RESEARCH
Since it came into existence in 1964, Nordisk
Teaterlaboratorium/Odin Teatret has developed three fields of
action: artistic, pedagogic and research. These fields have had a
continuous influence on each other, besides achieving autonomous
results. Within the general structure of Nordisk
Teaterlaboratorium/Odin Teatret, some institutions are dedicated to
pure research: ISTA - International School of Theatre
Anthropology, The University of Eurasian
Theatre, CTLS - Centre for Theatre Laboratory
Studies, and OTA - Odin Teatret Archives,
in addition to a range of projects, initiatives and activities
(Gender Studies with the Magdalena Project, Transit Festival and
The Open Page journal, symposiums and publications on
Tacit Knowledge, etc.) in which artistic creation, pedagogic
practice and research merge. This fertile and intermediary zone
corresponds to what in natural sciences is called applied
research. In the arts, and particularly in theatre,
pure research corresponds to the investigation of
basic principles. The method consists of opening a path towards the
sources, asking apparently obvious or naïve questions yet again,
starting from the beginning as if to verify once more the acquired
experience.
Both pure research and applied
research implicate the creation of an environment in which
it is possible to experiment the effectiveness of the tools of
theatre craft in intervening on the quality of human relationships.
This interdisciplinary and international environment, developed by
Odin Teatret during its 46 years of activity, guarantees the
standard of the research and of its results. The union of
theoretical-historical and of practical-creative dimensions is
essential for the development of theatre culture and is the part of
science's methodological baggage that can be practiced in our
field. A concrete consequence is the collaboration, proximity and
mutual acquaintance of young theatre artists, older masters,
scholars and theoreticians.
Eugenio Barba, who directs the research activity at Nordisk
Teaterlaboratorium/Odin Teatret, has received nine honoris
causa degrees from the universities of Aarhus, Ayacucho,
Bologna, Havana, Warsaw, Plymouth, Hong Kong, Buenos Aires and
Tallin; the Réconnaissance de mérite scientifique from
Montreal University; and the Sonning Prize from Copenhagen
University. All motivations underlined his contribution to theatre
research and the creation of Theatre Anthropology as a new
scientific field.
Pure Research
The International School of Theatre
Anthropology, directed by Eugenio Barba, researches
the foundations of the performers' technique from a cross-cultural
perspective. ISTA's permanent staff and network of about 50
collaborators consists of Asian, Euro-American and Afro-Brazilian
masters, Odin Teatret's actors and scholars from various
universities.
Fourteen different sessions of ISTA have taken place from 1980
to 2005. The theoretical discussions and historical investigations
during the sessions always take place simultaneously with an
empiric comparison of performance traditions and techniques from
various cultures. From the meeting and intertwining of environments
that usually remain separate originates the uniqueness of the
scientific research in the theatre field. The strength of ISTA and
in part of Odin Teatret itself, comes from this.
It is during ISTA sessions that the field of Theatre
Anthropology has been identified and defined by Eugenio Barba and
his collaborators, forging technical expressions such as
pre-expressivity, and individuating basic cross-cultural principles
such as "precarious balance", "coherent incoherence", "subscore",
"transformation of weight into energy", etc. Theatre Anthropology
is the study of the criteria underlying the creative process and of
those technical principles that actors and dancers use
substantially in the same way, despite coming from different
traditions and applying distinct aesthetic choices.
The following themes of research have opened up a new
understanding of basic principles for theatrical language:
pre-expressivity and improvisation, the female role, the
actor's tradition and the spectator's identity, form and
information; apprenticeship in a multicultural
perspective; presence as scenic bios; the effect of
organicity from the actor's point of view and from the spectator's
point of view; the actor's dramaturgy; the relationship between
rhythm, flow and organicity in the actor's and director's work;
memory, repetition and discontinuity in the practice of
improvisation.
The University of Eurasian
Theatre was created in 1990 in collaboration with the
University of Bologna. It addresses a wider spectrum of
participants and holds practical/ theoretical meetings in Italy and
other countries. Since 1996 it has held a yearly session organised
by Teatro Proskenion.
Alongside ISTA, the sessions of the University of Eurasian
Theatre also confront questions central to theatre practice. Themes
include: the relationship between performance and text; music
dramaturgy and acting and directing techniques; the perspectives of
theatre history writing.
