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

We take 30 participants per batch and we usually come through a waiting list based on a first-come, first-served basis.

To initiate the process of booking your slot in the next upcoming batch please send an email with the following attachments.This will be your application (Please send all attachments in PDF format)

E-mail ID: sopeadishakti@gmail.com

1. Your CV
2. A Mugshot/picture of yourself
3. A Letter of Intent stating why you want to do the workshop
4. A 2-min performance video. This can be any audition reel you’ve done, a snippet of any performance or a video where you introduce yourself

Other details, such as fees and accommodation, can be shared only at the time of registration.

In case you don’t hear back by email, you will automatically be added to the waiting list of the next batch, and you will get a response when we start the registrations.

For more queries you can send a VOICE MESSAGE on WhatsApp to: 

Subodha +91 96322 01295 / Nimmy +91 94875 14962

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.