The Invisible Dog Art Center is thrilled to present Crossings in Slowness: An Ephemeral Trilogy, a participative workshop by Niyoosha Ahmadikhoo as part of Strand For Women.
This one-time, site-specific sequence of happenings is a tribute to Iranian and Afghan women whose audacious emotions have fueled the force of rebellion through millennia. In three consecutive performance workshops, each two hours long, we will slow down—physically, emotionally, and very, very literally—while continuing to move. Creating an experimental installation with our collective bodies, we will learn a few ensemble-making techniques and expand our personal toolbox for processing and expressing deep and complex feelings through performative exercises. It will be a modern-day ritual, an offering to the self and to our surroundings, a choreography of time and emotions, and a creative attempt to alchemize power from pain. Each session begins with warm-ups, check-ins, breathing and vocal exercises, and acting games inspired by the physical theatre pedagogies of Jacques Lecoq and Michael Chekhov, guided by niyooshka. The final part of each workshop is spent moving as slowly as possible, a process that will be explained during the session.
These three interconnected yet independent pieces are inspired by two of my all-time idols, Robert Wilson and Richard Schechner; they taught me the dramatic potential of slowness.
Workshop 1: Crossing in Slowness: Soug سوگ (Grief)
Friday April 18, 4-6 pm
Theme Flavor: karuna - sorrow, grief, sadness, despair, helplessness
Secondary Flavor: bhayanaka - fear, terror, dread
Element: water
We will cry, wail, moan, sob, weep, or fall into silence. We will collectively and ritualistically sit in this grief, in this disaster, in this despair for what was taken from us. They stole our lives with their foolish religious rules, their delusion of righteousness, their greed for power and control. We will grieve what patriarchy took from us. We will grieve the youth we lost.
We might cut small pieces of our hair when and if it feels right, we may gift them to others in sisterhood.
Workshop 2: Crossing in Slowness: Khashm خشم (Rage)
Tuesday April 22, 12-2 pm
Theme Flavor: raudra - anger, frustration, wrath, fury
Secondary Flavor: bibhatsa - disgust, repulsion, aversion
Element: fire
We will yell, swear, scream, curse, howl, shout, and pour it all out—our rage for what has been taken from us: our time, our rights, our freedom, our lives, our beloveds, our childhood, our connections, our lands.
Workshop 3: Crossing in Slowness: Harekat حرکت (Movement)
Friday April 25, 4-6 pm
Theme Flavor: veera - courage, bravery, heroism, fortitude, daring, determination, endurance, fearlessness, audacity
Secondary Flavor: shringara - love, beauty, joy, passion, tenderness, comfort, glee, pleasure
Elements: soil, air
We will chant, we will sing, we will cheer on, we will move and be moved.
Important information about the workshop
Participants should wear clothes and shoes that are comfortable to gently move in. They should expect movement, warm-ups, and physical activities.
All exercises are voluntary, and participants are able to take observant breaks from moving and doing.
All digital electronics are excluded during the workshops. Participants must leave their phones, smartwatches, and other belongings outside of “the line” in the gallery.
The workshop is about presence in a physical and visceral sense. There will be no documentation, unless by the Atelier.
This is an accessible workshop. Please communicate your accessibility needs to us beforehand so we can prepare accommodations for you.
Participants can attend just one or two of the workshops, but attending all three will provide a more wholesome emotional encounter.
Open to the public and all levels of experience with theatre and performance art.
niyooshka (Niyoosha Ahmadikhoo, b. 1989) is a Brooklyn-based performance scholar, educator, and artist. Her work intertwines questions around presence, power, vulnerability, identity, affect, defiance, and the politicized body. She has recently presented her work on Post-Jina Performances of the Ongoing Iranian Renaissance, as well as her research on Race and Blackness in Iran, at numerous academic conferences, including PSi (Performance Studies International), MLA (Modern Language Association), CSA (Cultural Studies Association), and NWSA (National Women's Studies Association). Her transdisciplinary research additionally explores the intersection of data science and performance studies. She has presented her research on Data Performance at various conferences, including NYC Open Data.
niyooshka’s last workshop at the Invisible Dog Art Center, Revolutionary (E)motions, was so successful that she decisively transitioned her day job from a full-time city-infrastructure engineer to a full-time artist and educator, shifting her focus to training non-actors, especially in corporate environments, with physical acting methods to enhance emotional intelligence, psychophysical awareness, and self-confidence.
niyooshka teaches performance theory in Persian at Kaarnamaa Institute of Art and Visual Culture. Her recent classes on introductions to performance studies have been titled From Identity to Performativity, Body and Politics in Performance Art, and The Body as Medium.
She holds a Master of Arts in Performance Studies from NYU Tisch School of the Arts, a Master of Science in Mechanical Engineering from SUNY Buffalo, and a Bachelor of Science in Physics from Khajeh Nasir University of Technology in Tehran. She also completed two years of a Master of Arts in Theatre Studies at SUNY Buffalo (all-but-thesis). Her thirst and obsession for learning across disciplines has equipped her to bridge the gaps between them.
niyooshka’s art-house workshop, Follow the Joy, is available for booking by tech and finance corporations and other institutions seeking to learn fast-result techniques in team-building, emotional intelligence, and ultimately enhancing collaborative and leadership energy among their employees.
Admission:
Free with RSVP
Very limited number of participant. If you rsvp, please make sure you can attend the workshop.
We encourage you to book all three workshops for a full experience.
Date + Time:
Friday April 18, 4-6 pm crossing in slowness: soug (grief)
Tuesday April 22, 12-2 pm crossing in slowness: khashm (rage)
Friday April 25, 4-6 pm crossing in slowness: harekat (movement)
Location:
Atelier Jolie
57 Great Jones St
New York City