CTLS, Centre for Theatre
Laboratory Studies, based at Odin Teatret in
Holstebro, was established in 2002 in collaboration with the
Department of Dramaturgy of Aarhus University. It is devoted to the
study of theatre as laboratory and it receives researchers
interested in theatre laboratory history and activities. Theatre
laboratories are a phenomenon that marks 20th century
theatre history. Nevertheless they have not as yet been the object
of serious and comprehensive studies and their vast documentation,
which is spread all over the world, lacks an overview and
organisation to make it accessible to scholars. The CTLS aims at
bringing together some of these sources of information. A first
result is The Alchemists of the Stage - Theatre Laboratories in
Europe, a book by the Italian scholar Mirella Schino,
published by Icarus
Publishing Enterprise in 2009.
Since 2004 CTLS has organised 5 international symposia in
Holstebro, Aarhus and Copenhagen entitled: "Tradition and
Innovation in Chinese Theatre"; "Why a Theatre Laboratory?"; "The
Theatre that Dances", "Serendipity - a Brainstorm between Science,
Arts and Design", and "The Present Moment".
OTA, OdinTeatret Archives
Since its foundation in 1964, Odin Teatret has collected
documents, photographs, films and correspondence. OTA has the task
of classifying, digitalising and making available this considerable
archive to scholars and students in collaboration with other
European theatre institutions and universities. The archives
include, amongst other documents, more than 30,000 photographs and
hundreds of hours of film aas well as Eugenio Barba's
correspondence with Jerzy Grotowski.
Besides classifying existing documents, OTA also produces
pedagogical films and audio and written material. The most recent
project concerns training at Odin Teatret, seen from a historical
perspective.
Although in a normal archive or library, the balance tends
towards theoretical studies separated from theatre practice, OTA
tries to guarantee interdisciplinary conditions, more suited to
theatre culture. This choice is not only a question of cultural
opportunity, but of scientific methodology.
In connection with the archives, Odin Teatret's library in
Holstebro receives more than a hundred international magazines
specialising in the performing arts and constituting the largest
collection of its type in Scandinavia. There is also a video
library and both are open to visitors.
Applied Research
Tacit Knowledge
In many fields of knowledge "tacit knowledge" is a central
problematic to understand the functioning of cultural systems. It
deals with learning structures and methods, with the transmission
of know-how and the difficulty of translating body knowledge into
words. Finally, it deals with the relationship between
forgetfulness and memory. To understand what "tacit knowledge"
means for theatre, Odin Teatret organised a meeting among the
representatives of the oldest living performance traditions:
Japanese Nô (originated in the 14th century), Balinese
Gambuh (15th century), the Korean shaman rituals
(16th century). The oldest European performance
tradition of classical ballet, rooted in the 16th and
17th centuries, was invited alongside the Asian
traditions. The meeting was held in September 1999 in
Holstebro.
From the final report:
The representatives of each tradition demonstrated how the
elements of their craft had been passed down to them and how this
is embodied in their performance. "Tacit knowledge" is a
knowledge-in-life that doesn't belong to a single individual, but
to a tradition, and which evolves as it passes from one generation
to the next, by means of a net of personal relationships. It is
"tacit" because it is embodied knowledge, and therefore does not
use the circulation speed and the abstraction capacity that
characterises written or oral words. What is lost in amplitude is
gained in depth. Performance traditions are a privileged ground on
which to confront the question of "tacit knowledge", of what
threatens and preserves it. It doesn't deal with an archaic
knowledge, but with a precious cultural legacy that represents a
minority but complementary dimension compared to the transmission
of information through words or technologies that save and
reproduce images and documents. The dissemination of "tacit
knowledge" needs time, lasting professional relationships and a
mutual choice among individuals. The master-pupil relationship is
the most evident example of such relationships, but not the only
one. There is "information" that cannot be engraved on paper or
into electronic devices. It consists of an actual putting-in-form
of the body-mind of another person. It concerns information that
cannot be separated from the physical presence, the net of
relationships and biography. In them the two faces of the word
"discipline" - field of knowledge and behaviour manner -
coincide.
Theatre and gender studies
Odin Teatret publishes, under Julia Varley's responsibility, the
journal The
Open Page , devoted to collecting testimonies and to
discussing the theme of female presence/difference in theatre.
Julia Varley, as a founder of the Magdalena Project, organises the
Transit
Festival which brings together women who work in theatre
(actresses, directors, dramaturgs, historians, etc.). It is a
network of relationships that creates solidarity beyond differences
of language, culture, artistic tendencies and professional
specialisations. This network allows a close examination of the
particular sociological, cultural and artistic problems that
characterise the professional development of women working in
theatre. Evaluations and reflections are expressed through the
writings collected in the journal.
