CRA’P Workshops 2025
From 6 to 8 June
Camp at Casa Candela, Sant Martí Sesserres, Alt Empordà
A weekend to practice Kalari in nature.
In the evenings, it will be proposed to freely share artistic expressions such as music, dance, singing, poetry, theatre, performance, etc.
The Kalaripayattu of Kerala (India) is one of the most ancient martial art forms in the world. Through its very scientific physical discipline, it opens up the practitioner energy channels and pushes the boundaries of the body to become strong, flexible and focused – physically, mentally and spiritually; the reason why both theatre and dance artists and anyone interested practice it as a daily discipline.
All levels. No previous experience is needed.
Conducted by Esther Freixa i Ràfols
Place:
Casa Candela, Sant Martí Sesserres, Alt Empordà
Schedule:
Friday 17h to 20h
Saturday 10h to 13h and 16h a 19h
Sunday 10h to 13h
Arrival Friday from 16h
Departure Sunday from 13h or after lunch
It is recommended to do the whole weekend (3 days and 2 nights), but if this is not possible there is the option to come only Saturday, or one day and a half (1 night).
Everyone must bring their own food. A kitchen is available.
Price:
From Friday to Sunday sleeping with mattresses in shared space
155€ (135€ associated members of CRA’P, members of the APdC, APCC, AADPC, AGT).
Discount registration before 5 May: 145€ (125€ associated members of CRA’P, members of the APdC, APCC, AADPC, AGT).
From Friday to Sunday sleeping in your own tent, car or ban
135€ (115€ associated members of CRA’P, members of the APdC, APCC, AADPC, AGT).
Discount registration before 5 May: 125€ (105€ associated members of CRA’P, members of the APdC, APCC, AADPC, AGT).
From Friday to Saturday or from Saturday to Sunday sleeping with mattresses in shared space
110€ (95€ associated members of CRA’P, members of the APdC, APCC, AADPC, AGT).
Discount registration before 5 May: 100€ (90€ associated members of CRA’P, members of the APdC, APCC, AADPC, AGT).
From Friday to Saturday or from Saturday to Sunday sleeping in your own tent, car or ban
100€ (85€ associated members of CRA’P, members of the APdC, APCC, AADPC, AGT).
Discount registration before 5 May: 90€ (80€ associated members of CRA’P, members of the APdC, APCC, AADPC, AGT).
Only Saturday
60€ (50€ associated members of CRA’P, members of the APdC, APCC, AADPC, AGT).
Discount registration before 5 May: 55€ (45€ associated members of CRA’P, members of the APdC, APCC, AADPC, AGT).
Registrations:
info@cra-p.org – 666 763 504
Esther Freixa i Ràfols is an actress and theatre maker with a degree in acting from the Theatre Institute of Barcelona. She works as a performer with different artists and companies. At the same time, she searches for pedagogic outlines to allow the transmission of knowledge about the body and the creative act: classes, workshops and various courses. Since 2012 she is learning Kalaripayattu in Hindustan Kalari Sangam and Kalarigram, India, and since 2015 opens the practice in Spain with regular classes, intensive workshops and retreats where the Kalari is integrated with other disciplines such as meditation, Vedic chant, yoga and explorations of body and nature. She is a founding member of CRA’P – Creation and artistic research Practices.
CRA’P Resident April 2025 to December 2026
COREOMANIA
COREOMANIA unfolds in three interconnected dimensions: research, the activation of participatory practices and the creation of a small-format hybrid piece. The current research stems from the desire to deepen the work carried out in Epidemia de Baile (2022-2024), a project that explores the genealogy of choreomania from the European medieval dance epidemics that has generated multiple scenic and performative formats through participatory methodologies, receiving the support of several residencies, creation centres, associations, entities, festivals and the research grant from the Department of Culture of the Government of Catalonia (2023).
COREOMANIA is based on the analysis of the intersection between dance, madness and body control, focusing on choreomania as a historical phenomena and its reverberations in the present. To do so, I will articulate research, creation and documentation from a transdisciplinary perspective to transcribe, archive, recover and critically reinterpret narratives and aesthetics that have associated dance with madness and lack of control and that, when the decolonial view is incorporated, transcend to a dimension of political agitation.
