ARTICULATE OPEN CLASS ROOMS
Artist-researchers at the Conservatoire as well as external researchers present their research to students, by elaborating on the scope of their project, introducing their methods, research processes, or (preliminary) conclusions, performing an artistic result or by supervising a workshop.
OPEN CLASSROOMS - DRAMA
by ISABELLE GATT
Room 430, Conservatoire
In this session, we will follow community theatre projects from their first sparks to collaborative performance. Short video excerpts will reveal not only the outcomes, but also the research, relationships, and creative risks that shaped them. We will also move from reflection to practice. Through activities inspired by work with non-actors, we explore how research feeds devising: how it becomes movement, image, and story; how it needs both structure and openness; and how facilitators nurture trust while guiding the process. You will see how research transforms not only theatre, but also people and relationships at its heart.
Kwaad lichaam
LECTURE-WORKSHOP / language: Dutch
by ANNIKA SERONG
Room 431, Conservatoire
The lecture presents ANNIKA SERONG’s research on villains, focusing on the embodiment of villainy. For centuries, narratives signaled inner monstrosity through outer difference: bodies marked as old, abject, asexual, disfigured, disabled, or simply “other” became shorthand for evil. Embodiment of villainy carries a certain quality—but what happens when we rethink these tropes? In the workshop, participants explore the link between body and villainy. Is there an “evil” body, or a physicality that provokes “evil” thoughts? Using performative tools, we question our perceptions and how villainy emerges through the viewer’s gaze: why do we read certain bodies as villainous?
Dramaturgies of Withdrawal: On Gestures of Refusal in Search of More Nourishing Artistic and Institutional Practices
WORKSHOP / language: English
by MARTA KEIL
Room 432, Conservatoire
We live in exhausting, extractivist times, leaving many artists and institutions depleted. Navigating unstable work, funding cuts, competition, and political urgencies, they are often too tired to imagine otherwise—yet we rarely meet in this exhaustion. What might regenerative practices look like, and what must we release to make space for them? In the first part of the workshop, we discuss exhaustion in the performing arts. In the second, we write a spell for a more regenerative institution. The workshop introduces ‘Gestures of Withdrawal: Dramaturgies of Refusal in Performing Arts’, a research project investigating fatigue, cases of withdrawal, and more nourishing artistic and institutional practices.
Theatre, teens & methodics: discover how co-creation fuels research and performance
WORKSHOP / language: Dutch-English
by SANDERIJN HELSEN
Room 435, Conservatoire
For years, SANDERIJN HELSEN explored the world of teens through her theatrical trilogy. ‘De Puberfluisteraar’ (2023), a performance on electronic beats, had teenagers as muses, coaches, and audience—sometimes all at the same time! For ‘Jeanne’ (2025), teenagers helped shape the story of their medieval peer, Jeanne d’Arc, into a theatre concert. In the final part, ‘To Be(Come)’, she will co-create a manifesto with 17–19-year-olds. Over time, she has developed a playful co-creation methodology, refined during a pilot study at the Conservatoire within the research group CORPoREAL. In this workshop, she shares her artistic journey and invites you to discover how research and creation spark each other.