Dhamma Theatre West
Dhamma Theatre West
invites you to the
“Each person has three souls. One is the little pupil of the eye, another is the shadow that each one casts, and the last is the image of oneself that each one sees in a mirror or in a calm pool of water.”
(Kahusa Wisdom)
“Myths are public dreams,
dreams are private myths.“
Joseph Campbell
Dhamma Artist Intensive
What is your mythology?
What is your iconography? What is the landscape of your soul?
The source of our creative inspirations and our compassionate understanding for ourselves lies in our relationship to our own imagination, which is always in need of expansion…
Awaken immersed in another perspective. Experience theatre and performance as a vehicle for transformation.
The Dhamma Artist Intensive invites theatre artists and participants from all backgrounds to become rigorous searchers into questions of self-existence, manifestation and transcendence.
From where do we draw our inspiration? What do we believe about ourselves? How do we interact? What do we cause? What can we create?
By removing ourselves from the familiar we are able to encounter ourselves in a new context, and we are able to re-examine the constructs we use to define ourselves.
Subjects & Course Offerings
Ramakien & Khon : Hanuman Dance
Ramakien & Thai Classical Dance
Sabat Chai Drums
Muay Thai (Thai Boxing)
Swords
Lanna Dance
Northern Thai Drums
Butoh
Charya: ritual Buddhist dance
Symbology
Dhamma
Yoga: Kundalini, Ashtanga, Acro-Yoga
Schedule and curriculum are structured to house the program’s holistic approach to the questions of environment, perspective, and identity.
Program Locations
Bangkok 14 days / ChiangMai 7 days
The program will be hosted by The Patravadi Theatre (Bangkok) and
Empty Space (Chiangmai).
History of the Progam
The Dhamma Artists Intensive is the evolution of a program originally titled Bangkok Performance Bootcamp (2003-2005) created with WRC Theatre, the program underwent another incarnation as Bangkok Artists Intensive (2006 – 2007) in collaboration with Theatre Mitu. Now the program, retained by its founding director, Ruth Pongstaphone has found its home as an integral element of Dhamma Theatre West’s mission.
Program Staff
Ruth Pongstaphone – program director & director of educational programming (DhammaTheatreWest)
Patrick Palucki – program director
Thanapol Virulhakul – program director
Lorelei Ignas – program coordinator
Manuel Lutgenhorst – program advisor
Dhamma Theatre West
exists to promote, support, & facilitate the work of its artists and collaborators in an international dialogue between artists and audiences which is an effort to transcend our boundary constructs, explore our human experience, and develop our existence in communion.
Founding members & Artistic Partners:
Ruth Pongstaphone, Patrick Palucki, Thanapol Virulhakul
Patravadi Theatre
Is situated across the Chao Phraya river from the Grand Palace next to the royal temple of Wat Rakang, in Thonburi, one of the city’s oldest neighborhoods. The theatre itself is unlike any theatre in the west – a self contained complex with several performance spaces, offices, apartments, scenic, costume and craft shops, a café, and a Koi pond. Within the busy metropolis of Bangkok, it is both a lush tropical garden oasis and a state of the art theatre center. With nearby access to water taxis, and ferries on the river, the theatre is an easy starting and returning point to explore the city.
Established in Bangkok in 1992, Patravadi Theatre is internationally recognized as a leader in the arts in Southeast Asia. The theatre produces a unique fusion of traditional Thai and contemporary Western performance. Patravadi productions have toured throughout the world, including London, Paris, Milan,Frankfurt, Hanoi, HongKong, Malaysia, Estonia, the 2000 Biennale-de-la Danse Festival in Lyon, the 1999 Ghost Festival in Berlin, an eight city tour of asia, a seven city tour of Denmark for 2003 Images of Asia Festival. As an International Arts Center, Patravadi Theatre plays host to many directors, choreographers, and theatre, and dance companies from around the world, and is the home of the Bangkok International Fringe Festival.
EmptySpace Artcenter
ESC is a development of ArtHouse Bona. It is a process oriented Art Center on a farm in the hills near Chiang Mai. You are invited to paint, study, write, workshop or rehearse here. It is open for all faculties of the arts and encourages self-expression and interaction with the surrounding community. ESC supports social experience - live, eat, discuss, room and board in the community - artists in residency.
Dhamma Artist Intensive
For further information about the program
please contact us by email
From Bangkok to rural northern Thailand, participants witness both the urban sprawl and mountain village, immersed in a landscape of Hindu mythology and Buddhist philosophy.
Training with masters of Thai dance traditions, and other eastern forms, participants encounter dance as a spiritual discipline, as a ritual, as a meditation, and overall as an ancient and modern story of manifestations and transcendence.
The purpose of the program is to inspire artists: to move freely into unknown terrain, to cultivate an intuitive dialogue with the source of their own creativity, to explore culture, identity, and expression, to uncover a personal symbology, through the performance of public and private mythologies.... to investigate ways of communicating that transcend.
The Intensive is an artist’s journey shaped by its participants, as they explore themselves through a cultural interface that becomes a mirror in which we see reflected another incarnation of ourselves.
Thailand, July 3- 28, 2008
Tuition for the program is $3000 (without airfare)
Application Deadline May 1st
Tuition for the program is $3900 (including airfare, traveling as group from New York City)
Application Deadline April 15th
Rolling Application: Notification of acceptance starting April 25th
Tuition for the program is €1850 (without airfare)
Application Deadline May 1st
Rolling Application: Notification of acceptance starting April 25th
BANGKOK / CHIANGMAI July 3- 28, 2008
Space is limited!
Journey to the East
In order to encourage the international dialogue within the program and to gather a truly diverse community of participating artists, Dhamma Theatre West offers tuition adjustments for students from within:
Tuition fee adjustment will also be made for students who are resident elsewhere in Bangkok and do not
require housing for the Bangkok portion of the program.
Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan, Sri Lanka
Brunei Darussalam, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malayasia, Myanmar, Philipines, Singapore, Thailand, Vietnam
Please contact admin@dhammatheatrewest.org for more information.
Europe:
USA:
Tuition includes housing in Bangkok, housing and meals in Chiang Mai
Thailand
SAARC
ASEAN
