This is the beginning of a journey whose end is totally unknown and totally known.
– Thomas Prattki
IMPP Program 2022-2025
First Year
Towards an Integral Movement Practice
The first year of the program is comprised of two studio-based modules of five weeks each. The first module, The Practice of Embodiment, offers an introduction to the programs understanding of Embodiment as an integral movement practice, which seeks to foster a dialogue with and in between inner and outer worlds through the moving body. Aiming at the development of a more embodied sense of Self and an experience of personal and creative autonomy, the program wishes to prepare participants for the use of this practice in their own work as a performing artist and/or in educational settings or other environments for personal growth. The main focus during this first module will be on each participant’s own personal process through mask, myth and movement.
The second module, The Process of Individuation, launches the mytho-poetic core theme of the program, the Night Sea Journey, which talks through archetypal images about the transformative process of personal Individuation, as well as about the different stages of a creative process, whether in art or life.
The time in-between the study periods will give participants the possibility to enhance their understanding of the theoretical foundations of the program by working through their own practice and research. Throughout this process participants create a diary through paintings, drawings, writings and other means to document their personal journey and contribute to Module 3, Independent Field Research. At the end of the year participants will choose a format to share their diary with the entire group, whether through installation, movement or any other form of expression.
Module Details : - read more Module 1 The Practice of Embodiment : An Integral Approach 7th March 2022- – 8th April 2022 This 5-week study period will introduce participants to different practices of Embodiment with a particular focus on the teachings of Jacques Lecoq, Maria Hippius, Karlfried Graf Duerckheim and Frederick Matthias Alexander. It offers as well an insight into the writings of each of these practitioners in order to give participants a more differentiated understanding of the role of Embodiment in the development of Self realization and creative autonomy in the movement based performing, educational and healing arts. Using movement and improvisation, mask play and meditative practices, painting, drawing and sculpting, introducing a regular reflective practice in small groups and one on one body work with experienced practitioners, participants get to know during this first study period the fundamental cornerstones of the program’s approach to an Integral Movement Praxis. Module 2 The Process of Individuation 29th August, 2022 – 30th September 2022 The second module launches the program’s internal journey from the body I have to the body I am to the Body we are. Using the mytho-poetic matrix of the Night Sea Journey as a metaphor for the transformative process of Individuation (C.G. Jung), participants explore the phenomena at the beginning of a transition from one way of defining one’s own identity, personal or cultural values to another. Often these phases begin with a phase of deep listening to the body, whether one’s physical body or the body of a community/culture, where a necessity for transformation creates a state of ambiguity, anxiety and experiences of being “ïn-between”. These experiences can be highly disorientating, but they can also be seen as awakenings, which ask us to move into new and unfamiliar realms, allowing the development of new perspectives and the emergence of new meanings and forms. During this module participants will explore through mask, myth and movement, painting and sculpting and other forms of expression those creative forces within the body, which call us to move out of the familiar into the Unknown, and also those deep rooted patterns, which oppose the movement towards Self realization. Module 3 Independent Field Research To be completed by Jan 31, 2023 Module aims - show less
The modules aim to explore an initial approach to the concept of individuation, for professional development and/or personal growth, which puts its main focus on fostering a dialogue with the human body as an autonomous, creative, dynamic and responsive entity through movement in all its different forms. Fostering this dialogue aims to challenge a still prevailing understanding within western mainstream culture of the human body as an object I own and to move towards an experience of the body as the subject I am, encouraging a more embodied sense of autonomy and self awareness.
The module offers a platform for the development of artistic/performative/creative projects, which understand the dialogue with the human body as an integral part of the creative process. The projects will be informed by the richness of the background and the depth of the personal process of each participant.
A good traveller is not intent on arriving.
– Lao Tze
A good traveller is not intent on arriving.
– Lao Tze
Second Year
Towards an Integral Performance Practice
The Second Year is comprised of 2 studio-based modules of 5 weeks each. Both modules continue to follow the mythological structure of the HeroIne’s Night Sea Journey, deepen the Integral Movement Practice introduced in the previous modules of the first year and introduce an approach to the development of performative projects.
