Devising as a Process of Inclusion and Developing Group Harmony
Sanja Krsmanović Tasić
choreographer, dance-theatre practitioner, Serbia
WORKSHOP
At Athens International Conference "Theatre/Drama & Inclusive Education"
21-23 of March 2025
Hellenic Theatre/Drama & Education Network (TENet-Gr)
Language: English
Limited number of participants
Short description
Many performance art projects involving vulnerable groups need a development of a specific methodology that could help with individual expression, visibility and also developing group dynamics, balance and harmony, especially in mixed groups.
Sanja has been developing such methodologies for more than twenty years, from the first inclusive project of Roma and Serbian children and youth she initiated AKAVA SEM AMEN/This is who we are in 2004, through being a co-choreographer of the inclusive dance performance “Curve for Gauss” with disabled dancers, workshops with persons with physical, sensory disability and PID with public presentations in Serbia and Montenegro, up to the Gender Drama ID project in 2023/24 of developing a drama methodology on genders issues for people with intellectual disability.
The methodology of devising has been proven as valuable in this work, as it allows individuals to express through their own physical vocabulary and search their own inner landscapes. The level of skill and knowledge is not essential, as the workshop gives space for individual expression, but also a space for challenging personal boundaries and restraints. As the language we are researching is the physical and body language, we do not need words and vocal skills, but can rely on non-verbal communication, that is sometimes essential for working in inclusion and perhaps non verbal individuals. This work is valuable not only as work with vulnerable groups but also in classrooms, work with participants of all generations, including seniors, as we live in a sedentary culture, with inactive bodies. The physical activity that is proposed is often full of cliches and “empty movements”.
Another aspect of the work will be in developing group dynamics and the spirit of an ensemble, a place of solidarity, support, safety and base for free expression. Having been for many decades part of a theatre laboratory, Sanja finds these skills essential as a holistic approach to drama and dance education.
Everybody is welcome to join this workshop, regardless of theatre background.
Please note that the workshop includes exercises that may involve physical contact.
Sanja Krsmanović Tasić, in her more than 40 years dedicated work in the realm of theatre and dance, has been working with masters of contemporary XX and XXI st century theatre: Peter Brook’s Yoshi Oida, Eugenio Barba’s Torgeir Wethal, the master of biomechanics Genadi Bogdanov, Grotowski’s Rena Mirecka and Zygmut Molik and others. The multidisciplinary workshop will include work on physical expression in the borderline of theatre and dance. She has been teaching ART OF DEVISING workshops in many countries in the last decade, including Greece.