Jan Ritsema is buying an old girls convent, near Reims (FR) dating from 1830, with 80 rooms, 8-10 rehearsal spaces, theatre space, 1,2 ha walled garden, unfortunately a chapel and offices. This, what he calls a Performingsarts Forum (paf) should be a critical and productive site for the creation, research and development of theatre, dance and connected areas.
Ritsema focusses on two goals:
1. to strenghten the creative performance world, that of the makers, by creating a meeting place, out of which collaborative initiatives on the level of making, producing and presenting can be developed
2. to develop a way of schooling which is not repressive, in which participants (‘students’ and ‘teachers’) are 100% responsible for what and how they want to learn and teach. The forum is a place where one can ask and/or offer.
This free educational space is called the Forum. To avoid an atmosphere of freedom and happiness, the culture to be developed is that of high productivity, one is there because one wants to make, to exchange, performances, articles, thoughts, and of criticality, this means that reflections on work and persons and the performingarts in general are transparently, means controllable, means supported by reasoning and not by opinions and straightforward.
(Don’t get the impression of a fine democratic space. There will be no democracy. There is exhange. And one is assessed on its productivity and critical abilities. What moves is not only the people but a permanent exchange of ideas and propositions in search for being challenged.)
paf R.E.I.M.S. a site for longer or short term residencies, individual or group, a place to rent an appartment to live there, to create an officea site to develop performingarts skills.
The place rents rooms for the participants, little appartments of about 40m2 from 200 euro a month (ex telecommunication and energy supplies). Studio spaces are rented from 5 euro an hour (depending on size and quantity). And paf R.E.I.M.S rents offices, european residencies of international organisations,with or without equipment and employees for cultural and critical leftist political organisations.
The place will start in full speed, means with 50-80 participants, festivals, conferences, summeracademies from april 2006. From before this date, in the preparatory period, october 2005-april 2006 one can work and live there too under not yet ideal circimstances, but with the advantage of the development of the site.
There are no funds, uptill now.
The fees for ‘students’ will be 2200 euro for a whole year, or 850 for three months. ‘Teachers’ contracts to be discussed. Price of group residencies to be discussed too.
Send your ideas or application to: jritsema@gdt.nl
For anyone who is in whatever way interested in this, contact Jan Ritsema on:
Email: jritsema@gdt.nl
Mobile: +32479910668
