Mat Iech - Elisabeth Schilling • prof. Dancer

ABOUT TALKS TOUR PAST TOURS WORKSHOPS PUBLICATIONS SYMPOSIUMS PRESENT PARTICIPANTS’ COMMENTS

Mat Iech is the title of a programme launching in 2022, which encompasses Elisabeth’s passion for outreach & mediation. Elisabeth cares about making dance accessible to people from wider sections of the population in a variety of ways. Mat Iech includes two specific branches:

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1. Mediation: for each production we develop individual programmes, specifically designed to accompany your varied audience experience. These programmes range from post-performance conversations with the audience based on Elisabeth’s key-chain methodology to workshops, symposia and catalogue publications.

2. Accessibility: Mat Iech brings the world of dance to two groups of people close to Elisabeth’s heart. Firstly, to children, regardless of age, background, language or origin, and secondly to people who, whether for financial, social, geographical or health-related reasons, can no longer go to the theatre.
Our vision is to present performances, along with workshops and talks, ideally with live musical accompaniment, in or around old people’s homes, in so-called social hotspots, in hospitals, in rural areas with poor accessibility or even in kindergartens and schools. These specifically designed events are very flexible and can be adapted to the needs of each institution and its residents.

TALKS

Part of Elisabeth’s approach to engaging audiences in contemporary performance lies in her Key Chain method; a role-reversed post-show talk where the audience is given full authority to explore their own interpretation in a space where there can be no wrong answers. Elisabeth has developed this method as a guide to audiences to discover their own way into the work that takes place immediately after the performance. Key Chain encourages individual viewpoints and opinions on the work, and aims to trigger individual creativity and imagination when interpreting the performance. With the Key Chain method, Elisabeth is particularly eager to attract audiences who seldom or never see dance performances and hopes to inspire a new curiosity in dance. There is also a possibity to present the Key Chain method in German.

TOUR

PAST TOURS

Officially launched in 2022, the Mat Iech Program has celebrated over 40 performances and events in Luxembourg, the Greater Region of Luxembourg and the UK up to date:

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ITA INFINITA

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20-24^th April 2024 – Tour

20 April – SERVIOR, MS Centre Geenzebléi, Wiltz, 15h00

20 April – Trisomie 21 Lëtzebuerg a.s.b.l., Betzdorf, 18h30

21 April – Fondation Pro Familia, Düdelange, 2 performances, 15h00; 16h15

22 April – Maison relais inclusive, Niederkorn, 9h45

22 April – Croix Rouge, Don Bosco, Luxembourg City, 16h00

23 April – Fondation Lëtzebuerger Kannerduerf, Mersch, 17h00

24 April – Fondatioun Kriibskrank Kanner, Bertrange, 11h00

24 April – Le Département Jeunesse la FMPO, Maison Saint Martin, 16h30 ⠀

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9 – 13 October 2022 – Tour:

09 October – SOS Kannerduerf Mersch

09 October – Centre thérapeutique Manternach

10 October – Two School Performances, Trifolion Echternach

10 October – Servior Um Schleeschen Echternach

11 October – School Performance, Trifolion Echternach

11 October – Servior Belle Vue Echternach

12 October – Kinderheim St. Paul, Synagoge Wittlich

13 October – Hospice civile in Echternach

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PRISMA Tour 2023

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4th October 2023 – Arlene Anderson School, Scotland

3rd October 2023 – The Byre Youth and Community Arts, St Andrews, Scotland

2nd October 2023 – Episcopal Church Hall, St. Andrews, Scotland

30th September 2023 – St. Andrews Botanic Gardens, Scotland

29th September 2023 – Rothes Halls Youth Theatre, Scotland

29th September 2023 – BYCA premises, St. Andrews, Scotland

28th September 2023 – Yvonne Grey School, St Andrews, Scotland

28th September 2023 – Cosmos Centre Primary School, St Andrews, Scotland

27th September 2023 – Kaimhill Primary School, Aberdeen, Scotland

26th September 2023 – Gilcomstoun Primary School, Aberdeen, Scotland

25th September 2023 – Fusion Dance, Aberdeen, Scotland

25th September 2023 – Care Home Fergus, Dyce / Aberdeen, Scotland

25th September 2023 – Skene Primary School, Aberdeen, Scotland

23rd September 2023 – Westbank Care Home, Aberdeen, Scotland

WORKSHOPS

For every performance, Elisabeth and team create a specifically designed workshop structure, which can be adapted for people of different experiences and ages. Often of an interdisciplinary nature, the workshops can be flexible in terms of location and length of time.

