Duende Time

This episode is dedicated to The DUENDE School of Ensemble Physical Theatre. I talk about why I set the school up, how it runs, the ambitions and intentions that guide our work, the experiences of students who attend the school, and I describe the actual daily structure of the teaching. This year The DUENDE School  - which runs for 10 intense weeks - is taking place in India. Then I read two more chapters from my latest book 'Climbing The Mountain: A Performers Journey Into Presence'. We are right in the heart of the training journey the book travels - the end of the third week and the start of the fourth....

Is there any point really in being an artist in these dark days? These thoughts drift through my head as I look out at the rainy streets of Bogotá. Then I read two more chapters from my new book: 'Climbing The Mountain' in which we are traveling deep into the heart of DUENDE training.

We reach the third week of the training programme covered in Climbing The Mountain:The Performer's Journey Into Presence. We discuss 'Having an Experience' and 'On Laughter'. Also John has arrived in Bogotá, Colombia and reflects on the nomadic life of an artist as well as bringing you up to date with a very busy fortnight of work from DUENDE's Artists and Associates around the world.

We come to the end of the second week of the training course detailed in Climbing The Mountain: The Performer's Journey Into Presence. As we do, we encounter the fundamental structure of what experiential learning actually requires from a participant (and a teacher). What is the structure of the pedagogy of learning-by-doing? Also a wrap-up of my recent trip to India, preparations for my next trip - to Bogota - and lots of news from other DUENDE people...... Oh yes, and why visas are really annoying.

We are in the middle of the second week of the training programme covered by 'Climbing The Mountain: The Performer's Journey Into Presence'. We are discussing honesty and easefulness - essential qualities for any performer! Also in this episode, recorded in the middle of rural India, insight into the retreat centre where the DUENDE School of Ensemble Physical Theatre will run this Autumn, and news about a recent project developed with DUENDE Associate Artist Amruta Mapuskar.

Episode Four of DUENDE TIME brings you the final wrap up of 'Macbeth' at India's National School of Drama, some thoughts about innovation and conventionality/conformity, news of upcoming projects from DUENDE's international community of artists and the rueful acknowledgement of a mistake! We also reach Days Three and Four of 'Climbing The Mountain: The Performer's Journey Into Presence' - the book that DUENDE's Artistic Director John Britton published in 2017.

We reach the end of the first week of the six week training course covered in 'Climbing The Mountain' - and we start the second week. The core principles are in place and we start to see what they really mean. We also discover why the book is called 'Climbing The Mountain'. The episode also contains information about what DUENDE is up to as Artistic Director John Britton gets towards the opening of 'Macbeth' at India's National School of Drama.

We start the journey into the training. 'Climbing The Mountain: A Performer's Journey Into Presence' is 30 short talks that take you through a six week ensemble performance training programme. Based on actual talks given during an MA training programme devised and delivered by the Author, John Britton, step-by-step they guide you to increasingly sophisticated understandings of how to be a performer. This week we are at the start of the Journey. The training ensemble meets for the first time and so it begins. Welcome to Days One and Two of 'Climbing The Mountain'.

Welcome to DUENDE TIME - a bi-monthly podcast bringing you to the heart of DUENDE's work in training/making live, dynamic, physical and passionate performance. DUENDE is based in the UK, but DUENDE Artists and Associates are spread around the world. The podcast will bring you up to speed with what we are up to, what you can get involved with, what else is happening in the world of performance, ensemble and liveness that might interest you. Each episode will include insights into the process of training and creating live and 'present' performance. This episode contains the first two sections of a new book by John Britton (Founder & Artistic Director) called 'Climbing The Mountain: The Performer's Journey Into Presence'. CTM offers a profound and highly personal understanding of how to grow and deepen as a performer, and over the next months, the whole book will be offered for free through these podcasts. This week you will hear the Introduction and an insight into DUENDE's core exercise, The Ball Game.