Toolbox 3
An intensive course in choreography, theater, research and production
It's for you
It is for you if you are a Dancer and mover, Theatre practitioner, Improv artist or anyone looking to move into choreography, anyone looking to manage productions , one who has done the previous Toolbox series or equivalent intensives
Course
This course is designed to take you through contemporary movement, physical theatre, vocabulary development, research work, choreographic tools and administrative and managerial aspects related to a production.
Faculty
The faculty is from across the country and we are honoured to have Diya Naidu, Nakula Somana, Sujay Saple, Avantika Bahl Goyal, Masoom Parmar and Shiva Pathak on board for this course, along with Aastha Gulati, Director of Dhurii.
admissions open
We have officially opened admissions now – please send us an email on info@dhurii.com to apply, with the following details:
Name, Age, Place of residence, Experience in performing arts (dance, theatre, movement), Reason/Motivation for joining & Batch preference (weekday mornings/late evenings or Weekends).
The course begins on 25 September and admissions close on 3 September – so please apply soon as it will take us time to process the applications.
We will also be announcing two 50% scholarship spots based on merit – if you are keen on applying for this – please mention that in the email along with a letter of recommendation from your previous teacher.
3rd
Sept: Last Date
25th
Sept: We Begin
50%
scholarship
23rd
Dec: Graduation
Masoom Parmar
"BEHIND THE DANCE SCENE" is a 10 hour module takes participants on a quick journey to the workings that go into the making of a dance piece. Focusing on recording choreographies, dramaturgy and dance production management the sessions are designed with a classroom approach and include discussions on some famous choreographies and group activities and also touching upon the concept of funding.
Masoom Parmar is a Bangalore based dancer, arts manager and curator. Trained in Bharatanatyam under Guru Kiran Subramanyam and Sandhya Kiran, his dance is marked by his emotive skills and neat geometry. As an arts manager, he has worked with some of the finest artistes for the country viz., Tanusree Shankar, Mayuri Upadhya, and Rukmini Vijayakumar to name a few. As a curator, he looks at tradition with a modern mind, to explore the past to create a new, imaginative future.
Avantika Bahl Goyal
"Research and Ideation": Avantika will work with movement principles that facilitate the development and creation of a movement language. Using various media as points of entry, the module will be about critically observing and deconstructing ways of approaching and building upon an idea.
Avantika Bahl is a dance practitioner based in Mumbai where she makes her own work and teaches. She studied at the London Contemporary Dance School and has previously made a full-length work and two short solos. She also recently performed Meandering, a site-specific solo in collaboration with an architect for the opening of ‘When is Space’, an exhibition on Contemporary architecture in Jaipur. She is faculty at Future School of Performing Arts. She is currently touring with Say, What? her new full length work that she premiered in March 2017.
Sujay Saple
Sujay Saple is Artistic Director of Shapeshift – a dance-theatre company based in Mumbai. He has choreographed 7 original works which have performed at various festivals and vital venues around India and received rave reviews. He has been an independent performer, director, designer and workshop conductor for over 15 years with more than 40 collaborative performance projects.
He is a recipient of the Ministry of Culture-Government of India fellowship for performance research and practice. He has also received the Art Think South Asia (ATSA) fellowship. For the last few years, Sujay's focus with Shapeshift has been to galvanize, within Mumbai's existing cultural bouquet, a vibrant supportive space for contemporary dance, physical theatre, movement work and experimental performance.
Dance theater choreography tools: The sessions will focus on performance 'making' - on thinking, devising and creating movement work from thematic ideas/concepts/texts. Participants will explore ways of developing processes and approaches which suit each choreographer's vision, as well as a specific project's needs. The classes will also involve improvising and creating material through emotional responses, as well as structuring and layering the material. Using various tools and exercises from dance-theatre, the participants will be radically re-imagining their ideas and articulating them in visual and physical idioms.
