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Lost Pianos?

What’s up with those pianos on campus?

CHOPIN WITHOUT PIANO, is a radically original theater production that comes to the US from Poland in October for its North American debut. Replacing the piano parts of Fryderyk Chopin’s two piano concertos with penetrating dramatic monologues, the work is staged by Michał Zadara, the most distinguished Polish director-playwright of his generation, and the consummate actress Barbara Wysocka, the founders of the acclaimed Polish theater company CENTRALA. Wysocka is expertly accompanied by The Chamber Orchestra of Philadelphia, who will be led by conductor Bassem Akiki from the Warsaw National Opera. In this transformative work, Wysocka hijacks the piano with her physical, virtuoso performance and proceeds to explore cultural, political, and philosophical tensions of the composer’s time that feel strikingly contemporary. Performed in Polish with English supertitles, this new form of concert theater captures the composer as a dynamic living presence within the full force of his music. During CENTRALA’s 2-week residency at Swarthmore College outside Philadelphia, CHOPIN WITHOUT PIANO will premiere on Saturday, October 24, 2015 in Lang Concert Hall on the Swarthmore campus. The production then moves to FringeArts in Philadelphia for four performances, October 28 through 31.

Go to: www.chopinwithoutpiano.com to find out more and follow the show on social media:

The Facebook Event Page is CHOPIN WITHOUT PIANO
https://www.facebook.com/chopinwithoutpiano?fref=ts&ref=br_tf

We look forward to seeing your pics, video, comments and questions all about this exciting production and the Lost Pianos appearing around Philly and the Swarthmore College campus.

Twitter hashtag #chopinwithoutpiano.

Instagram: https://instagram.com/chopinwithoutpiano/….

Have you found a Lost Piano? Take your selfies with any or all of them, or any pianos you can find. Just send your photos through Instagram by tagging them #chopinwithoutpiano. Your photo will show up directly under the header #chopinwithoutpiano. New pics are updated every 30 minutes.

Video: We’re eager to see your Lost Pianos videos. Upload your own Lost Pianos video to Vimeo by taking these 2 special steps: Under “Privacy” make sure “Anyone” can watch “Anywhere”, then click “Share”. Send us the embed link to your video to jtmclucas13@gmail.com to be uploaded to www.chopinwithoutpiano.com

Cooper presents: CHOPIN WITHOUT PIANO

Postcard Chopin without PianoUp next from the Cooper Series:
CHOPIN WITHOUT PIANO
Created by CENTRALA (Warsaw)
Directed by Michał Zadara ‘99
Text by Barbara Wysocka and Michał Zadara
Performed with the Chamber Orchestra of Philadelphia
Conducted by Bassem Akiki
Performances in Polish with English supertitles

On-Campus Performance: CHOPIN WITHOUT PIANO
Saturday, Oct. 24, 8 pm
Lang Concert Hall
Free and open to the public without advance reservation
For information: 610-690-3489 or concertmanager@swarthmore.edu

Philadelphia Performances: CHOPIN WITHOUT PIANO
Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Oct. 28-30, 8 pm nightly
Saturday, Oct. 31, 2 pm (with roundtable discussion afterwards)
FringeArts, 140 N. Columbus Blvd, Philadelphia
$25 general admission/$15 Student and 25-and-under
For tickets: FringeArts.com/215-413-1318

Michał Zadara and Barbara Wysocka are among the pre-eminent Polish theater artists of their generation, and are active internationally in both theater and opera. Zadara, who first studied theater and directing at Swarthmore, has emerged as Poland’s most significant and innovative director of the Polish classical and contemporary repertory. Wysocka’s accomplished acting and directing career was preceded by eight years of classical violin training in Germany. Together they founded CENTRALA to create works that cross traditional lines of performance and artistic practice.

Chopin Without Piano is a large-scale performance piece in which the piano parts for Fryderyk Chopin’s two piano concertos (Opus 11 in E minor and Opus 21 in F minor) are replaced by Wysocka performing a virtuosic monologue in Polish with English supertitles. Wysocka captures Chopin as a dynamic living presence, using fragments of the composer’s letters, biographies, and commentaries on his work. The orchestral scores will be performed by the Chamber Orchestra of Philadelphia, led by Bassem Akiki, a leading Polish conductor affiliated with Warsaw’s National Opera, who is making his American debut. Chopin Without Piano presents new possibilities for theater and music to intersect in performance, and reveals how classical composers and music remain alive and relevant for us today.

Considered a contemporary classic in Poland, Chopin Without Piano has been successfully performed in both concert venues and theaters. The performances of Chopin Without Piano in Swarthmore and Philadelphia mark the first international tour of the work, and will be followed by an engagement at Arts Emerson in Boston.

