Sentient Objects: Provoking Prop Animacy for Self and Stage
With Holly Sass
Inanimate things surround us constantly, whether it’s “trash”, tools, or potential prop. What happens when we start to ask them questions? What happens when we start to play with them? What if they play back? Using practices derived from clown, dance and somatics, we will open up the portal into the pulseless world and question what it means to be really alive. We’ll invite in both randomly found and tenderly meaningful objects, and dive deep into our bodies, voices and senses until stories emerge. We’ll playfully exhaust the function of each item until they completely transform into something else. We’ll explore the attempt of fully becoming these various forms of matter, seemingly so far from human (to discover that we maybe aren’t so different). The majority of the course will be for discovery and research, though we will leave some time to collect the bits, narratives and relational anecdotes that emerged between us and our objects to then find a way to collectively devise them into a performance (if the class desires). You don’t have to be a performer to attend this course, you just need to be excited to play, get a little freaky, and dip into the unknown, body first.
- Dates
- Thu 24 Sep, Thu 1 Oct, Thu 8 Oct
- Time
- 18:00–21:00
- Cost
- €60-150 (+ €5 membership fee for new members)
- Attendance type
- You should attend the full course
- Class type
- Theatre, Performance, Clown
- Space
- Theatre
- Desired audience
- This course is both for the performer (dance, theater, clown, music) who wants to expand their performance tools beyond the living and for the person who has never set foot into a studio or onto a stage in their life and wants to get more into their body and their voice by playing with found objects and new friends. For those who want to access parts of themselves that they maybe can’t reach alone or within a state of seriousness.
- What should I bring?
- Participants will be asked to bring a variety of objects, some with meaning to them and some found objects. No prior knowledge is needed but folks who have dabbled (or more) in theater or movement are very welcome. Don’t be shy, total theater/clown beginners are very welcome!
About the artist
Holly Sass is a Berlin-based multidisciplinary artist, currently provoking the intersections of dance and clown. They’ve been dancing, for pleasure, then professionally, then again for pleasure, since age two. They have a NYC-based performance duo called BREAKTIME, edging clown since 2017, having performed and taught across the US. Holly is still, and always, a student of clown, most recently learning and lightly humiliated at Clown Camp with Dr. Brown (Phil Burgers). Holly is a contact improvisation facilitator and researcher of falling. Adjacent to the arts, Holly is a bodyworker, continuously informed by the vast teachings of the healing justice movement.
Instagram: @h0llysasshollysass.com, @h0llysass
Accessibility
90mil is wheelchair accessible. Please see the yellow section below for more on accessibility.
Sliding scale
We use a sliding scale to make courses as affordable as possible. Here’s how to use it: Lower end: You don’t have a stable income. Mid range: You have a less stable financial situation and are more selective about where you spend your money. Higher end: You experience relative financial stability. Solidarity spot: You’re experiencing financial precarity and wouldn’t otherwise be able to afford to come to a workshop.