Workshop fee: €120
A non-refundable reservation fee of €40 should be made during inscription and payment made within the next 10 days, or optionally full payment made in one go. Deadline for inscriptions end on the 25th February 2024.
Applications by email: [email protected]
For more info about Ditte’s work visit www.ditteberkeley.com
Every 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 I 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 that wishes to make the song a tool for a very deep exchange of experience between the singer and the listener. The voice is naked, and allows us to share on a level that we are not used to and often feel unsure of. The exploration of its borders and its connections through a deep physical experience, with images, with associations, makes our tools richer for communication 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. Discovering its strength when appearing singly, and power when it adds to the richness of a common sound created by other voices.
More and more, the performing arts are blending in with each other, requiring dancers to be actors as well as singers, or actors and singers to be movers.
This work session is directed specifically to performers and students of performance arts, including dance, theatre and music and those specifically interested in the process of performing through song. It builds on the support of the ensemble, helping us to work as a team as we grow as individuals. A work much needed in today’sworld based on individuality and, very often, competitiveness. Polyphonic singing tradition brings people together in the joy of creating beautiful sounding music together and teaches us endless lessons on how to exist and work together.
This work takes you on a very different journey of awareness and empowerment through the voice and leaks into areas of how we use our voices to coexist as human beings and particularly as performers when we look to communicate something that is important to us, and perhaps the rest of the world, vocally.
DITTE BERKELEY- SCHULTZ
Ditte Berkeley is a co- founder and actress in Teatr ZAR, the resident theatre company at the Grotowski Institute in Wrocław, Poland. She has co-created and performed in most of their performances. She is a collaborator of Source materiał and is currently engaged as a performer in The co-production with The Pina Bausch Center in Wuppertal.
She is an active independent performer and well respected theatre pedagogue teaching widely around the globe both in higher education and theatre festivals and events, as well as at the Grotowski Institute. Amongst others, she has shared her work at CALARTS, UCLA, the University of Exeter, Kent University, Rose Bruford College, Central School of Speech and Drama, Italia Conti, National School of Drama in New Delhi, RESAD in Madrid, the Institut del Teatre in Barcelona, Norwegian Theatre Academy Khio and Norwegian Theatre Academy, as well as theatre academies around Poland (Warsaw, Wroclaw, Krakow), to mention a few. Ditte is currently collaborating as a performer and vocal coach with Source Material and the Pina Bausch Zentrum.
“The atmosphere that is created in Ditte’s workshops is hard to describe. It is an emotional vibration that will resonate with you for days after you leave the studio. Her attention, care and presence is contagious and unifying. The work targets the ensemble, allowing you to connect with your peers in a way that creates the feeling of family.
Every time I work with Ditte, I change, learn and grow as an artist and a human. Her expertise and energy shines through as you are guided through this growth.
The focus of song is not on the precision of notes and theoretical technicality; it is placed on the intention of the voice and the expression of humanity through singing.”
Kim Whatmore – workshop participant
“Teatr Zar are expert trainers and teachers, drawing on years of extraordinary performances. Their vocal training is exceptional. Zar is consummate ensemble with extensive international practical experience. As someone who knows their practice well, I affirm that they always operate with the highest pedagogical standards, bringing out students’ creativity in a tight and precise technical framework.”
Paul Allain, Professor of Theatre and Performance University of Kent
