Spring 2023
February – May
1. (INTER)ACTING WITH THE INNER PARTNER FOR BEGINNING PRACTITIONERS
Once a week on Thursday evenings. Various teachers including Riina Huhtanen, Vesa Kantola, Esko Nuutila, Hanna Raiskinmäki, Heidi Richert, Jenni-Elina von Bagh.
2. (INTER)ACTING WITH THE INNER PARTNER + PERFORMATIVE WELL-BEING
Once a week on Mondays evenings.
3. (INTER)ACTING WITH THE INNER PARTNER SATURDAYS
Twice a month on Saturday mornings. Taught by Hanna Raiskinmäki and guest teachers.
You are welcome to attend all courses you are eligible for.
Please note that each course is exclusive to the students registered for that course. “Hopping” back and forth between courses is not permitted.
Sign up is first come, first serve!
Please scroll down for more info...
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1. (INTER)ACTING WITH THE INNER PARTNER FOR BEGINNING PRACTITIONERS
Teachers: Various teachers including (depending on availability) Riina Huhtanen, Vesa Kantola, Esko Nuutila, Hanna Raiskinmäki, Heidi Richert, Jenni-Elina von Bagh.
See Teachers' Bios at end of this page.
What?
Weekly (Inter)acting with the Inner Partner practice sessions for beginning students.
You will be introduced to (Inter)acting with the Inner Partner’s fundamental principles and practices through on-stage individual and group work. The sessions will include group-building exercises and warm-ups. We will do work relating to performative well-being and performative being. We recommend you keep written reflections of your work. After you complete this course, you will be eligible to continue your IwIP studies in courses for continuing practitioners.
(Inter)acting with the Inner Partner in Brief
(Inter)acting with the Inner Partner (or “IwIP”) is a process-oriented action-based open solo improvisational practice. It was originally created at the Academy of Performing Arts in Prague by Professor Ivan Vyskočil, a celebrated actor, author and teacher. It has been further developed at the University of Arts in Helsinki (Theatre Academy and Performing Arts Research Centre) and by professional artists in Finland. It is a methodology of psychosomatic performative research and training, a way of instigating dramatic play, learning from it, and living through it fully. It is a guided process of coming to know and develop yourself by relating to your inner partners in public.
IwIP is rooted in an understanding of the performing person as a constellation of perspectives or different “partners” (or “figures”, “stances”). While studying how these partners interact with each other through dramatic play in a performance situation, we learn about ourselves and our worlds as situated, performing, creative persons. What and how we do with that is our responsibility.
More info about IwIP, including how it is practiced, go to this webpage.
For an idea of some of the people who practice IwIP, please see the teachers’ bios at the end of this page.
WATCH A SAMPLE OF IWIP
You can view a sample of an advanced practitioner practicing IwIP here.
Aimed for:
Anyone interested in dramatic play, improvisation, performance, self-understanding, self-acceptance, communication skills, well-being, somatics and IwIP.
Goals:
- Develop a basic psychosomatic understanding of IwIP’s fundamental principles and practices
- Dramatic play
- Develop your performing self and performative fitness
- Explore performative being
- Cultivate personal and group well-being
- Develop improvisational skills
- Initial insights into yourself as a multiplicity of psychosomatic perspectives
- Fun
Languages:
Teaching lanuage is English, but you are welcome to use any language while you perform and practice.
Eligibility:
Adults over 18 years of age. No previous experience in theatre, improvisation, or any other practice required. Participants come from all walks of life, ages, and interests. A diverse group in all senses of the word is hoped for and welcome!
Applicants are required to send a one-page letter introducing themselves and their motivation for participating in the course, and a CV. Both in English, please. (See “Signing-up” below.)
Timetable:
Thursdays once a week, 17.30-20.
March 2 – June 1, 2023. Weeks 9-19, 21-22. (No session week 20.)
Total 13 x 2,5h sessions (total 32.5h)
Group size: Min 5, Max 9.
Location:
Annankatu, Helsinki.
Cost:
Regular rates
Culture Current supporting members: 330€
Non-members: 340€
Discounted rates
We are offering special, limited-time reduced fees in 2023 for unemployed individuals and students interested in trying IwIP for the first time.
