Professional training course for choreographers 2010
> Session 1/4 : "Se prolonger"
> Session 2/4 : "Trying things out"
> Session 4/4 : "Finalizing a performance plan"
Transforme 2010 - 2011
Transforme
Myriam Gourfink, artistic and pedagogical direction
Transforme is conceived as a humanistic academy, a place for exchange in which everyone may come to enhance his knowledge with the aim of nourishing his intellectual and artistic output. The instruction is organized around a generative theme of research on the types of writing and modes of composition in the fields of dance and music.
Each year twelve creators — choreographers or composer-performers — are selected to participate in a workshop cycle over three consecutive weeks in July-August and three nine-day sessions spread over the months of October and March. They are in residence at the Royaumont Foundation.
Every morning the participants attend a technical course emphasizing the comprehension of body patterns, the relationship of the dancer with space and listening (Feldenkrais, Alexander, Pilates, Body-Mind Centering methods, various forms of yoga and martial arts).
The weeks in July/August offer a panel of presentations on the central question of the curriculum as well as on the relationship between dance and music, dance and new technologies. World-renowned artists, scientists, philosophers are invited to convey their knowledge in the form of lectures, discussions, workshops or theoretical courses. The idea is to motivate the student to give form to his language, modeling a personal choreographic environment that he can submit to the test of reality by composing small trials ruled by precise limitations.
At the conclusion of this first period each author is to work out a project that resonates with the problem complexes brought up during the course and exploring the dance/music relationship.
In order to respond to their artistic requirements, between the end of August and the resumption of classes in the month of October and between each of the remaining sessions, Myriam Gourfink will be available to them at the Royaumont Foundation. These consultations also make it possible to set out the schedules for the subsequent weeks in keeping with the singularity of the artistic projects and to facilitate carrying them out.
During the last three sessions, the participants consolidate their ideas in the workshop, resulting in a sketch of about ten minutes. They have at their disposal composers and musicians chosen by the CRCC.
At the end of each session, in October, December and March, a Fenêtre sur cour(s) provides a public account of the various stages of work.
When the entire training cycle of Transforme is over, the CRCC, working together with its artistic and financial partners, will be able to offer extensions to certain authors.
The CRCC receives support from the Ministère de la Culture-DRAC Ile-de-France, from the Département of Val d’Oise, from the Ile-de-France Region, from Europe (Fonds structurels européens). Transforme is the educational beneficiary of an AFDAS training agreement.
Se prolonger
The 2010 session of Transforme is intended for 8 choreographers wishing to compose and 4 performer-authors wishing to write a solo. It also extends an invitation to 4 musician-composers—coming from the Voix nouvelles curriculum—using or wishing to use the computer as an instrument.
After having questioned the notions of space in 2008-2009, then of perception in 2009-2010, the 2010-2011 version of Transforme will take on the dynamic and energetic aspect of the creative process.
Contributions and discussions will on one hand stimulate the workings of anticipation that make possible the imagining of dynamic, sensitive spaces. The workshops, on the other hand, will encourage the concrete realisation of these concepts, via gesture in the present tense.
The instructors will propose a round trip between Western- or Eastern-based energetic techniques and the work of composition.
The course of study opens with Catherine Contour, a French choreographer who defines herself first and foremost as an exploratory artist. She will intervene successively in July, October and December 2010 and will present the hypnotic tool and is application in the work of creation. This application is made by sensitive observation, as an accumulation of perceptions and elements of information.
Aside from the intervention of Catherine Contour, the summer of 2010 will be rich in guest instructorships. Gianna Dupont, using yoga techniques, will lead a practice of the body exploring one source of creativity, that is the genital sphere. Zhixing Wang, master of Qigong, will propose a practice of Hua Gong that stimulates inventiveness. He will also offer an initiation to calligraphy at the end of the day. Myriam Gourfink will alternate workshops and lectures around the problem complexes of writing and generation of choreographic composition in real time. The group will be further enhanced by the presence of four composer-musician participants chosen with Marc Texier, artistic director of Voix nouvelles (contemporary music department at Royaumont) who wish to make use of the computer as an instrument. Myriam Gourfink will then be joined by the composer Kasper T. Toeplitz and the musician Laurent Dailleau (Theremin, a modular synthesizer). In the beginning, Myriam Gourfink and Kasper T. Toeplitz will invite the choreographer and composer participants to reflect upon the writing of a thought prior to the act of doing. Then in a second stage, while Myriam Gourfink guides the group of choreographer participants in a practice of yoga, Kasper T. Toeplitz will lead a workshop that offers the computer as an extension of one’s self, in the realm of modes of composition such as that of instrumental playing in real time. He thus will guide the participants toward experienceing a type of musical thought in motion. Then in the afternoon Gourfink and Toeplitz will co-direct a workshop in music/dance composition, enabling the participants to experiment with the elements of composition taken up since the start of the cycle.
