The Pocha Nostra Performance Workshop

Since 1993, Gómez-Pena and
members of the Pocha Nostra performance troupe have conducted
cross-cultural/cross-disciplinary/cross-generational workshops involving
performance artists, actors, dancers and students from diverse ethnic
communities, generations and artistic backgrounds.
During the time of Workshop,
two parallel processes take place:  For
5–8 hours a day, Participants are exposed to La Pocha’s performance
methodology, an eclectic combination of exercises sampled from various traditions
(experimental theater and dance, Suzuki, ritual performance, shamanism, etc.).
Parallel to this hands-on process, the group theoretically analyzes the
creative process, the issues addressed by the work, its aesthetic currency,
cultural impact and political pertinence.
If conditions allow, at the
end of the process there can be a public performance open to the local
community.

The objectives of this
educational project are:
•              To feed / stretch emerging artists and inquisitive
students, helping them to sharpen and develop their performance and analytical
skills in dialogue with like-minded cultural radicals.
•              To create temporary communities of rebel artists from
different disciplines, ages, ethnic backgrounds, gender persuasions, and
nationalities, in which difference and experimentation are not only accepted
but encouraged
•              To develop new models for relationships between artists
and communities, mentor and apprentice, which are neither colonial nor
condescending.
•              To find new modes of relating laterally to the ‘other'
in a less-mediated way, bypassing the myriad borders imposed by our
professional institutions, our religious and political beliefs, and
pop-cultural affiliations. To experience this, even if only for the duration of
the workshop, can have a profound impact in the participant’s future practice.
•              To discover new ways of relating to our own bodies. By
decolonizing and then re-politicizing our bodies, they can become sites for
activism and embodied theory; for memory and reinvention; for pleasure and
penance.
•              To raise crucial questions: Why do we do what we do?
Which borders do we wish to cross and why? Which are the hardest borders to
cross both in the workshop and in our personal lives? How do we define our
multiple communities, and why do we belong to them? What is the relationship
between performance, activism, pedagogy and our everyday lives? What about the
relationship between the physical body and the social body?
•              To seek a new hybrid and interdisciplinary aesthetic,
reflective of the spirit and tribulations of our times, and of the concerns of
each participant.
•              To empower participants as individuals to become
civic-minded artists.
•              To make performance art pertinent to a new generation
of potential activist-artists. They may eventually have to save us from the
very monsters and pitfalls that we, their arrogant forefathers, have either
created or allowed to happen.

You are kindly asked to send us not later than by October 3rd 2011 a statement of purpose, a
brief biography, contact info (email and telephone number) and a sample of your
work to contact@cityofwomen.org.
Participation is limited in number and free of charge. An application is
mandatory.
Due to a limited participation we reserve the right to selection of the
workshop participants. All applicants will be informed on the selection results
selection by email until Friday, October 7th. For additional information please
contact +386 (0)40 816 448 (Barbara Hribar).

Concept: La Pocha Nostra (Guillermo Gómez-Peña, Violeta Luna, Erica
Mott)

Production: Association for the Promotion of Women in Culture – City of Women; In collaboration
with: Emanat Institute, Old Power Station - Elektro Ljubljana.