Drama’s Dr Pablo Pakula has hosted a performance and live art residency in Galera, Spain.
Under the title Stomping Ground!, this first edition of the residency hosted eight live artists and performance makers, hailing from Australia, Cuba, Germany/Spain, Ireland, Jamaica, Portugal, Peru, and the UK. It took place between 2-8 September 2019. During their stay, the selected artists were hosted in Galera's idiosyncratic cave-houses, shared work with each other and with the locals. As well as offering a unique opportunity for the artists' development, Stomping Ground! creatively revolutionised this sleepy yet stunning Andalusian village.
Stomping Ground! is aimed at those hungry for new experiences, discovering new stimuli, sharing ways of working, and cross-pollinating with fellow artists. The creative interests of this year's participants were as varied as their nationalities: darkness as a concept, voice as a cleansing tool/instrument, the mythology of different cultures, the preservation of natural spaces, drag culture, the figure of the healer-woman, the symbolic language of objects, or words that do not have a translation into English.
The residency has been featured in the Spanish press and media:
- live radio interview with Cadena SER Granada. (skip forward to 1:06:10)
- Ideal
Pablo Pakula is a practice-based scholar in the Department of Drama and Theatre Arts at the University of Birmingham. He specialises in practical teaching theatre and performance. Besides being a university teacher and lecturer for over twelve years, he is performance-maker, live artist and event curator.
Image 1 - by Barbara Miyares Bravo
Images 2, 3, 4 and 5 - by Reme Domingo de Leonés