INSCRIBE: CHOREOPOETRY - The Orality of the Body
[photo credit: Andy M. Lee]
with Carol Leeming MBE D Univ FRSA (Elected Fellow of the Royal Society for the Arts)
This INSCRIBE workshop is aimed primarily at Black and Asian poets/writers/performers. We'll explore how we write choreopoetry: poetic prose or long-form poetry for the page and stage, and by the end of the workshop, you'll understand how to devise a short performance piece of choreopoetry, using the choreopolectics© methodology created by Carol Leeming.
We'll be introduced to what is understood to be choreopoetry and its trans-Atlantic expressions. In particular, the major influence of African-American writer and poet Ntozake Shange, including Black British theatre/performance pioneers such as Bernadine Evaristo, Jackie Kay, Dorothea Smartt, and the successful choreopoetry works of Carol Leeming to date. We'll be introduced to her praxis choreopolectics©, which fully incorporates poetic prose, with the orality of the body, primarily using non-Western rhythms, dialectics, and physical theatre.
Our workshop welcomes entry-level, intermediate, and advanced Poets/Spoken Word Artists. We'll all be willing to creatively collaborate across different performance aspects, including: live text; music; physical theatre; and digital still & moving images, to create powerful, compelling, and immersive narrative experiences that engage audiences.
If this sounds like you - come join us! As Carol Leeming says, Dare to Diva! and be part of an exhilarating, playful, adventurous day of enabling our authentic voices and moving beyond the page.
INSCRIBE acknowledges the partnership of the University of Leicester's Centre for New Writing, Dare to Diva Productions, and support from the Attenborough Centre and Writing East Midlands.