Which improv skill do you want to improve: Body? Heart? Mind?
After the great success of the BIF days in 2012, the Berlin International Improv Festival IMPRO repeats its „BIF“-section in 2013 and offers you a versatile approach to improvisation with workshops, shows, a panel discussion and a jam session, divided into the three dimensions „Body, Heart and Mind“.
Choosing one of these three topics that form the skill set of a versatile improviser, you can set your individual focus in this year's BIF days and attack your personal „improv-handicap“.
Spending a full weekend as BIF-participants at the IMPRO 2013 will furthermore extend the possibilities to connect with fellow improvisers from around the globe and give you an insight to new developments and ideas that are currently discussed in the improv scene worldwide.
SCHEDULE
thursday, march 21st
16.00 Welcome & Warm-Up-Jam with the Workshop-Teachers (2 hours)
20.00 Show of IMPRO 2013
Choose from one of several festival shows
friday, march 22nd
13.00 Workshop (4 hours)
20.00 Show of IMPRO 2013
Choose from one of several festival shows
saturday, march 23rd
11.00 Workshop (4 hours)
16.00 Panel discussion: „Cultural differences in improv“
20.00 Show of IMPRO 2013
Choose from one of several festival shows
sunday, march 24th
12.00 Workshop (3 hours)
16.00 BIF-Jam Session
WORKSHOPS
Section: Body. Bodytelling.
Workshop with Felipe Ortiz, La Gata Impro, Bogotá/Colombia
Most improvisers easily accomplish their first moments of success - verbally. But what about the body? Discover your body as a crucial part of your improvisation, train its capabilities, explore its boundaries. On your own and interacting with others. Pepe will be teaching different techniques such as Contact improvisation and acrobatics and thus shows you different ways of communication beyond language. His workshop does also strengthen another basic skill for any improviser: Trust your partner.
Felipe Ortiz has been teaching in Europe, North- and South-America for years and was a member of the Colombian National Team during the Theatresports World Cup in Germany in 2006.
Basic skills in improvisation are necessary, preferably a minimum of two years of improv experience.
Section: Heart. I, uhm, love you.
Workshop with Marko Mayerl, inédit théâtre, Strasbourg, France
If there is one topic dominating improvised scenes and stories, what else but love could it be. In all its diversity. Secret, passionate, hidden, glowing, unanswered, disappointed. But how can you interprete all those different kinds, forms, shapes of love on stage as an improviser? How can your performance go beyond a superficial scratch of what love is and can be?
Who could be a better teacher for such a workshop than a French? Ou la la, thats another clichee right there. But this one can really do it: Marko Mayerl, internationally acclaimed improv teacher and a recurring guest performer at our festival IMPRO.
Basic skills in improvisation are necessary, preferably a minimum of two years of improv experience.
Section: Mind. Make up your mind. Character Development in Improvisation.
Workshop with Matt Baram, National Theatre of the World, Toronto, Canada
Improvisation can become exponentially easier when one’s choices come directly from the mind of a character rather than the mind of the neutral improviser. Committing to a fully developed character allows the improviser to get out of the way and frees the character to discover and play. This workshop is designed so that each participant will be able to create an original character that is repeatable and sustainable for the stage as well as explore a variety of scenarios for that character so that they can learn to “Make up their own mind”.
Matt Baram has been working as an improviser with the famous National Theatre of the World in Toronto for years. After their first visit to IMPRO in 2012, he is now coming back as a teacher for BIF. He most recently won the Canadian Comedy Award as Best Male Improviser.
Basic skills in improvisation are necessary, preferably a minimum of two years of improv experience.
PANEL DISCUSSION
On saturday, all BIF participants will be able to discuss with international colleagues, which impact cultural differences have on improvisation. Are there distinct „cultural“ styles of improv? The ability of improv to connect people around the world and support intercultural exchange is well-known in the improv world. How can this be used in other contexts? How can improv use that ability but also cultural diversity at the same time? 4 international artists from the festival cast of IMPRO will discuss this matter.
REGISTRATION
Cost: 195,- Euro
only with payment and registration until nov. 30th 2012: 180,- Euro
Including all elements of the BIF days.
If you would like us to book you a hotel room (together with fellow BIF participants), please contact us immediately for more information and booking. All participants who book a hotel through us will be accommodated at Hotel Freiraum Berlin, Wiener Straße 14, 10999 Berlin
Conditions for participation in the BIF week workshops:
Reservation of workshop in order of registration plus receipt of payment
Transfer of 50% of the workshop fee until dec. 31st (first come, first served!), second 50% until february 22nd of 2013.
The holistic improv experience: Body. Heart. Mind.
After the great success of the BIF days in 2012, the Berlin International Improv Festival IMPRO expands its „BIF“-section in 2013 and offers you a holistic approach to improvisation with workshops, shows, a lecture, a panel discussion and a jam session, focussing on the three dimensions „Body, Heart and Mind“.
With this topic we would like to set the focus on you, the improviser, as central element of the improvisation. How does each of those „parts of you“ affect your improvisation and what is the unique access to improvisation that each of them offers to you? By combining all three elements in one week you will not only be able to make distinctions between those forms of approach, but also to combine them and become a more versatile improviser.
