[Tlc] TLC-summer program

[justinm at ucr.edu]

FYI.
Best,
justin

My name is Ruth Pongstaphone, I am a Thai American artist, teacher, and presently, I am the co-founder and director of Educational Programming for Dhamma Theatre West, a nonprofit international Buddhist artists collaborative established in 2005. I am writing to invite you to investigate our unique inter-cultural summer program. In 2001 I began teaching my own curriculum at Playwrights Horizons Theater School and I encountered a deep appreciation of the classroom as the most fertile ground for exploration and inquiry. While continuing to teach in the NYU program for seven years, in 2004 I worked to found an independent inter-cultural art, ritual and performance program in Thailand. The program has run for four consecutive years, and has undergone a lengthy evolution into what it is today, which is an encounter with art as a spiritual practice, dance as a ritual, and performance as an act of offering. The intensive is a journey from ancient to future, west to east, to discover what is vital to us as individual artists and as participants in our human culture.
Dhamma Artist’s Intensive Thailand 2008 (DAI 08) is an experiential education in sacred mythologies and ancient art forms of Hindu-Buddhist lineage, as well as a collective expedition into ritual theatre, dance, design and performance creation in the contemporary moment. The program focuses on the artist as a searcher and explores performance as a cultural mirror through which we can experience many possible incarnations of ourselves. The curriculum combines concentrated physical training in Thai classical arts and other theatrical forms with seminars, discussions, and workshops addressing concepts and culture. Courses are taught by, masters of Thai art forms, master teachers of western techniques, and contemporary international artists with particular expertise. Immersion in Thai Buddhist culture offers a perspective to the participants from which to explore the vitality of the ancient in our present. Designed as a journey, the Intensive focuses on developing the individual artist as a medium for informed contemporary work of their own creation.
The program is open and welcoming to participants from all nations and cultures. Currently it is advertised in Thailand, North America, Europe, and Myanmar. Multi-cultural collaboration is engaged to generate a dialogue between artists from diverse cultures and inspire community.
DAI 08 is produced by Dhamma Theatre West; a non-profit artist’s collaborative established to promote, educate, and provide community for the exploration of performance and art as an expression of Dhamma, the momentary truth of our existence, illuminated by the ritual of theatre.
For more information about Dhamma Theatre West, and Dhamma Artists Intensive please visit www.dhammatheatrewest.org <http://www.dhammatheatrewest.org>  or email to pongstaphone at dhammatheatrewest.org (Ruth Pongstaphone).
 
I hope you will find a moment to review our program curriculum and consider supporting us by sending our information on to students, colleagues, or friends who may have an interest, or by offering suggestions and/or contacts to broaden the outreach of our program. Your feedback will be very much appreciated.
Thank you for you time.
Sincerely
Ruth Pongstaphone