Residential Training

7 am – 7:30 am: Eye Exercises

Eyes are an important medium of communication, this session will have a series of exercises for the muscles around the eyes, to enable the participant to develop focus and energy in the eyes. The results of this should be evident by the end of 10 days.

7:30 am – 8 am: Centres
Body exercises for warm up and flexibility. These exercises will be taught and practiced which also reinforce recognition of certain centers in the body which initiate the dynamics in the body. The alignment of the body in the structures and stances of these exercises brings to awareness not only that these centers exist but also where they are located. This awareness can contribute to the creation of new movements and a new movement vocabulary as well as give the performer a control over everyday movements to make them performative. This aspect of the exercises, of putting to performative use the discovered centers, would be taken up in the 5pm to 7 pm session everyday.

10 am -12 noon: Breath & Emotion
Adishakti has evolved a purely physical craft for the stimulation of emotion and psychological expression. As breath is the physical expression of thought and emotion, it implies that a particular emotion has a particular pattern of breath. In Koodiyattam practice there existed the knowledge of 8 patterns of breath corresponding to the 8 emotions mentioned in the classical Sanskrit treatise on performance, the Natya Shastra. It is apparent that this codification emerges from a study of breath behaviour in everyday life.

In this session, participants would be taught the 8 patterns of breath for the 8 emotions of Koodiyattam and to explore the various degrees of emotions to communicate even the subtleties of heightened emotions. The participants would start discovering the movement of the facial muscles, eyes for every emotion and learn how to naturally shape or carve the face with a backing of pure breath.

There will be a 10 minute tea break between the two sessions.

12 noon – 2 pm: Voice
This session would assist in understanding the energy that vowels and consonants have in shaping a word. From there on, understanding the origin of sound in the body and understanding the energy of the sound of the word and its role in releasing significance. This session will provide a series of breath exercises that will help open up the voice, bring awareness to the passage of the air that produces the sound, opens the nasal cavity and helps to understand how to produce different pitches that will come out of exploring one’s vocal range. The session will also teach you methods of breathing and holding breath to produce a qualitative sound.

2 pm – 3:30 pm: LUNCH

 3:30 pm – 4:30 pm: Rhythm
Adishakti has extensively researched the concept of rhythm.  By playing the beats on the Koodiyattam drums, the participants will learn to keep the rhythm that is mandatory for every performer. The training of the drums will enhance the sense of rhythm in body and text.

In Koodiyattam, the rhythm that accompanies the performer is constant and feeds the performer. It feeds her inner rhythms. The breath that lies behind the expression in Koodiyattam, is one with the rhythm. Each expression, each gesture, each movement of the eye is informed by a breath which has a corresponding rhythm. If each emotion and thought has a pattern of breath then each breath has a rhythm pattern.

4:30 pm – 5:30 pm: Underwater Exercises
In this session, a series of exercises will be taught to understand the internal movements that take place in producing sound, build more resonance to voice and awakens the psychological centres of the body.

There will be a 30 minute tea break.

6 pm – 9 pm: Rhythm and text
Introduction to the concept of rhythm, seen or abstract. Rhythm/time and its
application in physical action, text and emotion. This session would be devoted to extending the learning of rhythm as primary governing force in every human action. Participants would be given the opportunity to study what happens when every human action has an inherent rhythm and measure. Time would be spent on improvisations based on this conscious awareness of rhythm.

9 pm : DINNER

Rest for the next day

To initiate the process of booking for your seat in our SOPE training session, please send us a Short CV and Statement of Interest letter with a Mugshot by email. For further correspondence please write to us or call using any of the following methods:

email: sopeadishakti@gmail.com 

Or

VOICE MESSAGE on WhatsApp: 

Subodha +91 96322 01295 / Nimmy +91 94875 14962

Or
Write to us

As seats are limited, send in your applications early. On hearing from us regarding your selection, please follow up with further details requested. We do not follow any selection process and we allot seats to those who complete the application process on a first come first serve basis.

On contributing towards these training sessions please note our wire transfer / bank transfer details given below:

(We request foreign nationals to inform us of the source of your transfer before initiating any transaction.)

Name of Account Holder: Adishakti Laboratory for Theatre Art Research
Account Number: 40880092536
Account Type: Current Account
Name and Address of Bank: State Bank Of India, New Delhi Main Branch , FCRA Cell , 4th Floor ,11 Sansad Marg, New Delhi-110001
IFSC Code Number: SBIN0000691 
Payments by demand draft should be payable to ALTAR or Adishakti and posted to:
Adishakti Laboratory for Theatre Art Research, Vanur Taluk, Auroville Post, Irumbai Panchayat, Villupuram District,Tamil Nadu – 605 101

Before making either wire transfer or demand draft payment please intimate us at
the following coordinates:

Email : sopeadishakti@gmail.com

Sooraj +91 97179 63938

You can reach Adishakti from Pondicherry Airport by autorickshaw. The flights are available from Hyderabad and Bangalore. Connecting flights from other cities are also available. You can even reach Adishakti from Chennai airport and Chennai main train station by road. It is a three hour journey by bus and a two and a half hour journey by taxi. From Bangalore there are direct buses to Pondicherry which take approximately seven hours.

The Adishakti Campus is 8 kilometers from Pondicherry and is 100 metres off the Chennai-Tindivanam-Pondicherry highway/ the Bangalore-Tindivanam-Pondicherry highway.

Should participants need to be picked up from Chennai we could arrange taxis which would meet them and bring them directly to Adishakti. A taxi charge for such a pick up is approximately Rs.2900/-

Know anyone who might be interested in this workshop? Maybe a friend or a promising candidate you would like to sponsor?

We are here to help. Get in touch with us to discuss your specific requirements. From questions concerning accommodation to food and travel, we will do our best to make your candidate as comfortable and involved as possible.