In Dialogue with the Shadow Body investigates ways of initiating a dialogue with shadow energies, which cannot be lived by an individual or an entire culture. Between Module 4 and Module 6 you will do performative research around your own thematic interests and aesthetics. You are invited to collaborate with other group members in case you wish to do so. The performative research will be documented and shared with the group before the beginning of module 6. An Approach to the Androgynous invites an exploration of new paradigms, which go beyond the either/or dichotomy and open the space for a redefinition of cultural values. Module 7, the Vade Mecum, is your process book which documents through use of different modes of expression (writings, drawings, videos, photos, recordings, collage, etc) the journey through the two years of the program. Each participant will create a Vade Mecum as a final performative project in the form of a digital artwork.
Module Details : - read more Module 4 In Dialogue with the Shadow Body March/April 2023, exact dates to be confirmed The Shadow Body is a metaphor for those realms within ourselves, where powerful and vital qualities which remain unlived for the sake of an ego ideal or particular cultural values, continue to exist in their repressed form. It is a place of hidden treasures, but also frightening dragons. During this study period participants are invited to confront the shadow dragons we find in ancient myths, contemporary culture and our personal lives. Particular importance is given to the exploration of stories around body/mind dissociation, the feminine/masculine split and the descent into the shadow abyss for the meeting with The Other. Module 5 Independent Performance Research To be completed by July 2023 Module 6 An Approach to the Androgynous August/September 2023, exact dates to be confirmed The inner journey aims at the reconciliation with vital archetypal forces such as the trickster, bringer of chaos, disorder and new visions. It also points at the emergence of new personal or cultural paradigms. Participants are invited to experiment with the creation of chaos as a possible trigger for the emergence of new forms, as well as with the creative distortion of personal boundaries, giving way to an encounter with the Androgynous Body and concepts such as fluidity, inter-being and the interdisciplinary. These concepts are then applied to the creation of performance projects at the end of the study period. Module 7 Vade Mecum To be completed by January 31, 2024 Module Aims - show less
Students are invited to initiate individual either artistic and/or pedagogical projects, integrating the insights into their own process of individuation. The development of these projects will happen under the supervision of the teaching team. The projects will be shared with the group.at the end of each module.
While the first four weeks of each module continue to focus on the deepening of each participant’s personal process, the final three weeks of both modules will allow for an exploration of ways to apply one’s own personal process to artistic and/ or pedagogical settings.
If you want to knock on new doors, you have to close the old ones first.
If you want to knock on new doors, you have to close the old ones first.
Third Year
Towards an Integral Leadership Practice
Level 3 is comprised of a final module / The Return, which concludes the mythological Night Sea Journey and proposes an investigation of the vision of the Integral Body. This entails new leadership practices for work with individuals and groups, for one’s own creative process as well as for one’s personal life practice. The independent research project , which each participant will create, perform and document in their home country or at a location of their own choice, completes the program. The research project offers an opportunity to apply the vision of integral leadership practice to a field of one’s own interest. The independent research project can be an artistic project, an educational project or any other project, which allows participants to apply their research over the length of the entire program to a project of their choice.
Module Details : - read more Module 8 Integral Visions This study period concludes the mytho-poetic Night Sea Journey with the return of the individuated/autonomous HeroIne to the community/the real world. Her task is now to support the emergence of the Integral Body, which embraces the process of differentiation, integration and individuation as a movement towards the realization of the Body as a vast, interrelated field, which replaces the dichotomy of inner and outer worlds with an experience of an ever evolving integral Self. The mytho-poetic theme of the return to the community opens as well a space of experimentation with the concept of Integral Leadership, in the field of the performing, educational and healing arts as well as in one’s own personal life, and prepares the participants for the final part of the programme, the independent research project. Module 9 Final Project This final module allows participants to apply their experiences to a project of their own choice, whether it is an artistic, educational or academic project. While the participants can choose where the project will take place, they will be in regular contact with the team in Berlin. At the end of the final year the group will meet to culminate the work of the programme through presentation of their personal research and its application to their own process, context and practice. Personal research project You will propose a personal research project related to your particular field of interest. This final research project offers the opportunity to develop your own original work around your own interests and aesthetics. It may focus on culturally specific practices, the development of new modes of training and exposition of practice in specific environments, new constellations and languages of training or performance creation, the manifestation of developing innovative practices in relation to original or existing material and contexts. The project will take the form of either a practical or performance-based event. Vade Mecum Drawing on the style and aesthetics you have developed in the Vade Mecum you will create an artefact directly related to your personal project. This means that we expect the text to be not about the work you create, but rather it is constructed alongside and as part of it. This writing will reflect upon and reveal the process of creation. - show less
There are two parts for completion of this Independent Personal Project