Meet the Leish Troupe: One of the Entities supported within Life Initiative
Leishe Troupe was established in Damascus in 1999. It is the only physical theatre company in Syria. Since its establishment, the company is seeking to discover, practice, and understand the human body’s unlimited expressive capacities, by holding physical theatre performances on stage and in alternative spaces. The company also organises workshops for amateurs and professionals across all disciplines in contemporary performing art, and it conducts theoretical and empirical research about the human body in the form of long-term projects.
Leishe Troupe launched its Expressive Body training programme in November. The programme consists of a series of workshops whose purpose is to widen the scope of knowledge, understanding, and awareness regarding the human body’s expressive capacities, by exploring the concept of the body form different perspectives and practical experiences. The programme targeted young graduates from art institutes and faculties in all disciplines: Acting, dancing, dramaturgy, scenography, theatre techniques, directing, choreography, and the performing arts. The programme’s first phase increased participants’ awareness of their own bodies and, consequently, the bodies of those around them. It also offered them a free space to practice and develop their expressive capacities to help them create more impactful artistic experiences for their audiences. The programme also trained participants on collective work.
Click here to learn more about the first phase of the programme.
The Expressive Body Programme was selected to participate at the Segal Center Film Festival on Theatre and Performance (FTP), which is an annual event that screens films drawn from the world of theatre and performance and displays the works of experimental, emerging, and established theatre artists and filmmakers from around the world. This year’s 7th edition focusses on works produced by theatre artists and filmmakers during the time of COVID-19. The festival will be held digitally from March 1st – 15th, 2022.
In 2022, Leishe Troup will continue to explore the human body and its transformations over the past decade, by extrapolating the particularities of the local context to the global scene. Therefore, the company’s research will be inspired by the themes of its workshops planned for 2022, which will tackle artistic video production and editing, as well as administrative aspects such as marketing, management, and the activation of online training platforms. The company will also conduct research on how to “transform filmed performances to resemble live performances,” in addition to creating and performing a physical theatre work entitled “Are We Delusional?”
For more information on Leishe Troupe, please visit their website.
These activities are part of “Life: Contributions to Support Syrian Cultural Entities,” which is a special initiative launched by Ettijahat as part of its programming for its upcoming 10-year anniversary, with the support of DOEN Stichting, Mimeta and the Ford Foundation.