INTERACTIVE PANEL DISCUSSION:
“Chopin’s Voice: Chopin’s Music in Performance”
Sunday, Oct. 25, 3 pm
Lang Concert Hall
Participants: Michał Zadara, Barbara Wysocka, Bassem Akiki, Jeffrey Kallberg (University of Pennsylvania), David Kasusic (Occidental College)
Moderator: Barbara Milewski (Swarthmore College)

INTERACTIVE PANEL DISCUSSION:
“Chopin’s Body: Chopin as Theater”
Saturday, Oct. 31, 4:15 pm
FringeArts, 140 N. Columbus Blvd, Philadelphia
Participants: Michał Zadara, Barbara Wysocka, Bassem Akiki, Tamara Trojanowska (University of Toronto), Tom Sellar (Yale School of Drama)
Moderator: Allen Kuharski (Swarthmore College)

WORKSHOPS & MASTER CLASSES
Week of Oct. 19-23
Michał Zadara and Barbara Wysocka will lead a series of workshops with interested theater students on a schedule to be announced in October.

Bassem Akiki, together with Zadara and Wysocka, will lead a master class and discussion with the Swarthmore College Orchestra on Thursday, Oct. 22.

Major support for Chopin Without Piano has been provided by The Pew Center for Arts & Heritage, with additional support from the William J. Cooper Foundation, and the Adam Mickiewicz Institute (Warsaw). Chopin Without Piano at Swarthmore is presented by the Departments of Theater and Music & Dance, and is co-sponsored by the Dance Program and the Departments of English Literature, Political Science, and Modern Languages & Literatures.

CENTER, GRAVITY, RHYTHM: Week 3 with Ziya Azazi (9/28 – 10/4)

Cooper week 3 flyerDervish In Progress workshops with Ziya Azazi
4:30 – 6pm each day
9/28 – LPAC Boyer Studio (003)
9/29 – LPAC Troy Studio
9/30 – Matchbox Tarble Commons
10/1 – LPAC Troy Studio

plus

10/4 final workshop
1 – 5pm – LPAC Troy Studio

These workshops suggests a space for the participants where they can challenge their limits through whirling, stimulate their ability for the thrift of bodily energy, and through these abilities reach their goal movement within their own genre, spending less energy, with a higher level of awareness. Whirling is not the main objective of this workshop. The greater goal is to improve one’s physical, emotional and mental awareness through whirling and the exercises prior to that. It leads the participants to perceive and accept what is befalling throughout whirling, and reach an innovative movement by means of whirling.

More about Ziya Azazi…
Ziya Azazi was born in 1969 in Antakya, Turkey. Since 1994 he has been based in Vienna, Austria. He holds Austrian nationality and speaks Arabic, English, German and Turkish. From the late nineties up to the present, Ziya Azazi’s dance practices have been primarily based on experimental whirling and repetition, which reflect his personal, artistic, conceptual and motional analysis of traditional Sufi dance. He searches for the simultaneous representation of contradictory perceptions of physical awareness and a high state of ecstasy, experimenting the intensities of speed and tension made possible through whirling. He aims at transforming the usual whirling dervish image and the classical Sufi dance into a spectacular form, thus proposing possibilities for personal ritual, that do not rely on the boundaries of existing belief systems. His work searches for the Dervish at a high level of speed, tension and emotion, and creates a space for the viewer to encounter and experience these moods. Through his performances, Ziya Azazi seeks to represent the moment of realisation when the Dervish begins to enjoy his/her achievement through the joyful and ecstatic repetition of whirling: the looping and spinning which leads to trance.

In addition, please join the artists for discussions around showings of David Zambrano’s SOUL PROJECT (9/25 and 9/26). Saturday night (9/26) will be preceded by an artist conversation in Troy Studio, Lang Performing Arts Center with David Zambrano, nora chipaumire, and Ziya Azazi at 6pm, led by Charmian Wells.

There will also be an informal sharing of and conversation around each artist’s process, moderated by Charmian Wells featuring David Zambrano, nora chipaumire, and Ziya Azazi
at 1pm on 9/27 in the LPAC Troy Studio.