Culture Current supporting members: 90€ 230€
Non-members: 100€ 240€
In order to qualify for the discounted rate, you must provide proof of being unemployed (a registered job-seeker at TE-Toimisto) or a full-time student.
Please pay the regular rate if you can afford it 🙂
No refunds or credit once the payment has been made.
Payment will be due by 1.3.2023. Culture Current ry will bill you.
Sign-up Deadline: 17.2.2023
Signing Up:
Application process:
1) Complete the sign-up form HERE.
2) Please send a one-page letter introducing themselves and their motivation for participating in the course, and a CV. Both in English, please. info[at]culturecurrent.org
Sign up is first come, first serve! Please sign up as soon as possible.
The course will be confirmed by 20.2.2023.
Become a Culture Current Member!
If you are not a Culture Current supporting member and would like to become one, membership starts at 20€/year. It entitles you to discounts on CC's courses and more.
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2. (INTER)ACTING WITH THE INNER PARTNER + PERFORMATIVE WELL-BEING
What?
Weekly IwIP practice sessions and well-being support and discussion group work. We will practice IwIP and open improv inspired by IwIP. We will also do warm-ups, group discussions and exercises relating to performative well-being and performative being. If the group agrees, we will have a public open session.
Aimed for: Anyone interested in IwIP, open improvisation, performance, well-being.
Goals:
- Expand and diversify your IwIP practice
- Dramatic play
- Develop your performing self and performative fitness
- Explore performative being
- Cultivate personal and group well-being
- Develop IwIP practice and improvisational skills
- Fun
Languages: Teaching lanuage is English, but you are welcome to use any language while you perform and practice.
Eligibility:
You have participated in at least 2 seasons (about 30 sessions) of IwIP.
Timetable:
Mondays once a week, 17.30-20.
February 6 – May 29, 2023. Weeks 6-7, 9-14, 16-17, 19-22. (No sessions weeks 8, 15, 18).
Total 14 x 2,5h sessions (total 35h)
Group size: Min 5, Max 9.
Location:
DuvTeatern, Georgsgatan 18 A, Helsinki.
Cost:
Regular rates
Culture Current supporting members: 350€
Non-members: 360€
Discounted rates
Culture Current supporting members: 250€
Non-members: 260€
In order to qualify for the discounted rate, you need to be provide proof of being unemployed (a registered job-seeker at TE-Toimisto) or a full-time student.
Please pay the regular rate if you can afford it 🙂
No refunds or credit once the payment has been made.
Payment will be due by 8.2.2023. Culture Current ry will bill you. If you would like to request paying in installments, please note that when you sign up.
Sign-up Deadline: 30.1.2023
Sign-up at THIS LINK.
Sign up is first come, first serve! Please sign up as soon as possible.
Preference will be given to folks who have been practicing IwIP in the past two years.
The course will be confirmed by 1.2.2023.
Become a Culture Current Member!
If you are not a Culture Current supporting member and would like to become one, membership starts at 20€/year. It entitles you to discounts on CC's courses and more.
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3. (INTER)ACTING WITH THE INNER PARTNER SATURDAYS
Teacher: Hanna Raiskinmäki and other guest teachers. See bios at end of page.
What?
IwIP practice sessions twice a month.
Aimed for: IwIP practitioners interested in developing their IwIP.
Eligibility: You have participated in an introductory IwIP course (minimum 8 sessions).
Goals:
- Develop IwIP practice and improvisational skills
- Dramatic play
- Develop your performing self
- Fun
Languages: Teaching lanuages in Finnish and English as needed. You are welcome to use any language while you perform and practice.
Timetable:
Saturdays from 10AM-12PM.
February 18 - May 27, 2022.
Weeks 7, 9, 11, 13, 15, 17, 19, 21. (18.2, 4.3, 18.3, 1.4, 15.4, 29.4, 13.5, 27.5)
Total 8 x 2h sessions (total 16h).
Group size: Min 4, Max 11.
Location:
DuvTeatern, Georgsgatan 18 A, Helsinki.
Cost:
Regular rates
Culture Current supporting members: 160€
Non-members: 170€
Discounted rates
Culture Current supporting members: 120€
Non-members: 130€
In order to qualify for the discounted rate, you need to be able to provide proof of being unemployed (a registered job-seeker at TE-Toimisto) or a full-time student.
Please pay the regular rate if you can afford it 🙂
No refunds or credit once the payment has been made.
