Courses 1st Year

Basic Contemporary Method Acting

This course is an Introduction to basic Contemporary Method Acting technique and methodology.
In a variety of exercises, we work on the performers’ being:  the mindbody factors of Sensing, Thinking, Intuiting and Feeling, with an increasing awareness of your own sensitive selve, and on the focusing of this being towards active doing.
Additionally, the course aims to build awareness of your unconscious behavior: Intuitive impulse and flow, sensory perception, emotional memory, imagination, creativity and improvisation with an increasing awareness and understanding of the Performative Self in artistic expression.

Singing

In the Singing classes we aim for authentic singing based on flow of inner life and grounded stance, rather than for beautified singing. You will work with compositions and analysis of lyrics as tools to access this authentic expression.
In the 1st Year you will gain a practical understanding of the basic elements of training the singing voice: release, grounding, alignment, breath, flow of inner life, resonance and articulation.

Voice Training

The Voice Training is designed to open and strengthen your voice, making you aware of healthy vocal habits and giving you the skills to enhance your vocal expression and increase presence when speaking.
Through various exercises and explorations throughout the year you will get a practical understanding of the basic elements of voice training: release/grounding work, alignment, breath, resonance and articulation.
The aim is for you to begin to understand how you can apply and play with your vocal skills, both in your daily live and as a performer.

Dance

The Dance classes include Classical Ballet, Contemporary Technique and Improvisation.
You will gather a strong technical base and body awareness, and experience the body-mind connection through dance.
The class has a high focus on the individual, working on weaknesses and strengths, and unlocking your unique movement potential, whatever level you are at.

Movement Psychology

In this course you will develop a fundamental body, spatial, mental and expressive awareness as a performer in relation to the principles of Movement Psychology.
The Movement Psychology System is a psycho-physical approach to actor training developed by Rudolf Laban and Yat Malmgren based on the movement methodology of Laban, Stanislavskij’s acting techniques, and C.G. Jung’s research on archetypes and the collective unconscious.
The approach is mostly practical, physical, and investigational in the studio as lab-work. You will work solo, in pairs and with the entire group.

Movement

The Movement classes are closely linked to the Movement Psychology classes (Laban/Malmgren technique). Mainly, you will train your core strength, stamina, honing the senses, and quality of movement, and undergo a systematic training of your unique expressivity within the different spatial dimensions. A training of physical scales, equivalent of the bar work of the ballet dancer, or the piano scales of the pianist.
In the 1st year, the main focus is to get the technique in under your skin, both practically and theoretically. You will work physically on the floor with the Movement Psychology System, particularly the 8 Working Actions, incorporating different choreographed movements to explore and understand the System.

Text, Character & Object (Part 1)

In this course, you will practice the fundamental components of character building and rehearsing a dramatic scene: Analysing the character, the script, and the individual scenes, and transforming that insight into organic character and stage choices.
You will work with different scenes from one play, and practice determining and personally identifying with the characters’ super-objectives, objectives in the play and the scene, obstacles, character problems etc., using as a starting point your own life experience imaginatively.

Devising Project

The aim of the course is for you to practice taking artistic and creative responsibility, rather than passively adapting to a given director’s vision and directions.
Devising places the responsibility for the creative process on the ensemble (in our case including a tutor/director). The performers themselves create the original material out of which the show is molded. The dramatic material derives mainly from improvisations that may be character based, and may take as their starting point specific themes, unusual spaces, specific props, choreographic components, music etc. Often, several such elements are combined into a coherent expression.
The goal of this co-creative process is to stage and perform an integrated, devised theatre piece in which the elements of movement, music, self-written texts, lighting and scenography are synthesized into an artistic whole, with characteristic choices made collectively regarding style, form and genre.

Applied Theatre History

In Applied Theatre History you will research each major theatre historical period from Greek Tragedy to Modernism, and map out the progression of and connection between different periods and movements.
1st Year students, in groups of two or three, hold presentations on specific historical periods and its most prominent writers, philosophers, artists and theatre practitioners.

The Emotional Body

This course invites you to develop a practice that will help acquire and expand your awareness of your emotional expressivity.
You will investigate the close connection between the creative and the personal fields helping you to build bridges between them and thus enhancing your self awareness both personally and professionally.

Screen Acting Technique

Screen Acting Technique aims to prepare you for work in front of and with the camera.
You will learn how to match the camera’s neutral registration with an open presence, and to be in an authentic quality of being, so the camera does not become an obstacle but a co-player.
You will train your awareness of what you’re unaware of in your daily life in terms of being and  presence, and how to bring it forth in a free and organic expressivity, while at the same time learning to look through the performance from an inner space of alertness.

Dramaturgy in a Mindbody Perspective

The course is both analytical and practical in its approach.
Through writing exercises, acting exercises, lectures and a small performance you will learn how to bridge your own experiences, archetypes, etc. with a mindbody-oriented dramaturgy.
The goal is for you to actively use dramaturgy not only in the context of being a writer / director but also actor.

Body Awareness

The course comprises yoga, movement improvisation and choreographic and compositional tasks designed to you a greater awareness of your own body’s potential, range of movement and expressiveness.