All events are free and open to the public without reservation. Space is limited and available first come, first served.

http://www.jumatatu.org/center-gravity-rhythm/ziya-azazi/

CENTER, GRAVITY, RHYTHM: Week 3 with Ziya Azazi (9/28 – 10/4)

Cooper week 3 flyerDervish In Progress workshops with Ziya Azazi
4:30 – 6pm each day
9/28 – LPAC Boyer Studio (003)
9/29 – LPAC Troy Studio
9/30 – Matchbox Tarble Commons
10/1 – LPAC Troy Studio

plus

10/4 final workshop
1 – 5pm – LPAC Troy Studio

These workshops suggests a space for the participants where they can challenge their limits through whirling, stimulate their ability for the thrift of bodily energy, and through these abilities reach their goal movement within their own genre, spending less energy, with a higher level of awareness. Whirling is not the main objective of this workshop. The greater goal is to improve one’s physical, emotional and mental awareness through whirling and the exercises prior to that. It leads the participants to perceive and accept what is befalling throughout whirling, and reach an innovative movement by means of whirling.

More about Ziya Azazi…
Ziya Azazi was born in 1969 in Antakya, Turkey. Since 1994 he has been based in Vienna, Austria. He holds Austrian nationality and speaks Arabic, English, German and Turkish. From the late nineties up to the present, Ziya Azazi’s dance practices have been primarily based on experimental whirling and repetition, which reflect his personal, artistic, conceptual and motional analysis of traditional Sufi dance. He searches for the simultaneous representation of contradictory perceptions of physical awareness and a high state of ecstasy, experimenting the intensities of speed and tension made possible through whirling. He aims at transforming the usual whirling dervish image and the classical Sufi dance into a spectacular form, thus proposing possibilities for personal ritual, that do not rely on the boundaries of existing belief systems. His work searches for the Dervish at a high level of speed, tension and emotion, and creates a space for the viewer to encounter and experience these moods. Through his performances, Ziya Azazi seeks to represent the moment of realisation when the Dervish begins to enjoy his/her achievement through the joyful and ecstatic repetition of whirling: the looping and spinning which leads to trance.

In addition, please join the artists for discussions around showings of David Zambrano’s SOUL PROJECT (9/25 and 9/26). Saturday night (9/26) will be preceded by an artist conversation in Troy Studio, Lang Performing Arts Center with David Zambrano, nora chipaumire, and Ziya Azazi at 6pm, led by Charmian Wells.

There will also be an informal sharing of and conversation around each artist’s process, moderated by Charmian Wells featuring David Zambrano, nora chipaumire, and Ziya Azazi
at 1pm on 9/27 in the LPAC Troy Studio.

All events are free and open to the public without reservation. Space is limited and available first come, first served.

http://www.jumatatu.org/center-gravity-rhythm/ziya-azazi/

Did you know we have a photo archive?

Did you know the Theater Department has a photo archive?  We have an extensive collection of images, programs and posters from past shows. Check it out!

https://www.facebook.com/pages/Swarthmore-College-Department-of-Theater/167097723340268?sk=photos_stream&tab=photos_albums

And for the much deeper past, you can connect with our archive through the Swarthmore library, if you’re an alum, faculty or staff!

Conversations with CENTER, GRAVITY, RHYTHM artists (9/25 – 9 /27)

Join us after David Zambrano’s SOUL PROJECT
on Friday, September 25, 2015
for a post-show conversation with the performers,
led by Charmian Wells.

PLUS on
Saturday, September 26, 2015
in the LPAC Troy Studio
at 6PM
take part in a pre-show (SOUL PROJECT) conversation with the artists
from the Center, Gravity, Rhythm series.

and
Sunday, September 27, 2015
stop by INFORMANCE,
an informal sharing around process
featuring conversations with David Zambrano, nora chipaumire, and Ziya Azazi moderated by Charmian Wells
1PM
LPAC Troy Studio

More details available at:
http://www.jumatatu.org/center-gravity-rhythm/
and on the Dance Program website and Facebook page.

Conversations with CENTER, GRAVITY, RHYTHM artists (9/25 – 9 /27)

Join us after David Zambrano’s SOUL PROJECT
on Friday, September 25, 2015
for a post-show conversation with the performers,
led by Charmian Wells.

PLUS on
Saturday, September 26, 2015
in the LPAC Troy Studio
at 6PM
take part in a pre-show (SOUL PROJECT) conversation with the artists
from the Center, Gravity, Rhythm series.

and
Sunday, September 27, 2015
stop by INFORMANCE,
an informal sharing around process
featuring conversations with David Zambrano, nora chipaumire, and Ziya Azazi moderated by Charmian Wells
1PM
LPAC Troy Studio

More details available at:
http://www.jumatatu.org/center-gravity-rhythm/
and on the Dance Program website and Facebook page.