This final stage will extend into the following sessions (October, December 2010 and February-March 2011), inviting participants to set forth a research project in a freer way. 12 participants will join the team in December and will be available to the 8 choreographers, at the same time as the 4 performer-authors will define solo projects. Each day will begin with a yoga class led by Myriam Gourfink.
The fall and winter residencies will end with a public presentation, Fenêtre sur cour(s), demonstrating the projects’ progress status.
At the close of the final session, to the extent that certain proceedings reveal a singularity that deserves being accompanied beyond and independent from the training curriculum, the CRCC may offer possible extensions.
Session 1/4 : "Se prolonger"
“Energy and writing a thought prior to the act of doing”
Faculty
Catherine Contour – choreographer: hypnotic tool
Gianna Dupont – practician: yoga techniques
Myriam Gourfink – choreographer
Kasper T. Toeplitz – composer: lecture and workshop for choreographic and musical compositions
“From calligraphy to choreographic writing – the energy of writing and generative devices”
Faculty
Gianna Dupont – practician: yoga techniques
Zhixing Wang – master of Qigong : practice of Hua Gong
Myriam Gourfink – choreographer: workshop in choreographic composition
“Generative writing, a conception of music in motion, and extension meaning/music, music/dance”
Faculty
Myriam Gourfink – choreographer
Kasper T. Toeplitz – composer: lecture and workshop for choreographic and musical compositions
Laurent Dailleau – musician: electronic instruments
The 12 choreographer participants or author-performers will be joined by 4 composer-musician trainees.
Session
Friday 30 July through Monday 16 August 2010
Session 2/4 : "Trying things out"
Faculty
Catherine Contour – choreographer: hypnotic tool
Myriam Gourfink – choreographer
Kasper T. Toeplitz – composer
Laurent Dailleau – musician: accompaniment of the projects
The 12 choreographer participants or author-performers will be joined by 4 composer-musician trainees.
Session
Friday 15 October through Monday 25 October 2010
Public Presentation
Fenêtre sur cour[s] Sunday 24 October 2010
Session 3/4 : "At Work"
Faculty
Myriam Gourfink – choreographer
Kasper T. Toeplitz – composer
Laurent Dailleau – musician: accompaniment of the projects
The 12 choreographer participants or author-performers will be joined by 4 composer-musician trainees.
Session
Thursday 9 through Thursday 23 December 2010
Public Presentation
Fenêtre sur cour[s] Wednesday 22 December 2010
Session 4/4 : "Finalizing a performance plan"
Faculty
Myriam Gourfink – choreographer
Kasper T. Toeplitz – composer
Laurent Dailleau – musician: accompaniment of the projects
The 12 choreographer participants or author-performers will be accompanied by 4 composer-musician trainees and 12 dancer participants.
Session
Friday 18 February through Wednesday 2 March 2011
Public Presentation
Fenêtre sur cour[s] Tuesday 1st March 2011
Places available for
8 choreographers and 4 author-performers who have carried out several choreographic works.
The participants expressly agree to attend the entirety of the course, i. e. 50 days of training.
Auditions
Applications to be sent before 1st March 2010, including a resume, a letter of motivation and a video or DVD extract of a choreographic work.
Auditions
22 and 23 March 2010 in the studio of the ANPE, 50 rue de Malte, 75011 Paris
Fee information
The cost-sharing fee is made up of a compulsory registration fee, a compulsory membership L'Association des amis de Royaumont, tuition, and boarding expenses.
For this session a scholarship arrangement with the AFDAS is pending.
Financial aid for tuition
› for casual entertainment workers (intermittents du spectacle): through the AFDAS under the following conditions: 2 years in activity, 48 fee units (days) within France, as attested by payslips and Congés Spectacles certificates.
› for salaried employes (full or part time): via their employers’ continuing education programs.
› for the unemployed: instructions available from the local ANPE and/or ASSEDIC offices.
› for RMI beneficiaries: via authorities in each département (Conseil Général) – contact the appropriate services for further information.
If you are eligible for such financial assistance, a total amount of 150 € remains at your expense.
Scholarships
Every year L’Association des amis de Royaumont grants scholarships to artists under 29 years of age who do not yet have a regular professional activity.
This grant is made by a commission on the basis of a portfolio (resume, photo, letter of motivation).
If you are eligible for this scholarship from the Association des amis de Royaumont, a total amount of 150 € remains at your expense.
For participants who are not in a position to qualify for any other financial aid, the Foundation grants scholarship stipends on request and based on a portfolio.
If you are eligible for such financial assistance, a total amount of 1,100 € remains at your expense.