Training

Training is an essential element of our creative process: it’s a platform for creating work and a provocation towards the unknown. Its’s a way to collaborate across disciplines, and a way to engage with the world in an imaginative way. Rooted in a mix of lineages and practices, this ongoing physical and vocal training dilates the presence, energy, and awareness of the performer and builds the expressive capacities of the ensemble for each project. We regularly share our training practice through residencies, workshops, apprenticeships, and monthly participatory training sessions. Our next training series early this summer will focus on song, but meanwhile check out our upcoming master class:

April 6 from 6-8:30pm at Play House (12657 Moran St, Detroit) join internationally-renowned chuanju (“Sichuan opera”) artist Cui Guangli for a master class/lecture in the expressive techniques of traditional Chinese performance. Learn how the codification of “the four skills” of xiqu (“Chinese opera”) - singing, movement, recitation, and fighting - are configured and reconfigured to present a range of characters, situations, and circumstances, and how these performance strategies might be leveraged for physically-driven work in other performance styles. No performance experience necessary. Free, donations welcome!

Are you interested in working with The Hinterlands for a two-month in-depth dive into training, creating, and building a personal practice? Email info[at]thehinterlands[dot]org to learn more about our apprenticeship program, funded by the Michigan Community Service Commission’s Community Center Grant program.

The Hinterlands were a member of the Training Consortium, a group of place-based and training-centric performance companies in the United States, with Double Edge Theatre, Mondo Bizarro, qStaff, Pangea World Theater, Ebony Golden, and Open Flame Theatre between 2015 and its conclusion in 2022.

image from Into the Hinterlands, a documentary film by Julia Yezbick