In this research I intend to analyse the alterkinetic dances – chorea, hysteria and tarantella – using historical research, visual materials from cinema and various iconographic materials that I will complement with participatory practices based on the notion of the body archive to address the translation of bodily experiences into writing and shared critical thinking about bodies, movement and the structures of power that permeate them without losing their performative dimension.
Zoe Balasch, based in Igualada, is a Perfotming Arts maker and performer with a multidisciplinary background. She holds a degree in Psychology (UAB) specialising in psychosocial research and community intervention with an interdisciplinary background in dance, somatic techniques and meditation. Accredited Hatha yoga training (AEPY) and Postgraduate in Live Arts and Contexts, Institut del Teatre in Vic. Her work has spanned different fields and projects in search of artistic practices where the body is the main axis for developing new narratives, perspectives and aesthetics, addressing social, environmental and political issues capable of questioning and transforming our present.
As a researcher she explores how bodies are influenced by various forces, visible and invisible, focusing on the representation of the human body from a cultural, social and symbolic perspective. Her work explores the creation of context through participatory methodologies and the choreography of the invisible, resulting in dance and live -art pieces that adopt diverse formats in a language that fluctuates across a wide spectrum of creative forms. She has been involved in creative work for art galleries, contemporary creation centres and universities, and has worked in national and international festivals, presenting in Catalonia and the rest of Spain, Cyprus, Slovakia, Thailand, Denmark, France, Portugal and in the city of Berlin, where she lived temporarily: MAC Mercè Arts de Carrer, Dansa Metropolitana, Escena Poblenou, 15m2 Festival Internacional de micordansa itinerant, Cyprus Embodied Sites, NU_Dance Fest, Sound Walk Sunday London, among others.
Since 2022, as a creator, her line of work has focused on the mediaeval dance epidemics phenomena via the project Epidemia de baile, winner of the 2024 ‘En mi barrio hacen performances’ (In my neighbourhood they do performances) of the Centre Cívic Can Felipa and Escena Poblenou. Within the framework of Epidemia de baile she directed the following group and participative creations: “Epidemia de ball -site-specific-” (itinerant street format) Festival Escena Poblenou 2024, “1518/840 Transitar lo Invisible” (8h performance) at the Night of Museums, Centre de arts Santa Mònica 2024, and “Corpografias Inclasificables” Centre de arts Santa Mònica, 2023.
Works as a performer in the multidisciplinary companies, Colectivo Free’t and Cia.David Ymbernon. As an improvising dancer, she collaborates with different artists of the dance and improvisational music scene and is a member of the association laBastida de la Reguera in Igualada where she promotes improvisational dance meetings and jams. Since 2022 she participates in the programme “’Wednesdays of Sound and Body”’ at the Centre d’Arts Santa Mònica.
THE LEGACY OF THE KALARI
CRA’P Presentations 2025
Saturday, 24 May at 11:00 at CRA’P space
We remember the master Veerasree Sami Gurukkal, who dedicated his life to the transmission of Kalarippayattu that we do at CRA’P.
A great opportunity to discover kalarippayattu. There will be demonstrations by kalari practitioners. There will also be: a dance theatre performance of ‘Topeng’, with traditional Balinese masks, by Toni Cots, ritual dance by Laurence Morlon and traditional dance from India Bharatanatyam by Samyukta Chillara. With the musical support of the percussionist Jordi Rallo. And an introductory open practice for those who want to experience the fundamentals of Kalaripayattu.
The Kalarippayattu of Kerala (India) is one of the most ancient martial art forms in the world. Through its very scientific physical discipline, it opens up the practitioner energy channels and pushes the boundaries of the body to become strong, flexible and focused – physically, mentally and spiritually; the reason why both theatre and dance artists and anyone interested practice it as a daily discipline. No physical condition or previous experience is necessary to practice.
Reversed box office.
CRA’P Collaborations 2025
Sunday 27 April at 19h
Theatre Can Gomà – Mollet del Vallès
CRA’P presents “El lugar de los pasos perdidos” a performance by Mónica Valenciano
There is a place of remembrance where the previous steps resound in the present, a potential space where presence happens as a place of a-appearance, something comes forth in that palpitating plot…between the steps that time suspends, the body moves carried by that which it brings, a polyphony of voices in the voice. There where a call plays in us, we hear the language that burns, the crumbling question dances its lostness…emergencies of a time that we ignore at the same time.