SIXFOLD workshop

FELT workshop

PUBLICATIONS

In order to make the broad layers of a choreographic work accessible to our audiences, to document the process, but also to give a voice to the artistic team, Elisabeth and team create publications along with performances:

HEAR EYES MOVE. Dances with Ligeti – Catalogue

This trilingual catalogue accompanying the project HEAR EYES MOVE. Dances with Ligeti includes Welcome words by our co-producing partners, three commissioned texts and two commissioned poems. The three texts are by musicologist and Ligeti-specialist – Jean – François Boukobza, dance & music scholar – Stephanie Schroedter as well as by dancer and writer – Roísín O’Brien. The poems are by Luc Spada and Nathalie Ronvaux .

This publication designed by Studio Polenta contains also the reproductions of photography made by Bohumil Kostohryz.

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FELT – Catalogue

Accompanying FELT is 38-page catalogue with specially developed and commissioned texts by the German art historian Dr. Nele Lipp and the British artist and curator Tim Nunn. The catalogue also includes an interview with Elisabeth Schilling, as well as extensive information about the show and the history of its creation.

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SYMPOSIUMS

Elisabeth and team have, until today, produced and co-curated one symposium along with the subjects of a performance:

Symposium on Movement, time, space and art of dance in Hunterian Gallery, Scotland

PRESENT

Currently, the two following projects are examples of her present work around Mat Iech.

BOX OF LIFE

ITA INFINITA

DANCING THE CITY

From 2021 – 2023 Elisabeth is Artist in Residence at TRIFOLION Echternach. Working within a venue and in a city that has enjoyed very sparse contact to contemporary dance in the past, Elisabeth sees it as her responsibility to strategically structure her residency and her artistic projects to invite people into experiencing dance for the very first time. Titled Dancing The City, the residency aims at creating projects that connect urban events with performances on stage. Elisabeth hopes to enhance the visibility, presence and consciousness of dance by bringing dance projects right to the city centre, which will hopefully spark interest within a wide audience and in turn invite them to see the accompanying stage works in the theatre building.

PARTICIPANTS’ COMMENTS

‘‘Elizabeth’s carefully considered interactions with her audience and her willingness to embrace a proactive exchange of views and perspectives as a central part of the process of the work, ensured an experience that was inherently open and responsive. Elizabeth is one of those rare performers who can take audiences, not necessarily versed in contemporary dance or performance, and move them toward a much deeper and enjoyable level of experience. FELT delivered a moment of magic in our theatre space, truly felt by all who were lucky enough to experience it.’

– Lorraine Grant, Director, The Barn Theatre –

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‘Elisabeth is not only a very talented dancer but also a very gifted communicator who manages to engage audience members who have had no prior exposure to contemporary dance, gaining their trust and using Key Chain questions to provide a safe and accessible structure to allow a dialogue between performer and audience.’

– Tony Humbleyard, The Studio at Shorestation, Unst –

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‘Elizabeth puts audience experience at the centre of her performances, her ability to gently and beautifully engage with her audiences is impressive and is incredibly helpful in breaking down the barriers normally associated with contemporary dance, which can only support audience growth and development for the artform. This is especially evident in her approach to post show conversation which creates a safe space for discourse.’

– Jan McTaggart, Interim Director, The Byre Theatre –

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‘I would like to thank you very much for giving my children and teenagers the opportunity to take part in ITA INFINITA. It’s such a shame that our group wasn’t bigger and I’m sorry for all the work and effort you and your team put in (…). But all in all, I’m glad for every young person who was there and had the opportunity to get to know an art form that young people otherwise have little or no exposure to. A special compliment to you for the way you approached the young people and tried to integrate them into the performance.’

– Roland Konrath-Pütz, educator –

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‘Nevertheless, the ‘confrontation’ itself has left its mark on the pupils. Trusting that students will open up, we must continue to offer and accept the unfamiliar and confront them with the world and art.‘

– George Urwald, teacher –

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‘An original and unusual show for our residents’

– Hospice Civil, Echternach –

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‘The choreographer tried to get the children involved, she asked lots of questions and was interested in what the children perceived or interpreted from the dance.’

– SOS Kannerduerf, Mersch –

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