CPPM OPEN CLASS: Amit Lahav ja Chris Evans (Gecko). TREFF

MA in Contemporary Physical Performance Making (CPPM) is a ground-breaking course that takes postgraduate education out of the classroom and puts practical experience with world-leading makers of performance at the heart of the learning process. Students are working alongside some of the most exciting directors, choreographers, performance makers, artists and companies across the world to further their own artistic practice through active collaboration, devising and performance. It is very important to us that all those international students who study the CPPM curriculum and those world-renowned performance makers who come to Estonia to teach them in Estonia, do not just stay between the four walls of the academy. CPPM Open Class is a series of events where anyone interested can take a look at the otherwise hidden rehearsal and creative processes. At the end of each open class, interviews with the guests will also take place to reveal even more about their creative processes.

This Open Class is part of The International Visual Theatre Festival Tallinn Treff.

GECKO THEATRE

Gecko is a renowned physical theater company led by Amit Lahav, its Artistic Director. Since its establishment in 2001, the company has produced eight highly acclaimed shows, two Associate Shows, and two films that have earned them international recognition.

Amit has developed an organic process that prioritises imagination, collaboration, and skill, allowing the team of devising performers, creatives, and technicians to bring their diverse backgrounds, experiences, and cultures to the creative process. The team engages in a rigorous cycle of experimentation, reflection, and technical development within and outside of the rehearsal studio.

Gecko's work is driven by a fascination with human beings and their struggles to express themselves in society. Their productions are created by and for individuals of all ages, genders, and backgrounds, representing a diverse range of cultures. The company employs multiple languages to tell universal stories through movement, emotion, sound, lighting, and set design, ensuring that people from all walks of life can engage with their work.

Their productions explore and reflect on contemporary issues relevant to a diverse society, inspired by their audiences. Gecko aims to communicate with each audience member directly and encourage full engagement with the content. They strive to remove barriers to engagement for as many people and cultures as possible, offering a unique and high-quality theatrical experience.

AMIT LAHAV

Amit Lahav is the Artistic Director and founder of Gecko, a theater company that produces shows emphasizing emotion, physicality, metaphor, breath, and musicality with an international ensemble, which he developed after training with Lindsay Kemp and David Glass and working as a facilitator in South East Asia, making theater with street children. Amit has created seven critically acclaimed Gecko shows, such as Taylor's Dummies, The Race, The Arab and The Jew, The Overcoat, Missing, Institute, and The Wedding, and he created and performed in The Time of Your Life, a production that was broadcasted live on BBC4 as part of Live From Television Centre. His unique language of training, performance, devising, and teaching is used by the company to generate relationships around the world.

CHRIS EVANS

Chris began his career with Hofesh Shechter Company, performing as one of its original members, and touring worldwide. During this time, he also collaborated with Jonathan Lunn to devise Reading Rooms, a dance/text interplay working with Alan Rickman, Juliet Stevenson, and Miranda Richardson. He later joined Lost Dog Theatre Company, co-devising It Needs Horses, which toured internationally and won the Bloomberg Place Prize Award for dance. Chris has been a member of Gecko since 2011 and has worked on the creation of The Wedding, Missing and Institute, touring these productions worldwide. Chris still continues a creative relationship with Hofesh Shechter, joining him on two major projects; as Assistant Choreographer for The Metropolitan Opera’s new creation Two Boys, and Associate Choreographer for the Broadway Musical Fiddler on the Roof.