Dear Chrysalides Participants,

I would like to confirm your participation in the Nairobi phase of Chrysalides. The dates for the workshops are 17 Sept to 13 Oct but due to late arrivals we will begin on Wednesday 19th.

Sterling Q who are in charge of organising will arrange for a meeting of all participants on Tuesday 18 for a briefing.

The Nairobi phase of Chrysalides is a laboratory for choreographic process. The idea of the laboratory is that participants propose ideas and projects they wish to work on. These can be new ideas or projects you wish to develop further. Proposition are taken through draft and development process as well as public presentation. Some of the work emerging from the laboratory will be proposed for further development. In order to prepare for the laboratory please send me a few lines on your idea and prepare a short presentation/exposé of your idea or project that you will share with the other participants. The presentation can be anything from a description, a song, a drawing, an image, a picture, painting, a sound, a performed sequence, a text, a poem, a story, a book, a newspaper cutting, an object, installation, clothing, a shoe, food, a video archive or a combination of any these that can help open a window into your proposition. It can even be nothing – on the condition that you find a way of presenting nothing as a starting point. You do not need to explain your idea; you don't have to be master of your ideas, not knowing is a good starting point.

The title of the laboratory is 'place of the spectator / frames of engagement' but you don't need to worry about this beforehand. This is part of the question we will be asking together as we make choices about where, when, how, why, for and with whom the gesture of performing.

I will not be in Nairobi till 26th September but the choreographer Sophiatou Kossoko from Benin/France will lead the first 2 weeks of process. She will be joined by other intervenants - the scenographer J-C Lanquetin, the 'sound strategist' Yann Leguay, the choreographer Patrick Acogny and myself.

For those of you joining us for the first time in Chrysalides attached is an invitation with information about the program. For those of you arriving from different corners of the continent welcome to Nairobi.

Looking forward to see you soon and bonne voyage with Sophiatou Kossoko.

Regards,
Opiyo Okach
Performance Lab Nairobi