CENTER, GRAVITY, RHYTHM: Week 2 with nora chipaumire (9/19-9/24)

9/19 & 9/20
Creative Workshop in Choreography workshop Cooper Series nora chipaumire flyer
1 – 5pm each day
LPAC Troy Studio

plus

Black and African (repertory class)
4:30 – 6pm each day
9/21 – LPAC Boyer Studio
9/22 – LPAC Troy Studio
9/23 – Matchbox Tarble Commons
9/24 – LPAC Troy Studio

These classes will serve as an introduction to internationally acclaimed choreographer/performer nora chipaumire‘s choreographic material used in development of her work, portrait of myself as my father. The work incorporates kinesthetic (physical), aural (vocal), and intellectual (scholarly) inquiries in the generation of physical language that helps situate more in the world(s) she inhabits. Choreographic material considers the following questions: what is portraiture? what is masculinity? what is the black body and what is its language? what is the African body and what is its language? This workshop is intended for advanced and mature dancers and includes themes particular to men of African descent.

More about nora chipaumire…
Born in Mutare, Zimbabwe and currently a resident of New York City, Nora Chipaumire has been challenging and embracing stereotypes of Africa and the black performing body, art, and aesthetic for the past decade. She has studied dance in many parts of the world including Africa (Senegal, Burkina Faso, Kenya, and South Africa), Cuba, Jamaica and the U.S. A graduate of the University of Zimbabwe’s School of Law, Chipaumire holds an M.A. in Dance and M.F.A. in Choreography and Performance from Mills College (CA).

In addition, please join the artists for discussions around showings of David Zambrano’s SOUL PROJECT (9/25 and 9/26). Saturday night (9/26) will be preceded by an artist conversation in Troy Studio, Lang Performing Arts Center with David Zambrano, nora chipaumire, and Ziya Azazi at 6pm, led by Charmian Wells.

There will also be an informal sharing of and conversation around each artist’s process, moderated by Charmian Wells featuring David Zambrano, nora chipaumire, and Ziya Azazi
at 1pm on 9/27 in the LPAC Troy Studio.

All events are free and open to the public without reservation. Space is limited and available first come, first served.

http://www.jumatatu.org/center-gravity-rhythm/nora-chipaumire/

CENTER, GRAVITY, RHYTHM: Week 2 with nora chipaumire (9/19-9/24)

9/19 & 9/20
Creative Workshop in Choreography workshop Cooper Series nora chipaumire flyer
1 – 5pm each day
LPAC Troy Studio

plus

Black and African (repertory class)
4:30 – 6pm each day
9/21 – LPAC Boyer Studio
9/22 – LPAC Troy Studio
9/23 – Matchbox Tarble Commons
9/24 – LPAC Troy Studio

These classes will serve as an introduction to internationally acclaimed choreographer/performer nora chipaumire‘s choreographic material used in development of her work, portrait of myself as my father. The work incorporates kinesthetic (physical), aural (vocal), and intellectual (scholarly) inquiries in the generation of physical language that helps situate more in the world(s) she inhabits. Choreographic material considers the following questions: what is portraiture? what is masculinity? what is the black body and what is its language? what is the African body and what is its language? This workshop is intended for advanced and mature dancers and includes themes particular to men of African descent.

More about nora chipaumire…
Born in Mutare, Zimbabwe and currently a resident of New York City, Nora Chipaumire has been challenging and embracing stereotypes of Africa and the black performing body, art, and aesthetic for the past decade. She has studied dance in many parts of the world including Africa (Senegal, Burkina Faso, Kenya, and South Africa), Cuba, Jamaica and the U.S. A graduate of the University of Zimbabwe’s School of Law, Chipaumire holds an M.A. in Dance and M.F.A. in Choreography and Performance from Mills College (CA).

In addition, please join the artists for discussions around showings of David Zambrano’s SOUL PROJECT (9/25 and 9/26). Saturday night (9/26) will be preceded by an artist conversation in Troy Studio, Lang Performing Arts Center with David Zambrano, nora chipaumire, and Ziya Azazi at 6pm, led by Charmian Wells.

There will also be an informal sharing of and conversation around each artist’s process, moderated by Charmian Wells featuring David Zambrano, nora chipaumire, and Ziya Azazi
at 1pm on 9/27 in the LPAC Troy Studio.

All events are free and open to the public without reservation. Space is limited and available first come, first served.

http://www.jumatatu.org/center-gravity-rhythm/nora-chipaumire/

NEW LOCATIONS – Cooper series CENTER, GRAVITY, RHYTHM

Please note, the following locations have changed from the LPAC Troy Studio to a NEW LOCATION for upcoming Cooper workshops:

Workshops and classes – NEW LOCATIONS
David Zambrano 9/16 – LPAC Frear
nora chipaumire 9/21 – LPAC 3 (small studio)
nora chipaumire 9/23 – Matchbox Tarble Commons
Ziya Azazi 9/28 – LPAC 3 (small studio)
Ziya Azazi 9/30 – Matchbox Tarble Commons

Please mark your calendars!