Imagination has been one of the saddest casualties of the 21’st century (along with Opacity, a Sense of Humour, etc…) It is a collective cultural muscle that has atrophied with the over exercising of Facts, -which have a very important place in the world at large, of course- but, in the realm of creativity to stop at the Facts is to become a reporter, not an artist.
At Arts Letters and Numbers, End of the West will run a week-long workshop on Live Art Building, taught from each the basis of the three disciplines that we know best. Together, as a cohort, we will find, embody, and place stories in a created space, to dazzle our -as yet- unknown audience. We will resuscitate Imagination; giving it CPR by breathing into it Mystery and Wonder about this crazy planet we live on. We’re going to make stuff, that has never existed before…
When you remove your small self from the centre of the narrative, you become a maker of Myths, a sharer of Stories, and a teller of Tales … tales the likes of which could only have come from your unique self, as a part of this wide world.
End of the West is a group of artists who met around a backyard fire and came to know each other through the stories we told, and the tales we made up. As an architect (Dave Thomas) a Bharatanatyam Dancer (Avanash), and a physical-theatre maker (Jacqueline Loewen), each of us brought different arts languages to speak. As an Indigenous man, an Indian man, and a settler/Canadian woman, each of us bring different worlds to share. We connected over tales tall enough to see over the boundaries of our different lives, so we have made work that imagines beyond the boundaries of each of our traditional practices. Coming together, we’ve created trans-disciplinary Live Art, telling myths with the best tools that Space/Design, Movement/Live performance, and Dramaturgy/Theatre have to offer.
The culmination of this construction is building -and populating- a world which we wait expectantly for the audience to walk into.
Schedule of the program:
Day 1 – Theatre/dramaturgy: Let’s go story hunting
Day 2 – Dance/movement: Getting that story to drip down from your brain, into your body
Day 3 – Architecture/Space: Where you gonna put that story?
Day 4 – Live Art Making
Day 5 – Mystery work
Day 6 – Surprises
Day 7 – Presentation
Duration of residency
1 week
Accommodation
Arts Letters & Numbers provides options for both shared room and private room sleeping accommodation.
3 communal dinners are included in the program.
Disciplines, work equipment and assistance
The workshop is open to all disciplines.
Fees and support
$450 for shared room
$550 for private room
The program fee also includes three collective dinners together with Arts Letters & Numbers residents and local communit for the duration of the program.
Expectations towards the artist
Participants of the program are expected to pursue their individual creative endeavor as well as share their work or process with the group. This sharing can be in any format suitable to the work.
Everyone participating in an Arts Letters & Numbers program is expected to treat each other with care and consideration as well as be mindful of each other’s space.
Application information
By submitting the application form at the bottom of the program page.
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