Spending a full week as BIF-participants at the IMPRO 2013 will extend the possibilities to connect with fellow improvisers from around the globe and give you an insight to new developments and ideas that are currently discussed in the improv scene worldwide.
SCHEDULE
monday, march 18th
16.00 Welcome-Meeting at the Ratibor theatre
You receive your BIF-Week passes and all necessary information for the upcoming week
20.00 Show of IMPRO 2013
Choose from one of several festival shows
tuesday, march 19th
11.00 Workshop Section I, part 1 (3 hours)
20.00 Show of IMPRO 2013
Choose from one of several festival shows
wednesday, march 20th
11.00 Workshop Section I, part 2 (3 hours)
20.00 Show of IMPRO 2013
Choose from one of several festival shows
thursday, march 21st
11.00 Workshop Section II, part 1 (3 hours)
16.00 Lecture by Randy Dixon
20.00 Show of IMPRO 2013
Choose from one of several festival shows
friday, march 22nd
11.00 Workshop Section II, part 2 (3 hours)
20.00 Show of IMPRO 2013
Choose from one of several festival shows
saturday, march 23rd
11.00 Workshop Section III, part 1 (3 hours)
16.00 Panel discussion: „Cultural differences in improv“
20.00 Show of IMPRO 2013
Choose from one of several festival shows
sunday, march 24th
11.00 Workshop Section III, part 2 (3 hours)
16.00 BIF-Jam Session
LECTURE
Randy Dixon, often referred to as "The Godfather of improv", will talk to you about his very own interest and approach in improvisational theatre. Laying out the aims and possibilities that improv as an art form can offer, he will also talk about its limits and possible ways to overcome them.
WORKSHOPS
Section: Body. Bodytelling.
Workshop with Bruno Dreyfurst, Inédit Theatre, Strasbourg, France
We constantly speak with our body without realizing it. We nonverbally express much more than we think, as we actually almost have full conversations without talking. Bruno will place the emphasis of the workshop on how to be aware of the nonverbal „language“ of the body and how to have conversations of this other kind. Finally, the workshop will focus on the connection of this knowledge with the „spoken word“, making it a fruitful base of your improvisations.
Bruno is a member of the group „Inédit Théâtre“ in Strasbourg. He has been invited to the Berlin festival several times and also was a part of the French National Team during the Theatresports World Cup in Germany in 2006.
Basic skills in improvisation are necessary, preferably a minimum of two years of improv experience.
Section: Heart. What a feeling!
Workshop with Alieke van der Wijk, Troje, The Netherlands
Anything happening on stage is based on a feeling. But how can I become aware of it? How can I find this feeling and use it well-targeted within the scene? Alieke will be working on the development of several moods, emotions and feelings in this workshop and reflect on how they can change your scene. Love and Hate, Sorrow and Happiness, Euphoria and Disappointment – the emotion turns improv into theatre.
Alieke van der Wijk is a part of the group „Troje“ from Amsterdam where she and her partner Henk van der Steen work as improv-teachers, business-consultants and coaches with a special interest in the connection of theatre and communication.
Basic skills in improvisation are necessary, preferably a minimum of two years of improv experience.
Section: Mind. Why improvise?
Workshop with Maja Dekleva, Kolektiv Narobov, Slovenia
In the improv scene we tend to forget to ask ourselves WHY we are doing it. There is a lot of time devoted to HOW, little less to WHAT, FOR WHOM, WHERE and WHEN, but the most deprived area is the place of reason and intent. It doesn’t matter if our WHY is connected to fun, personal growth, political aspects or pure joy in art creation – it always makes sense to keep asking ourselves this question and shape our work depending on the answer. In the “mind” section of the workshop we will be reflecting on this question through discussion and stage work.
Maja Dekleva works in the field of contemporary theatre as a director and a performer. She is the artistic director of Kolektiv Narobov, an artistic collective based in Ljubljana, Slovenia, but working internationally in great expands.
Basic skills in improvisation are necessary, preferably a minimum of two years of improv experience.
PANEL DISCUSSION
On saturday, all BIF participants will be able to discuss with international colleagues, which impact cultural differences have on improvisation. Are there distinct „cultural“ styles of improv? The ability of improv to connect people around the world and support intercultural exchange is well-known in the improv world. How can this be used in other contexts? How can improv use that ability but also cultural diversity at the same time? 4 international artists from the festival cast of IMPRO will discuss this matter.
REGISTRATION
Cost: 295,- Euro
only with payment and registration until nov. 30th 2012: 280,- Euro
Including all elements of the BIF week.
If you would like us to book you a hotel room (together with fellow BIF participants), please contact us immediately for more information and booking. All participants who book a hotel through us will be accommodated at Hotel Freiraum Berlin, Wiener Straße 14, 10999 Berlin
Conditions for participation in the BIF days workshops:
Reservation of workshop in order of registration plus receipt of payment
Transfer of 50% of the workshop fee until dec. 31st (first come, first served!), second 50% until february 22nd of 2013.