From November 9 to November 17, 2022 a fantastic Erasmus+ training called ‘Doll IT’ was taking place in beautiful and picturesque Murzasichle, Poland. A group of theatre enthusiasts from Poland, Lithuania, Spain, Italy, Greece and Bulgaria gathered to embark on an unforgettable journey together filled with creativity, laughter and good vibes in general.The main focus was on creating and working with puppets but the whole program and the schedule of the course was undeniably very rich and engaging. The leaders/instructors of the training Evelina Grzechnik and Machei Jan Krasniewski demonstrated true dedication to their job, shared so much invaluable information about their craft and were always eager to answer questions. A lot of attention was given to explaining and discussing about emotions, conscious body movements and especially breathing, which was a good opportunity to explore oneself even deeper. Every activity was followed by some time for reflection and sharing each other’s different perspectives, which was a very eye-opening experience and a reminder of how different but also very unique people are.
Due to much attention given to inner exploration and reflection it was way easier and more natural to use these skills on puppets. The introduction of the puppets was very masterful as all of the participants were mesmerized by their human-like movements. The participants had the chance to manipulate the puppets themselves, at the beginning very carefully but later on with more confidence. It felt somewhat magical to give life and character to something seemingly inanimate and ignite the spark and curiosity to see beyond the obvious. It should also be mentioned that from day one the leaders introduced the workshop space as and made sure that it was a safe space: to create, to speak up, to make mistakes, to get support…
Much attention was given to team-building so that participants get to know and trust each other, which also made a huge contribution to the creative process later as this helped to form a very friendly and supportive team.
‘Doll IT’ was not only a great opportunity to be creative and develop new skills, but also and a reminder that people may come from different countries but they still share similar views and are very much connected.
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