Peter James by Michel Giroux

PETER JAMES (MTL) — Presence / Focus / Availability

FULL – Feb. 1st + 2nd, 2020 – 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. (Sat.-Sun.), break from 12:30 p.m. to 1:30 p.m.
$60 with the support of *Emploi-Québec (or $105, non-eligible rate)
No drop-ins
Open to artists of all disciplines / Bilingual teacher
Capacity: 25 people, priority for full week attendance

Peter James’s Workshop on Presence, Focus and Availability cross-references techniques from theatre, dance, clown, and performance. This contamination brings about an awareness of relevant codes and paradigms in contemporary performing arts. It is not about acting as much as presence, or even meta-presence, as we combine energies, textures, rhythms, and tensions in order to reveal intermediate states of emotions, meanings, and expressions. Listening and presence are refined through guided improvisations and the situations they produce. This process also serves as a self-unmasking for those who partake in it. It’s not about character, or acting, as much as about ourselves in the present moment on stage, in a show or in improvisation. Working by questioning presence, on stage and off, we ask what ‘realness’ and ‘authenticity’ can mean. Is it to be without social masks, without acting, without theatrical tics and conventions? Within this underlying tension between representation and simply being oneself, we undertake a rigorous exploration of our limits, revealing what our self-perceptions and personal mythologies blur.

An interdisciplinary intergenerational live art maker, Peter James works with dance, theatre, performance, circus while blurring boundaries and confusing performance and representation codes as much as possible. He has been doing this for thirty years in France, Belgium, Toronto and Québec. He is a playwright, art director, performer and artistic coach for his own projects and for other artists including Nicolas Cantin, Manuel Roque, Dana Michel and Stéphane Gladyzewski.


All workshops are for professional performing artists. Some require advanced dance training.

Registration – Please contact (514) 393-3771 or at info@studio303.ca. To reserve your spot, payment is required 2 weeks before the start of the workshop.

Payments – check, cash, credit card (3% fee) or by Interac transfer (write to info@studio303.ca for procedures)

Who can benefit from the subsidized rate by Emploi-Québec?
– Artists or cultural professionals, Canadian citizens or permanent residents living in Montreal
– Foreign workers with a temporary work permit living in Montreal
– Employment Insurance or social assistance recipients are welcome (please notify your agent at Service Canada or MTESS)

– Part-time students

 Who has to pay the full rate?
– People residing outside Montreal
– Full-time or foreign students

Reimbursement policy– No reimbursement possible without a good reason (ex: sickness or injury).

Studio’s accessibility – Consult this page for detailed information.