Payment will be due by 8.2.2023. Culture Current ry will bill you. If you would like to request paying in installments, please note that when you sign up.
Sign-up Deadline: 30.1.2023
Sign-up at THIS LINK.
Sign up is first come, first serve! Please sign up as soon as possible.
Preference will be given to folks who have been practicing IwIP in the past two years.
The course will be confirmed by 1.2.2023.
Become a Culture Current Member!
If you are not a Culture Current supporting member and would like to become one, membership starts at 20€/year. It entitles you to discounts on CC's courses and more.
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TEACHERS' BIOS (alphabetical order)
Riina Huhtanen is a dancer/choreographer and an osteopath. She is interested in somatic practices. In her art, she is explores subtle body techniques and the shared space created by movement and kinesthetics between the viewer and the performer. She was introduced to (Inter)acting with the Inner Partner in 2007, and has been practicing it regularly ever since, weekly for the last 5 years.
Vesa Kantola has film background in directing, producing and script writing long documentaries. He has been teaching at the Helsinki institute of technology as a senior lecturer of visual communication over 25 years. He teaches two courses at Aalto University. He has scientific publications about interactive theatre and gaming in design. He has practiced IwIP since 2014 with Alex and co-taught an IwIP course with him at Aalto University.
Alexander Komlosi studied IwIP under Professor Vyskočil, the founder of the discipline, at the Academy of Performing Arts in Prague for 15 years, and trained under him as an IwIP teacher. He has been teaching IwIP internationally and developing its pedagogy since 1999 through workshops and courses at the Academy of Performing Arts in Prague (Theatre Faculty); University of Arts Helsinki – Open University and Departments of Drama Pedagogy, Swedish-speaking Acting, Dance; Tampere University – Näty, Aalto University, Takomo Theatre, Valtimon Theatre, and the Swedish Theatre in Helsinki, Adult Education Center Helsinki, Columbia University, New York University/Tisch, Yale University, Rose Bruford College, and Royal Central School of Speech and Drama, and as part of Culture Current’s educational program. He has trained and taught the other IwIP teachers in Finland, encouraging them to take IwIP in their own directions. As an actor, he has performed internationally. He is now focusing his creative energies on writing prose fiction. He holds a MA (authorial Acting with a focus on authorial creativity and pedagogy) and a Ph.D (authorial Acting and the theory of authorial creativity) from the Academy of Performing Arts in Prague.
Esko Nuutila had a long career as a university scientist and teacher, and now works in a startup as a software developer. He has been practicing IwIP intensively since 2015 under the supervision of Alexander Komlosi. Esko is interested in somatic fitness in its various forms. In addition to practicing IwIP, Esko teaches tai chi chuan and is a certified Feldenkrais practitioner.
Hanna Raiskinmäki is an actor and a Shiatsu practitioner. She has been practicing IwIP for 15 years, and leading classes for about 10 years. The most important teachers and colleagues in IwIP have been Alexander Komlosi and Milja Sarkola as well as the whole working group which has been meeting regularly for ten years. She has been experimenting IwIP with her theater and performing arts work. The latest experimentation has been and still is in actor Joanna Haartti’s convened Viiksi Instituutti in Teatteri Takomo.
Heidi Richert is a television director and producer. They studied film and television at Lahti Institute of Design, graduating in 2005 as a documentary director.
Working on various television and documentary projects they got introduced to IwIP through a friend, Ida Backer, who had been teaching the practice at the time. They have been studying IwIP since 2017. The practice has opened up new creative ways of working and living, and it's a neverending source of inspiration.
Jenni-Elina von Bagh is a choreographer and dancer-performer based in Helsinki. She works in different collaborations in the field of contemporary performance and creates her own choreographic works, both nationally and internationally artistically travelling between dance, theatre, and arts. Her most recent works are “Void- A Psychodrama” (2021) and “A Prologue” (2020). She has been practicing IwIP for over 10 years, and has lead classes for a few years. She finds IwIP to be a source for personal wellbeing, but most importantly, a rich source for practicing creativity and personal / collective artistry. She will begin her tenure as Artistic Director of Zodiak – Center for New Dance in 2023.
Photo credit: Diego Ginartes, © 2022 Kulttuuriyhdistys Culture Current ry