On Sunday 22 and Monday 23 January 2012, If I Can’t Dance in collaboration with the Stedelijk Museum organises a Class of Masters with Matt Mullican at Frascati in Amsterdam. Mullican is accompanied by master of dance Nicole Beutler, master of performance Suchan Kinoshita and master from theatre Joachim Robbrecht, who, each from their own discipline, share their knowledge on acting out a script with the masterclass participants. During a two day programme masterclass participants will work on acting out a series of scripts on stage in short rehearsal sessions. The Class of Masters aims to practically think through questions of repetition and reproduction in performance and specifically examines how a person becomes a character.

If I Can’t Dance presents two public moments that offer an insight into the masterclass proceedings. On Sunday evening at 8 pm, curator Vanessa Desclaux and hypnotist Vanessa Fyland engage in a conversation on hypnotic practices. On Monday from 8 pm onward, the result of two days’ work by the participants in the class will be presented to the audience in a series of presentations. Theatre director Johan Simons will be present to offer his response.

Public programme
Sunday 22 January, 8 pm
Conversation Vanessa Desclaux with hypnotist Veronica Fyland on hypnotic practices, with an introduction by Matt Mullican
Tickets € 10,-

Monday 23 January, 8 pm
Roundtable with highlights from two days working in the theatre.
Tickets € 14,-

Tickets for both nights: discount of € 3,50 per night

Reservations to attend the public programme can be made with Frascati Theatre via their website.

Matt Mullican
Since his very first performance in the Kitchen in New York in 1978, Matt Mullican has worked with hypnosis. Over the past thirty years, Mullican has developed a practice of being hypnotized in public, which has led to the formation of a character with specific gestures and traits. This character is referred to as ‘That Person’, and in every performance displays recurring behaviour such as singing, crying, making coffee and drawing on paper and on walls. A recent yearlong exhibition project of Mullican’s archive at Hedah in Maastricht, titled Work in Residence, formed the occasion to take stock of all the recurring actions and gestures in his performances.

Together with curator Vanessa Desclaux, Matt Mullican has been invited to contribute to If I Can’t Dance’s programme Performance in Residence. A lecture by Mullican at the Stedelijk Museum on 5 May 2011 kicked off the project. Desclaux is concentrating her research on Mullican’s interest in acts of empathy, personification, and the construction of characters in the field of theatre. Mullican himself is developing these interests in a new production.

Partners
This Class of Masters is part of the research project by Matt Mullican and Vanessa Desclaux for If I Can’t Dance’s programme Performance in Residence, and is a co-production of If I Can’t Dance and the Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam. The masterclass is financially supported by the Netherlands Foundation for Visual Arts, Design and Architecture. With thanks to Frascati Theatre.