The lecturer of Theatre and Performance Studies at Plymouth University Dr. Victor Manuel Ramirez Landron de Guevara had a workshop „The Uses and Understanding of the Body in Performance“ on November 28-30th, 2016 at the Klaipeda faculty of Vilnius Academy of Arts.
The workshop was attended by students from Lithuania and other Baltic States in collaboration with KUNO – a Nordplus network comprising 17 Nordic Baltic Fine Art Academies, an art university without walls.
This workshop explored the possibility of using the body of the performer as a ‘laboratory’ to generate knowledge of the culture in which that body is situated. There is a common tendency amongst many people to think about the body as a given, a ‘thing’ that we carry with us and that has little impact in the generation of knowledge. However, this workshop will contest the purely ‘utilitarian’ understanding of the body and propose that what we understand as our bodies is in fact a rather contested and problematic field. Aiming to resist mechanistic and Cartesian approaches to the body, participants will explore during these sessions the diverse meanings, roles, and functions of their bodies, thus allowing them to ‘use’ them in novel and (perhaps) unexpected ways.
Dr. Victor Manuel Ramirez Landron de Guevara scholarly work is centred on the study of intercultural performance practices, the use and understanding of the body in performance and the interrelationship between theory and practice. He also has 20 years experience as a performer and director working in México and England and has trained in a range of diverse disciplines embracing aspects of Eastern as well as Western theatre praxis