Artistic credits
Corpography and performance: Mónica Valenciano
Music – fragment: Bach – Sonata nº 9 A Major for violin and piano Op. 47
Lighting Design: Cristina Libertad
Accompaniment in residency of creation: Raquel Sánchez – Cristina Carroquino – Chefer Cuneo – Maria Escobar.
Spaces of Residence in Collaboration: Ensalle Theatre (Vigo) – CasaVella (Ourense) – L’animal a la Esquena (Girona) – Espacio en Blanco (Madrid) – Casa Encendida (Madrid) – Escena 311 (Madrid)
Tickets sale:
Online: https://molletvalles.koobin.com
Cultural centre La Marineta (Pl. De l’Església, 7, from Monday to Friday from 15.30h till 21h)
Theatre Can Gomà: at box-office, the same day one hour before the performance, if tickets available.
Fee: 5 €
Mónica Valenciano is winner of the 2012 National Dance Award in the category of Creation.
Degree in Dance and Drama – from the Theatre and Dance Institute of Barcelona – and the RESAD of Madrid. Continuing her training with different courses, among others – Improvisation Dance with (Katie Duck) – Archery – Qigong – Afro-Peruvian Rhythm with (Victoria Santa Cruz) – R. Laban Technique with (Pilar Urreta) – Boxing – Yoga (Iyengar) – Kathak Dance in Benares (India) – Flamenco beat (Madrid) – and Tai Chi in The Traditional School of Wudang (China). She has been part of the Collective – “U.V.I – La Inesperada”. Pradillo Community – and of the Group of shared practices – “misión divina”.
She dances… as someone digging into the body, un-blocking, opening new circuits that might enable access to the listening of her voice.
Exploring through body-graphic writing – the breath of movement – the acoustics of gesture – multifocality of the body – the unfolding body in its polyphony and relational possibilities . Witnessing the discovery of textures, tonalities, skills and qualities that emerge from a continuous process of disclosure.
Capturing the happening itself, from this listening to the body-movement as an instrument and place of resonance, from the formulation of a language that does not try to explain anything, but involves us in the convocation of this encounter …By cultivating a state of presence that resonates intimately through the spectator.
She investigates the ability to inhabit any space – to learn to accompany time – to free the voice of the body hidden in the dancing body – to be in the air of any movement… in this way to disappear better and better, to allow something to appear be-comes almost the essential movement.
In this journey she has transited through different stations, giving rise to different pieces and rehearsals. Among others: The series of the 9 “Disparates” (inspired by Goya’s engravings), Canción Laberinto, Un Pescador con subtítulos, Impregnaciones en la Srta Nieve y Guitarra, Borrado En-Canto, Imprenta Acústica en (14 borrones ) de una aparición produced by Naves MATADERO (Madrid), with the collaboration of L’animal a la Esquena (Girona), Teatro Ensalle (Vigo), Estudio 3 (Madrid), Mnemosyna in collaboration with Patricia Caballero produced by La Poderosa, Festival Salmon (Mercat de les Flors), Espacio Silvestre (El Graner). Barcelona. Month of dance. Seville. Es luna llena en la cicatriz, produced by NAVES MATADERO in collaboration with the visual artist Elena del Rivero and curated by Mateo Feijoo.
In addition to video works: Srta Nieve y Guitarra made by Chus Domínguez. Octava Errante a commission by Pedro G. Romero, Ensayos para Nada y Ave a commission by Javier Corcovado, the film He venido a Leer la Noche directed by Manuel F.Valdés (produced by NAVES MATADERO), the documentary La Voz del Cuerpo, directed by Marta Blanco, as a register of a rehearsal journal about the process of “Imprenta Acústica en ..(14 borrones ) ..de una Aparición”.
Also, various publications. Texts and drawings: Disparates – published by PLIEGOS de TEATRO y DANZA – (Antonio F.Lera). Música en los huesos – published by – LA LUZ ROJA. Diarios de una estación – published by – LA PORTA. Cuadernos de la nave – edited by – LA LUZ ROJA. Un pescador con subtítulos – edited by – ESCRITO A LÁPIZ. La voz del cuerpo – edited by – PLIEGOS DE TEATRO Y DANZA – (Antonio F.Lera). Currently being edited: El Cuerpo como lugar de Aparición – Ediciones DocumentA/Escénicas – (Gabriela Halac).
