TRANSIT IV
Women's International Theatre Festival and
Meeting
Roots in Transit
Odin Teatret, Holstebro, Denmark
16-25 January 2004
Roots are usually imagined sinking into
the ground and going backwards in time. In cultural terms roots
usually represent an existing identity to which people belong and
which they sometimes wish to acknowledge. Roots in Transit would
like to propose a different image: active, germinating, sprouting
roots that point outwards, forwards and upwards. Roots which allow
us to stand upright autonomously and move. Roots that give a
boundless sense of future. Roots like seeds that we plant in the
air, in the water, in places far away from the earth where we were
born, or roots that lead us back into our environment of origin
after having travelled across foreign landscapes.
Many young women search for a technical
base and a professional identity among people whose social
behaviour and habits are different, and in places where their
mother tongue is not spoken. Theatre allows those of us who belong
to a community of uprooted individuals to chose the mould where new
and different roots will grow. Even women who strongly identify
with their culture and ancestors rediscover the wisdom passed on
from a living past. Biographical, professional, historical and
cultural references and intentions compose intricate horizons in
which only the need to belong and be accepted is shared.
The image of a network is made up of
crossing lines and empty spaces. The experience of the women
meeting within The Magdalena Project tells us that important
information is contained in the spaces opened by the intersecting
lines. The composite pattern of migration followed by women working
in theatre creates similar spaces of fertile ground where roots can
grow. Roots in Transit will give particular attention to
geographical diversity, and to the simultaneous presence of women
working in theatre, music and dance of classical or indigenous
descent with women who confront a contemporary reality of global
"con-fusion". The programme consists of two parts: the first with
practical workshops, demonstrations and performances; and the
second with vocal and physical training (Cultivating), workshop
demonstrations (Sowing), presentations (Orgins), videos, lectures,
discussions, concerts, performances.
Julia Varley