Nakula Somana
CONCEPT CHOREOGRAPHY: The classes will cover release based floor work with focus on softening, breathing and working with the joints. These would be followed by exercises from dance and martial arts across the floor; both stationary and dynamic with a look at different patterns. Lunges from Kalari, Flocking, Jumps and Combinations that are fluid and easy to engage with would make up the mid section of the class. Falls, sweeps and exercises would bring dynamics to this.
Creative tasks using flicking, gestures, weight sharing and the student’s conceived movement vocabularies will be used to make small sections of dances so that they understand how they link movements, use dramaturgy, work in unison and so on.
Nakula Somana began training in dance at open community classes in India and the UK. Completed a foundation course in Dance in the UK. He has worked constructing pieces over the years and has been a part time faculty on certificate programs in dance at the Attakkalari Centre for Movement Arts, The Terence Lewis Dance Scholarship Trust and teaches a credit course at Christ College Trust. He is also a founder member of The Kha Foundation. He is interested in community arts, finding various resources for the arts and envisages a world where participation and access to making culture is easy and open!!!
Shiva Pathak
Arts Management: The workshop will help participants learn more about administrative, legal and funding matters related to performance. It will touch upon aspects such as strategic planning, fundraising, marketing and financial planning.
Shiva Pathak is an actor, freelance consultant and arts manager. She has worked in the theatre for over 15 years in various capacities. Her tryst with performing arts started during her college days as an actor and production manager, and since she has worked on projects with some of India’s leading arts organisations – Attakkalari Centre for Movement Arts, Ranga Shankara and India Foundation for the Arts – before starting Sandbox Collective in 2013.
She is on the Board of Toto Funds the Arts, which nurtures and encourages young artists in India. She is also an Art Think South Asia Fellow 2016-17.
Diya Naidu
'Dance comes from life ... And goes back to it '
Her sessions will be focussed on this idea. On finding the connections between dance or movement and real lived life. We will explore not only the contemporary context but also the evolutionary and personal ones. "How do we say what we need to say in our work, using what we need to say it?"( the medium, skill, form and language).
She encourages us to see the body and movement as part of or one of the many tools available to us as performance makers. They will also touch upon what goes into our practice as artists in general and how that practice adapts and moulds itself according to different projects and pieces we may work on.
Diya Naidu studied classical ballet, ISTD jazz, choreography techniques, physical theatre and Kathak before doing her diploma in Movement Arts and Mixed Media from Attakkalari Centre For Movement Arts, Bangalore.
Her latest productions include Rorschach Touch, which began in 2014 and became a full fledged production in 2017 July, with an eight member cast, the "HANDS AND FACE PROJECT" a solo piece, using film where Diya performs the piece and has collaborated with filmakers and Musicians. This piece has traveled across 6 cities and won awards.
She also choreographed THE COMPANY THEATRE (Mumbai)’s KHWAAB SA. This production is a rendition of Shakespeare’s MIDSUMMER NIGHT’S DREAM directed by Atul Kumar. It is the first of its kind of production in India, bringing together theatre and contemporary dance in a unique and visceral way.
Aastha Gulati
Aastha is a professional dancer-choreographer since 2000 and is a versatile dancer having learnt various styles including Kathak, Ballet, Contemporary, Lyrical Jazz, Latin and Belly dance. She has traveled far and wide to places like Broadway Dance Centre, New York, to Thailand integro 2016 for 30 days for flying low and passing through training with David Zambrano, to Edinburgh to train under Tess Letham and under Cristina in dance Italia for one week. She has since choreographed, performed and taught widely across a wide variety of prominent organisations, stages and countries.
She collates technique with a lot of narrative, expression and experimental movement. Contemporary technique, floor work, cathartic movement etc remain a favorite of hers and her classes will center around them.
Memories and impulses: Aastha will be tapping into emotional stories and triggers to observe what the body produces and does in the moment. Moving into role plays and working with the five senses, the idea will be to break patterns of movement and life and see what comes up. She will also be conducting technique based physical movement sessions in the course.
Get ready to create your own production
With 7 teachers, 3 months and 120 hours of training, the course is just what you need to get started / move up in your choreography and productions. So, jump in. :)