Empowering through Performing Arts

Culture is not a static state, but a process that is closely linked to power relations, their change and various social influences. A power-critical attitude is crucial to recognising inequality and discrimination.

Relationships in intercultural work are often characterised by status and legal inequality, a wealth gap and projections. We work on recognising these – instead of making them taboo and talking them down – and finding ways to reduce the power imbalances and also to ‘endure’ the differences without actively making use of them.

We deal with

• with the historical and political framework conditions that have created and still maintain the power relations and critically analyze colonialism and today’s concepts of ‘development’, ‘development policy’, ‘development aid’ and volunteer work.
• different perspectives and experiences of course participants from the South and the North. They flow into the direct concrete rehearsal work and support the participants’ own reflection process.
• (theoretical, practical, theatrical) with racism and sexism. Dealing with resources and labour relations and our (western) footprint in the world are also included.
• with relationships in intercultural work: these are often characterised by status and legal inequality and a wealth gap. We are working on recognising this and instead of making it a taboo, talking it down or pretending it doesn’t exist. This includes working with different languages, language mediators (translators) and how to communicate even without a common language, as well as communicating with local structures – in order to establish connections instead of having a divisive effect.

Creating a basis of trust requires honesty, long-term groundwork, solidarity and commitment and is not just there because you say so and want it. Clarifying one’s own cultural development, motives, motivation and an awareness of one’s own starting position are the basis. We deal with the questions:

• Why do I want to do this work? What is my own self-image and what is my actual motivation and starting point for working and/or wanting to work in this field?
• What prejudices, attributions and intentions do I harbour openly or hidden within me? What social position (and power) do I bring to the work/group?
• What are my strengths and resources?
• How do I deal with gender, GBG/SGBV and does my approach change in unfamiliar environments?
• What is my understanding of being the initiator/director/performer of an artistic work/theatre work?
• How great is my ability to question myself?

In order for everyone to be able to engage with all their differences and move as freely as possible and to inspire and cheer each other on in their artistic work, a group/ensemble needs a basis for an inspiring and open rehearsal process. We explore the questions:

• what is the difference between determining, directing and enabling? What are the underlying goals of my theatre work and can these be reconciled with the ensemble, with the people in the group? Is the rehearsal process in harmony with the performance – path and goal?
• What if I don’t speak a common language with my working partners and/or participants?
• Where do I support the participants in a group and where can I challenge them? Where are my own limits in artistic work with a group/ensemble and can I recognise the limits of others? Am I aware of the tension between a professional attitude and giving myself as a whole person and also between my own political commitment and cultural work?
• Is it possible to practise empathy and how can contradictions be endured?
• How can the different aesthetic perspectives/artistic forms combine or stimulate each other? Can I let go of my standards of judgement and / or change them and open myself up to the new or is my habitual way of seeing things the yardstick for artistic quality?
• How can I give impulses to set the other person’s creative process in motion without imposing my ideas of art on them? How can characters/figures leave the cliché and create their own figures – and where can I work with the cliché without cementing a point of view? How can prefabricated images (mostly created by the media world) be abandoned – transformed – and how can one’s own creativity/ imagination be uncovered – stimulated? How can the space for personal initiative be encouraged?
• Do I recognise power structures in the group and how can I find ways to change them productively? How can I recognise smouldering conflicts, redirect them and transform them into creative potential/play? How do I deal with conflicts between individuals within the group?

We look at the use of physical exercises in other cultures and context-related physical exercises. Creating trust through the body. This has the following components:

• How do I move in space? Artistic freedom in the context of respecting different cultural customs.
• Working with the voice and the body – e.g. body percussion
• What can be recognised and expressed how and where through the body
• Dealing with stress and trauma – activation and relaxation
• Dealing with rituals within artistic work
• Emergency kit with different exercises

We deal with the consequences of violence and trauma and immerse ourselves in resource-strengthening trauma pedagogy. To do this, we work with a model that is understandable for everyone and is designed to regulate tensions and better master everyday life, thus building up resources that help to process experiences and traumas. We work on the following aspects in an action-orientated way:

• What is trauma and where does it settle?
• How do we counter dissociative behaviour?
• How can we strengthen resilience and prevent re-traumatisation?
• How can we learn to be mindful of our own resources?
• Getting to know theatre tools for activating and strengthening life forces