Poetry Mediation is a further development of my previous poetic activities. My two studies - acting training at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art and Master of Fine Arts in Creative Writing, Poetry - came together for the first time in 1998 with my first staging of a poetry performance. Since then I create spaces for poetry, mainly in the form of performance - up to 2008 under the name of emerging properties. Since 2005 I also practice reciting, writing and performing poetry with school children.
My way of mediating poetry consists in
What's special about my work is the direct relation to language. I access a poem through words, sounds, rhythm and movement. The content of a poem reveals itself from the structure, not through discussion. What's key to me is the individual understanding and the physical experience of poetry and the way this transforms our ways of dealing with language.
Qualification
1991-94 acting training, Royal Academy of Dramatic Art
1994-96 Master of Fine Arts in Creative Writing, Poetry, Vermont College
Since 1998 Poetry Performances - up to 2008 under the name of emerging properties - in collaboration with cultural manager Catherine Launay
and fibre artist Jeanette Sendler
Since 2005 Poetry Mediator
www.catherinelaunay.com
www.sendler.co.uk
Additional qualification:
Since 1985 Yoga Practice
2000-2003 Workshops with Amos Hetz, Movement Studies
Since 2004 Linklater voice work with Thomas Buts and Luitgard Jansen
Since 2005 collaboration with Vanessa Mildenberg as part of her practice based Ph.D. in Voice and Movement
2006 Live Art Workshop at the National Review of Live Art
Since 2007 breath work
2008 Introduction to Qi Gong
Poetry mediator
05 KM Antenne - Workshop for 16 year olds
06 Kinder und Jugendtheater, Düsseldorf - Workshop Anders-Einzig
05-08 Moabiter Grundschule - poetry with 3.,4.,5.,6. grade
08/09 for Printemps des Poètes active as poetry mediator
Romain Rolland Schule - Workshop to a poem by Stephane Mallarme with an 11. grade
Erika Mann Grundschule - Workshop to a poem by Joachim Ringelnatz with a 5. grade
Istanbul Project
CV
1965 Born in Freiburg, Germany
1981 Emigrated to Great Britain
1985 A Levels, Technical College, Bath
1985-91 Apprenticeship in the jewellery business, temp, translator, actress in amateur theatre groups
1990 Life in a Goldfish Bowl, (author, actress), Lost Theatre, London (youth theatre prize)
1991-94 Acting training, Royal Academy of Dramatic Art, London
1994 Dead Fish, (author, actress), Edinburgh Festival ("Pick of the Day", The Scotsman)
1995-1997 Master of Fine Arts in Creative Writing, Vermont College, USA
Poems published in The Printer's Devil and Konkursbuch
1997 Return to Germany, Berlin; director's assistant for Theater Gaukelstuhl
1998 First direction work, The Sea and the Mirror von W.H. Auden, Edinburgh Festival (*****, The Scotsman)
1999 Collaboration with fibre artist Jeanette Sendler for the performance Ghost Letters by Richard McCann, Brompton Cemetery, London
2000 Founding of emerging properties with Jeanette Sendler for the exploration of the connection between poetry and fibre art
2002-2008 collaboration with cultural manager Catherine Launay for emerging properties, interdisciplinary poetry performance
2005-2008 Working with children at Moabiter Grundschule
Since 2007 developing and planning "poem space" with cultural manager Catherine Launay
Since 2005 Poetry Mediator
2009 Co-Organiser of Printemps des Poetes, Berlin 09
Opening of wortwedding - space for interactive and interdisciplinary projects with poetry.
2010 Poetry Mediation for Printemps des Poètes, Berlin 10
Performances
1998 The Sea and the Mirror, Richard Demarco Foundation, Edinburgh
1999 Ghost Letters, Bromtpon Cemetery, London
2000 Sound and Suspension, St. Brides Art Centre, Edinburgh
2002 Ghost Letters II, Friedhöfe vor dem Halleschen Tor, Berlin
2002 Eine Stunde Rilke, Martha Kirche, Berlin
2003 Ghost Letters III, Schloss Lanke
2004 Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Blackbird, Instants Videos, Manosque;
GdK, Internationales Literatur Festival, Berlin;
National Review of Live Art, Glasgow;
(05 Goethe Institut, Toulouse; 06 Kunst:raum Sylt Quelle, Sylt)
2004 Eine Art Geduld, Ghost Letters IV, u.a. Brotfabrik;
space untitled, Berlin (05 GDK; Kunstladen, Berlin; 08 Druckstelle, Berlin)
2006 Kaddish I-X von Paulus Böhmer, Künstlerhaus Mousonturm Frankfurt
2007 Looking for Anne, English Theatre, Berlin
2008 Ich zieh mich aus für Gertrud Kolmar, Schwelle 7; 100 Grad, HAU, Berlin