Her works have been shared in different festivals in Spain, Europe, USA and Latin America.
She continues a line of creation and research in collaboration with “El Bailadero – G.I.B.”, as well as giving Workshops and Sessions for the Master of creation (Universidad Carlos III), or shared practices with other artists.
Photos: Alba Montañez
CRA’P Workshops 2025
SATURDAYS IN MOTION
With Mar Medina, Cecilia Colacrai and Àfrica Martínez
From April to June. 3rd Saturday of the month from 10h to 13h.
ALL WORKSHOP INFORMATION Registrations: send an email to info@cra-p.org o call at 666 763 504.CRA’P Workshops 2025
From April to June. One Saturday per month from 10h to 13h.
It is a cycle of three encounters to enjoy the body in movement with the accompaniment of different dance and bodywork professionals.
26 April with Mar Medina
The Alexander technique establishes a relation of the right effort required for being in life. What temporality our way of living inscribes in the tissues? How long does it take me to stretch a mesh? What tone does it need? By listening to time, we propose to enter into the space of corporeality through breathing and deep joint mobility, and from the gaps that open up, to move the dance.
17 May with Cecilia Colacrai
The proposal for this encounter is to generate a space/time for the investigation of movement through improvisation, playing, listening and intuition. We will explore the physical and perceptual possibilities of the body, as well as those of our imagination, operating with simple movement patterns that help us to be available for interaction, observation and openness in dialogue with others.
14 June with Àfrica Martínez Ferrin
Waggle dance is the name I have given to the practice of movement in relation between body and voice. The origin of dance and music is indissociable, they are human manifestations of poetic connection with the world since the beginning of times. In this session we will explore and put into action our bodies and our voices as materials of artistic expression.
Fees:
3 workshops: €80 (€70 for CRA’P members and collaborators)
1 workshop: 30€ (25€ for CRA’P members and collaborators)
Registration:
info@cra-p.org / +34 666 763 504
At CRA’P Space
Mar Medina. Barcelona 1976. While graduating in Art History at the University of Barcelona, she trained as a dancer in different European cities, at Movement Research in New York and with Anne Bogart’s company SITI. Her wide-ranging curiosity about the experience of the body in movement led her to study Alexander Technique and to become interested in other somatic issues in the creative field. She is a practitioner of Tibetan osteopathy. After working as a dancer in different companies, she began to pay more attention to processes than to events, and has dedicated herself to teaching and collaborating in independent projects such as La Poderosa, INFRA-, MovLab, Fundació Antoni Tàpies, Constant Association for Art and Media, or Imarte.
Cecilia Colacrai. She is a dancer, choreographer and dance teacher. She is interested in researching movement, the body’s languages, instant composition, scenic creation and dance transmission methodologies. For 23 years, she has been working in Catalonia and other countries developing her projects both in the fields of creation and pedagogy. She is currently a member of the Big Bouncers collective and the Group LaBolsa, and she also collaborates with different artists such as Joao Lima, Carlota Subirós, Lucas Condró, among others. She is a member of the teaching staff of the Theatre Institute and other schools of dance, theatre as well as educational projects.
Àfrica Martínez Ferrin. A Performing Arts director and maker, with a degree in Choreography from the Theatre Institute of Barcelona. She is a dancer, singer and director of the performing arts centre lacolmenadeafrica.com in Cadiz. She offers trainings and workshops periodically, in which she shares her research work on waggle dance, body and voice practices as a tool for expression and creation.
CRA’P Workshop 2025
BODY WEATHER
ON IMPROVISATION
Conducted by Frank van de Ven (BW Amsterdam/Melbourne)
12 and 13 April from 11h to 17h
ALL WORKSHOP INFORMATION Registrations: send an email to info@cra-p.org o call at 666 763 504.ON IMPROVISATION
CRA’P Workshops 2025
12 and 13 April from 11h to 17h
On Improvisation
Musicians Frederic Rzewski and Steve Lacy: In 1968 I ran into Steve lacy on the street in Rome. I took out my pocket tape recorder and asked him to describe in fifteen seconds the difference between composition and improvisation. He answered: “in fifteen seconds the difference between composition and improvisation is that in composition you have all the time you want to decide what to say in fifteen seconds, while in improvisation you have fifteen seconds”. (from Derek Bailey’s book “Improvisation”)
Body Weather is a comprehensive approach to training and performance that investigates the intersections of bodies and their environments. Bodies are conceived not as fixed and separate entities but as constantly changing – just like the weather. Weather is seen as a complex system of forces and influences coursing through and beyond bodies and the world.
