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5/21 Coming to our Senses: Introducing rasa for performance, self-care, and somatic practice.
Description: The Sanskrit word “rasa,” means taste, or essence. In ayurveda, rasa refers to the specific flavors that make food pleasurable, and that affect our physical and emotional well being. The culinary arts involve a mixing and balancing of the flavors of sweet, salty, sour, and so on. In the arts, “rasa” became the key to aesthetic experience—in performance, which in classical Indian context means integrated dance, music, and storytelling, “rasa” corresponds to the savoring of a successful performance by both spectators and performers, as well as to the eight distinct emotional flavors enjoyed. At the end of the 20th century, experimental theatre director and performance theorist Richard Schechner created Rasaboxes, a form of performer training grounded in rasa theory, which offers a methodology for embodying eight theatrical emotional states. In this 3-hour workshop, participants will be introduced to “rasa” through literal taste and smell, and experiment with ways of embodying “rasa” in relationship to elements of the somatic practices engaged in DE training.
Time: 3:30-6:30pm EST
Open to the Public, registration capped at 16. Background in LMA/BMC recommended. REGISTER HERE.
Cost: $115. Discounted price of $95 available to DE-SMTT graduates, BMD and MFL students and graduates. Pay by Paypal or Zelle to drmarthaeddy@gmail.com with a note specifying “Rasa Workshop 5/21 FIRST NAME LAST NAME.” Included in DE Tuition as part of the May 21-22 DE Intensive.
Your registration will be approved manually once we have received payment for the workshop. Once your registration is approved, you will be sent a Zoom link to join the meeting.
Michele Minnick, Ph.D., C.M.A. is a somatic educator, performance maker, and researcher. She has been teaching and developing The Performance Workshop and Rasaboxes (originated by Richard Schechner) for over twenty years. She trains teachers of the work, and is currently completing the first book about it, The Rasaboxes Sourcebook: Inside Richard Schechner’s Performance Workshop, to be published by Routledge later this year. She has taught, directed and devised works at New York University, Towson University, Kennesaw State University, and various institutions abroad, particularly in Brazil. She has been an instructor in certification and pre-certification programs at the Laba/Bartenieff Institute in New York and at Angel Vianna School of Dance in Rio de Janeiro. She is an associate artist with Submersive Productions in Baltimore, who have produced and co-created her solo show, BATS!, and are currently developing Vital Matters: Baltimore. This work, and Michele’s current ongoing project, is focused on the intersection of performance, ecosomatic practice, environmental and social justice, and climate change, which also requires a recognition of the effects of trauma on the individual and collective body.
REGISTER VIA ZOOM HERE.