October 21-November 5, 2023

The Useless Room's Releasing Performance into the Physical: Workshop/Classes 

A workshop for dancers and actors curious to investigate
action, physical listening, and spatial structuring
as a tool for trusting their authentic voice

led by THE USELESS ROOM’s
Anthony Nikolchev and Gema Galiana
with special guest Lukasz Przytarski

 

Saturdays and Sundays
10am-1pm (starting with 60-min drop-in class)
October 21-November 5, 2023
Odyssey Theatre Ensemble
2055 S. Sepulveda Blvd., LA

 

RELEASING PERFORMANCE INTO THE PHYSICAL is a workshop in two parts:
The first part of each day is a 60 minute drop-in “dance” (open to all performers) class, led by Lukasz Przytarski.
The remaining two hours will be a limited-size group devising physical performance training and creation lab.

The fee for a drop in class is $30 - class dates: 10/21, 10/22, 10/28, 10/29, 11/4 and 11/5. Class limit TBD.
The fee for the full 6-session lab (includes all drop-in classes) is $395 - this is 10am-1pm Sat. and Sunday from 10/21-11/5/2023. Full session limited to 14 participants.

Our workshop is guided by physical listening between the individual’s own body, their partners, and the space itself.
We work on anatomical specificity, coupled with dynamic, trusting, anarchic impulsive energy at the edge of one’s limits,
traveling through physical pathways and created obstacles. We use the terms impulse landscapes and layered obstacles to achieve authentic presence in performance.

 

FULL WORKSHOP: RESERVE YOUR SPOT HERE

DROP-IN CLASSES: RESERVE YOUR CLASS(ES) HERE

LEADER BIOS:

Anthony Nikolchev

is the co-artistic director of The Useless Room, a movement-based experimental performance group in Los Angeles, USA,
and is on the faculty at the California Institute of the Arts School of Theater. He is an award-winning, critically acclaimed performer between dance and theater,
film and live, including writing and directing projects that range from his own solo work to commercials commissioned by brands such as Jack in the Box and Amazon.

Notable performances include the upcoming “Party” directed by Sam Shay (Wuppertal, Germany) which features dancers from the Pina Bausch Tanztheater,
his self-generated solo performances, Look, What I Don’t Understand, (a “tour de force” by the LA Times and Best Actor at New York City’s United SOLO Festival)
and The Echoes Off The Walls Underground Are Louder Than Your Footsteps Above Me, (a second award of Best Actor at United SOLO in NYC)
which toured Los Angeles, New York City, Chicago, Moscow, Poland and Central Europe/Asia, Peter Brook’s Operetta,
The Tragedy of Carmen, at the San Diego Opera directed by Alexander Gedeon, the site specific critically acclaimed, The Day Shall Declare It,
in London and Los Angeles directed by Annie Saunders and Sophie Bortolussi, as well as frequent collaborations with Vivien Wood - a longtime dancer with DV8.
On film, he has been on many festival screens, including at the 2020 Settimana Internazionale della Critica in Venice’s Biennale with the film, Adam.

His company, The Useless Room, has toured India, the US, London, Europe and Edinburgh, also leading workshops for performers around the world,
from Warsaw to Mexico to the USA to India. Anthony (produced by The Useless Room) also wrote and directed the tryptic short film, Past Hope Now,
which can currently be seen on BooooooomTV. Anthony is on the director roster for the experiential commercial production company HeLo,
has lectured on the topic of “Human Rights and Political Theater” at St. Petersburg’s Smolny University,
and was a guest speaker at the 2017 Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity with his partner Gema Galiana and collaborator Annie Saunders from Wilderness.

Gema Galiana

is a performer, a theatre director and a photographer from Spain who works internationally. Based in LA from 2015, she founded Galiana&Nikolchev’s The Useless Room,
creating performances and training practices focusing on physicality as a main source of creation and expression. She was also a founding member of The Studio Matejka in residence at the Grotowski Institute,
where she worked with Vivien Wood and Milan Kozanek among others. She has created performances like The Women Decomposed, Ínsula and The Last One which was showcased at the
2018 International Theatre Olympics Festival, and Summerhall at the Edinburgh Fringe.

She has worked with Efi Birba and Aris Servetalis in Athens, Greece, with Vivien Wood in Exile in England and with TDU in Switzerland, among others.

As a photographer she has been awarded the prestigious First Prize Photo Impact  INN Impact Prizes for Nonprofit News Photos
and Southern California Journalism Awards.

Łukasz Przytarski

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is a dancer, choreographer, illustrator, independent artist., and a graduate of London's Rambert School of Ballet and Contemporary Dance.
He has performed on many international stages, including Brooklyn Academy of Music in New York, Stanford University’s Live Series, Mexico, Canada, Japan, Singapore and in numerous European theaters
such as Sadler's Wells in London, Théâtre du Châtelet in Paris, Teatro Argentina in Rome, Onassis Stegi in Athens, Opéra de Monte-Carlo in Monaco and the Royal Opera in Stockholm .
He has worked with many top artists in theater, film and other forms of art, including the recent performance, Transverse Orientation directed by Dimitris Papaioannou, as well as under the direction of
Krzysztof Warlikowski, Claude Bardouil, Mariusz Treliński, Agnieszka Holland, Krzysztof Garbaczewski, Krzysztof Grajper, Vivien Wood, Fotis Nikolaou, Daniel Ramos Obregón.
In his work, he combines movement with drawing and photography.
 

FULL WORKSHOP: RESERVE YOUR SPOT HERE

DROP-IN CLASSES: RESERVE YOUR CLASS(ES) HERE

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