The term & philosophical basis for Body Weather was founded in the early 1980’s by dancer Min Tanaka and further developed by Laboratories worldwide. Frank van de Ven was a member of Tanaka’s Maijuku Performance Company in Japan, from 1983-1991. With Katerina Bakatsaki he leads Body Weather Amsterdam, a platform for training and performance. He has an ongoing commitment to the Body/Landscape projects he initiates worldwide and since 1995 has led the annual, interdisciplinary Bohemiae Rosa Project with Milos Sejn (Academy of Art & Design, Prague, Czech Republic), connecting body and landscape with art, geology and architecture.
As a training, Body Weather is of relevance to anyone interested in exploring the body and physical presence. After a thorough training and work with a partner on breathing, stretching, alignment and the notion of ‘relaxation’ in the morning, we will delve into the particulars of improvisation in dance and movement. We’ll explore both physical and mental states of being and creating movement, improvise on non-existing scores and inspect prevalent habits and patterns.
This workshop is suited to dance, theatre and movement practitioners and artists of various backgrounds.
Conducted by Frank van de Ven (BW Amsterdam/Melbourne)
Fee:
130€ (110€ CRA’P collaborators and associated members, members of the APdC, APCC, AADPC, AGT and graduates from the Theatre Institute of Barcelona)
Discount registration before 1 March:
115€ (100€ CRA’P collaborators and associated members, members of the APdC, APCC, AADPC, AGT and graduates from the Theatre Institute of Barcelona)
Registration:
info@cra-p.org / 666 763 504
CRA’P space
Frank van de Ven (BW Amsterdam/Melbourne) is a dancer and director who spent his formative years in Japan working with Min Tanaka and the Maijuku Performance Company (1983-92). In 1993, he founded with Katerina Bakatsaki Body Weather Amsterdam as a platform for training and performance. He is one of the foremost Body Weather practitioners in Europe performing and teaching regularly all over Europe as well as intermittently in USA, New Zealand and Australia. He has an ongoing commitment to his Body/Landscape series of workshops conducted worldwide and since 1995 he has led the annual, interdisciplinary Bohemiae Rosa Project with Milos Sejn (Academy of Fine Arts, Prague, Czech Republic,) connecting body and landscape with art, geology and architecture. The collaborative Thought/Action performances with Australian theatre artist Peter Snow have been presented in Australia, USA, New Zealand, Asia and Europe.
Organisations and institutions he has worked with include: Dansens hus Oslo – APDI Dublin – Te Whaea National Dance and Drama Centre Wellington – Dancehouse Melbourne – Werkhuys Antwerp – Musikhochschule Koln – C de la B Gent Belgium – Dansens Hus Copenhagen – Monash University Melbourne – SNDO Amsterdam – Kramhusid Reykjavik – Academy of Performing Arts Prague – Map Festival Melaka Malaysia – Charleroi Danses Brussels – CIRA Strasbourg – Greenwich Dance London – Copenhagen Film and Theatre School Copenhagen – MA Performing Arts New University Lisbon – Unitec Auckland.
For more info on Body Weather Amsterdam see http://bodyweatheramsterdam.nl
Fotos: Alba Montañez
CRA’P Resident January – December 2025
TEXTURES
THE LISTENING AS A POETIC ESSAY / POLITICISING THE POETIC BODY
A research and creation project on the identity of the body and its politics of representation based on the textures of movement in writing. The project seeks to register and display the conditions of the body and its materialities (fragility, affects, vulnerability, otherness).
TEXTURES offer a return to intimacy, in this case through dance research, as a place of encounter, as a way of sustaining the fragilities that constitute and con-form us. The main questions that mobilise the research suggest the possibility of considering intimacy as a political gesture, the listening as a poetic essay, and the movement as a way of expressing this dialogue between body-thought.
