Graham For Actors
“Nothing is more revealing than movement.”
Summer Camp in Venise, Italy (July 13-16)
Following the success of its tour, Graham For Actors is delighted to invite you to the international acting summer camp for its first edition in Venice, Italy.
For any inquiries, please contact us at summerintensive@grahamforeurope.com
COMPLETE PROGRAM
4 intensive days, 5 hours/day (3 days of practice, with 2 hours of Graham Technique and 3 hours of acting) + 1 day of events (colloquium & presentations). The Summer Camp is integrated into Graham For Europe’s Summer Intensive, offering participants free events with practitioners and researchers exploring and pursuing Martha Graham's legacy.
Location: The courses will take place at Venezia Balletto in Mestre (Via Rossetto, 5, 30172 Venice)
Language: The entire program is conducted primarily in English, with the possibility of acting in French, Italian, Spanish, German, and Arabic. All teachers speak several languages.
COST OF THE INTENSIVE
European Citizens: 300 euros / Non-European Citizens: 250 euros
HOW TO APPLY?
Send a 1-minute video presentation (in English/ French/ Arabic/ German/ Spanish/ Italian) along with:
Demo reel or/and CV
Event: bit.ly/G4AC_event24
Previous workshops
CAIRO 🇪🇬 @ MAAT|CDCC (Nov 13-16, 2023)
TOULOUSE 🇫🇷 @Université de Toulouse-Jean Jaurès (November 9-10, 2023)
PARIS 🇫🇷 @Micadanses (July 19-21, 2023)
BEIRUT 🇱🇧 @Notre Dame University-Louaize (May 31-June 2, 2022)
PARIS 🇫🇷 @Micadanses (May 14-15, 2022)
TOULOUSE 🇫🇷 @Université de Toulouse-Jean Jaurès (April 9-10, 2022)
DESCRIPTION OF THE PROJECT
GRAHAM FOR ACTORS is a Dance & Acting workshop imagined by Isabelle Zighondi, based on the dance technique of the American choreographer and modern dance pioneer Martha Graham. It is an accessible dance practice that offers a new physiological approach to acting that allows for emotional expression that truly captures the essence of the moment.
«Learn not to dance, but to move, to link body and emotion, soul and thought”.
That is why Hollywood actors and film directors came to work with Martha Graham, including Woody Allen, Ingrid Bergman, Claire Bloom, Kirk Douglas , Bette Davis, Gregory Peck, Liza Minelli, among others.
Isabelle Zighondi is a French-Lebanese Film-TV and stage actress and dancer. She starred in several feature films, such as the French movie Skies of Lebanon (2021) in La Semaine De La Critique de Cannes and directed by Chloé Mazlo.
Isabelle was born in Paris and grew up in Lebanon, mastering four languages: French, Arabic, English and Italian. She graduated with a degree in audio-visual cinema from USEK. During her studies, she danced and performed with the Caracalla Dance Theater in the most prestigious theaters in the world before returning to Paris to continue her Master’s Degree in Audiovisual Cinema at the Pantheon Sorbonne Paris 1 University.
She works in major productions both in France and internationally. Her latest works in the Arab World are Flight 422, produced by MBC Studios and October Films, directed by Ashley Pearce, and DAHAB, produced by Eagle Films, directed by Mohamed Samir. Both series are streaming on Shahid VIP (2023).
Alternating between her two passions, Isabelle is now pursuing a PhD in Dance and Cinema at the University of Toulouse Jean-Jaurès, studying the influence of Martha Graham's dance technique on acting for cinema and television.
First, the great principles of the Martha Graham technique will be shared:
expressing one's emotions and inwardness, listening to oneself, to the other, to the moment and space, moving with consciousness, body biomechanics, concepts of center, breath, weight and spiral.
This practice will start from the body and the existing knowledge of the participants. Gradually, texts will be integrated into the movements, along with exercises on the voice and pronunciation.
The training will already be a platform for sharing and artistic research. The actors are invited to make the technical principles theirs and to bring out their own artistic forms within this language, expressing the multiplicity of their presence, here and now.
Secondly, scenes will be given to the participants, who will work on them in front of the camera, as if they were on set. Everything will be filmed and recorded. From the beginning of the process, the Martha Graham technique will be used as a support for creation and artistry.
This acting workshop includes a work on text, voice, emotions and exercises in continuity with Graham and in front of the camera. It aims to work on the body in order to achieve a sincere and emotionally expressive performance through a better understanding, training and mastery of the body and the voice.
The work focuses on body awareness, the ability to be alert, to listen to new sensations, more than the repetition of identical sequences from day to day. Here, it is not the perfection of a form that is desired or idealized, but rather the perfection of a sensation.
Trying to find a new physiological approach to acting through a preparation technique based on the interconnection between emotion and gesture, allowing the actor to be able to convey the right emotion in the right moment and space.
Graham For Actors Workshop in Lebanon. Notre Dame University-Louaize, Zouk Mosbeh (June 2022).
To find out more about ‘Graham For Actors’, please contact Isabelle Zighondi
isabellezeghondy@gmail.com / www.instagram.com/isabellezighondi