/kinitiraschoreography.lab
http://vimeo.com/user6161663