Ana S Couso. Graduated in Law and Economics, MA in Cultural Management (UOC) and Master in Contemporary Arts Practice and Dissemination, organised by L’animal a l’esquena / University of Girona/Dartington College of Arts/ Maska.
In dance she has trained independently in different schools and workshops in Madrid, Barcelona and Thessaloniki (Greece). Has participated in workshops and festivals in Europe and Israel. Has collaborated with companies and artists from Greece (Vis Motrix, XSomma-Popi Sfika, Adranies), France/Japan (Masaki Iwana) and Israel (Shahar Dor). Together with other artists she founded the collective Nomeolvides.co and co-directed the multidisciplinary festival ‘Espacio’, based in Thessaloniki (Greece, 2008-2012). Recently, she trained as a Seitai (Katsugen/Yuki) instructor.
In 2010, she completed the Master in Contemporary Arts Practice and Dissemination where she investigates the body in movement as an experience of intimacy, a research that she is currently pursuing with the project ‘Estudio sobre el Humo’. In 2019, she presents the first draft of this project (‘Memoria de un instante’), with the assistance of Toni Cots and the collaboration of Carme Torrent.
In recent years she has collaborated with different cultural associations: CRA`P – Pràctiques de creació i recerca artística, l’associació Espaidó and l’associació Cultura Seitai for the dissemination of Seitai.
CRA’P Presentations 2025
Sunday 30 March, 19h
CRA’P space
CRA’P presents “Unipersonal con canto de cigarras”. At the end there will be a post-performance discussion with actress and author Marcela De Grande, who has come especially from Argentina.
Unipersonal con canto de cigarras is a play and object theatre, written and performed by Marcela De Grande and directed by Germán Rodríguez.
The play was created from 24 life stories of grandchildren who were reinstated by the Grandmothers of Plaza de Mayo, children of the disappeared who were stolen during the military dictatorship, and later found (more than 40 years later) by their biological families. The author, a contemporary of these grandchildren, carried out a work of research and reconstruction of social memory and individual identities, combining candid and even amusing moments of her own childhood and adolescence with documented stories of the other boys and girls.
Thus, between the innocent laughter of a little girl’s gaze and the tears born of the awareness of pain, the destinies of all of them show the complexity of what happened in that atrocious period in Argentina, the impact that still has on all of us and the way, sometimes inattentive, in which we are all subjects, products and producers, of the great History.
ARTISTIC TEAM
Music: Vida Leda dúo
Coach in theatre of objects: Hernesto Mussano
Analysis and research: Josette Halegoi and Marcela De Grande
Grafic design: Pablo Archetti and Maitén López Braun
Printing: Artes & Oficios
Video: Julián Enríquez
Dramaturgy and interpretation: Marcela De Grande
Direction: Germán Rodríaguez
Duration of the performance: 45 minutes
Audience: all audiences aged 12 and over
Fee: 15€
Limited places by pre-booking:
info@cra-p.org / 666 763 504
“Unipersonal con canto de cigarras” was selected by the Instituto Nacional del Teatro (Argentina) for its production. Within this framework, it will be staging 12 performances in the Buenos Aires region in the coming months.
The performance was premiered in Brasilia on 24 April 2024, invited to the VII International Colloquium of Clinical Sociology and Psychosociology ‘Democracy under threat: Crises, fractures and resistance’ at the University of Brasilia (UnB).
It also was presented in the same city on 26 April 2024 at the Casa dos Quatro theatre.
Before the premiere, a series of public performances were held in cultural spaces in Buenos Aires (Macacha, CC El Colectivo, among others).
Marcela De Grande has a degree in Literature from the University of Paris III and completed her training in theatre and human and social sciences in Paris and Buenos Aires. She is a dramaturge and actress, as well as a translator and facilitator in clinical sociology…
She is co-founder and member of the cultural centre El Colectivo (Buenos Aires) since 2000 and coordinator of its theatre production workshop. She has written and directed the plays Cáspita, Soponcio!, A la sombra del paraíso and El canto de las cigarras, and has participated in numerous plays, among them Soñar no cuesta nada, with Claudio Hochman, performances of Microteatro Bs As, Beethoven de la cia Babelteatro….
Photos: Alba Montañez