This festival is a focus on world theatre traditions and theorists. The event comprises of 6 x 90-minute core workshop sessions where students will focus on a single tradition and 2 x 1-hour taster workshop sessions where students will get a taste of two other traditions/theorists that are not their main core focus. All sessions will be led by an experienced and highly qualified ISTA international artist.

The entire event will take place on an online platform.

Target audience
High school students (ages 14-18).

Goals
At no other time has the notion of ‘togetherness’ been more poignant. Our re-imagined festivals, for an online world, take young people outside of their own, immediate, local world into a larger, global community. Here they can make connections and nurture relationships that foster a deeper understanding of ‘other’ and stimulate empathy.

ISTA festivals use the expressive and communicative qualities of the arts to weave people bonds, creating a community web that leads to a celebration of creative endeavours.

The festival experience is of particular relevance this year when young people, now more than before, need resilience, trust, empathy and laughter.

Three months in the making, our virtual festivals maximise the opportunities afforded by online/socially distanced learning; remain true to our ISTA mission and values and provide the guaranteed ISTA magic much needed by all this year.

They provide a life changing ‘disruption’ to the regular world of classroom online learning, support for teachers and young people will leave invigorated, excited, energised and having had a whole heap of fun.

Session times are noted below in local New Delhi, India (IST) times:

Day 1: Thursday 18th February 2021

Day 2: Friday 19th February 2021

Jane Coulston (United Kingdom) – Laban

Bio
I am the director of Beyond Repair Dance company and alongside my uber talented team I create original productions for events, television, advertising and film. After a longish stint as an artistic gymnast, I changed direction and trained as a professional dancer at Trinity Laban in London.

My artistic ambition is to build new audiences for contemporary dance, giving people an opportunity to appreciate dance in an open, all-inclusive and accessible way. I strongly believe that movement tells stories in a way that resonates like no other medium – making us connect to the performance on a deeply personal level.

Workshop description
Skilled physical expression is essential for an actor. It is a physical expression that communicates meaning to the audience and provokes a gut response from them. Any unexamined movement responses will always be an expression of you, the actor, rather than the character. Awareness of your movement enables you to transform: to make deliberate physical choices and to communicate a specific meaning. Using the work of Rudolf Laban, this workshop is designed to help students to make brave choices with Action, Effort, Space and Time. We will play, laugh, connect and leave the space with a new understanding of how we move and how we can adapt our movement to develop ourselves as performing artists.

Awelani Moyo (Spain) – Voices of protest – performing activism in South Africa

Bio
I was born in Zimbabwe and grew up in South Africa where I first studied drama. I completed my PhD in Theatre Studies in the United Kingdom and lived in southeast Asia for five years. I have a background as performer, writer and director, and now live in Spain with my husband.

I enjoy creating original and devised performances based on my personal experiences and in the past few years I have been exploring my Shona Zimbabwean/Venda South African heritage through research and experimentation. I’m interested in using storytelling and music to create a sense of community and belonging.

Workshop description

Every culture has its own way of protesting, and every protest is a kind of performance. Songs and dances played an important role in the anti-Apartheid struggle in South Africa. In this workshop, we see how the culture of activism can help create political theatre. We will experience how political messages can be communicated using the power of bodies and voices.

Host school
The British School of New Delhi, The Republic of India

Event coordinator
Keriann O’Rourke

Online platform
This will be a virtual festival and students will log on from home – using a centrally designed platform. Details will be provided for participating schools closer to the event date.

Booking and registration window
The booking and registration will close on Monday 1st Februrary 2021.

The registration fee for students is GBP £90.

Teachers will make the booking for all students at their school once they have confirmed their numbers of participants in the event.

Upon registration ISTA will provide schools with an invoice for the total amount owing (GBP £90 x number of students per school group).

Please register ASAP and registration will close on Monday 1st February 2021.

Please refer to our event terms and conditions for details of late registration/cancellation fees.