Catherine Schaub Abkarian
Catherine studied at Beaux-Arts in Bourges and Paris, and was instructed in Kathakali (dance-theatre from South India) for five years in France and India. Her collaborations with Peter Schumann and the Bread and Puppet Theater have largely shaped her perspective on total theatre, encompassing acting, painting, dance, and music. She worked for seven years with Théâtre du Soleil (directed by Ariane Mnouchkine), where she choreographed and performed in the chorus of The Atrides. She has performed in productions by P.Golub, S.Purcarete, S.McBurney, S.Abkarian, V.Grail et al., and has appeared in various films.
Her dance works include Sappho by Agnès Delume and iTMOi with the Akram Khan Company. She collaborates regularly with the Canadian choreographer Marie Chouinard. She directed Gilgamesh-chantier de fouille, with Syrian actors and singers, presented in Syria, Yemen, Tunis and France (2006-2007).
She has led many workshops about the chorus, the dancing and singing body, emotion and energy.
Workshop “Study on Electra”
Attendees will be physically trained, while also learning the rhythm, steps, dance patterns, and acting techniques of Kathakali, an ancient south Indian form of dance art. Through games and exercises they will explore dissociation, breathing, presence and density, voice and songs of loss and exile, in order to create a common language.
The sole identity of the group is a poetic body. This workshop will focus on the chorus, on a body that has its own organic and cosmic laws, visible to all, yet mysterious. The chorus is the origin. The secret behind it is work.
The presence of the chorus is a political statement in itself. The chorus is an entity that avoids psychologism and individualism. The chorus is the matrix of all characters and situations.