REVIEWS

Reviews and References

"Great company, contacts, learned scholars, innovative research, lovely venue, a vibrant sensorial mix combined with a great amount of laughter...Just perfect for the soul! It was a complete pleasure to meet you all."

Lisa Adams-Davey - performer, consultant, artistic director,

Senior Lecturer in Performing Arts at Edge Hill University (EHU) (UK).

"The December IUGTE Conference in Leibnitz was a wonderful experience! Perhaps the best theatre conference I have ever participated in – wonderful colleagues and stimulating presentations and performances. Thank you and congratulations to the IUGTE."

Art Horowitz, Ph.D., Associate Professor of Theatre and Dance, Department of Theatre, Pomona College (USA).

In Memoriam...

"Thank you so much for your email, invitation to present, and the outstanding IUGTE experience. The program, sequence, location, support team and directors were all superb, and the people and presenters have already become inspiration, contacts, and friends."

Cynthia Roberts, Visual/Multimedia Artist, Associate Professor of Studio Art at Endicott College (USA).

"It was a very refreshing and delightful conference."

Antonio Ocampo-Guzman, Associate Professor of Theatre, College of Arts, Media & Design,

Northeastern University in Boston, Massachusetts (USA).

"I'm so lucky to have a chance to attend this extremely marvelous conference, and get to know so many incredibly talented artists like you all!"

Phoenix Tsailuan Chang - researcher of traditional Chinese Opera, PhD student of National Taiwan Normal University (Taiwan).

"...Thank you to all of you for making this conference a wonderful and delightful experience for me. It was a privilege to meet and associate with all of you and to see the amazing work you are doing. All of your talents inspired me and I feel very lucky to have crossed paths with all of you in Austria!"

Shani Robison - Associate Professor of Dance, Brigham Young University, President, CORPS de Ballet International (USA).

"...It was life changing; easily my favorite conference I have ever been a part of."

Shelley Cooper, Assistant Professor of Musical Theatre at Augustana College in Rock Island, IL. (USA).

"Thanks for bringing together such talented, intelligent and generous souls."

Carrie Ann Quinn - MFA, Associate Professor of Theatre Arts, Head of acting and directing,

Associate Chair, Department of Performing Arts at University Massachusetts Boston (USA).

"...I felt very welcome during my 24 hours in Retzhof and I learned very much (as much as can be in that short time). Many contacts I made via facebook, and I could see many of you so active in the arts. As I am in a position organizing drama/theater workshops in Austria, I will come back to that contacts. Hopefully I come back to some further events too..."

Dagmar Hoeffer - performing arts pedagogue (Austria)

"It was such a pleasure to participate and meet so many amazing people. Congratulations on a most successful conference."

Greg Mitchell - lighting and scenic designer for theatre, opera, music, dance, and television,

Assistant Professor of Theatre at the University of California, Santa Barbara M.F.A.,

Scenic and Lighting Design from NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts (USA).

"This conference opened for me a new level of of looking upon the way of conecting between the theatre tradition and contemporary ways of performing arts. It offered a great overwiev on the theatrical world and different possibilities how we can create a real theatrical space full of truth... IUGTE Conference is an international place, where people, who really love arts came to share their ideas and passion for their art work. I think, that everyone, who is interested in evolution of Theatre should be a part of such a type of Conference". Read full article...

Janka Fedešová - PhD. student at Academy of Arts, Faculty of Dramatic Arts, Banská Bystrica (Slovakia).

"It was a pleasure to have met many sincere and talented performers, artists and educators all over the world".

Rina Angela Corpus - dancer, arts educator, dance researcher,

Assistant Professor, Department of Art Studies, College of Arts and Letters, University of Philippines (Philippines).

"Thank you to all the speakers, really interesting talks and topic being explored."

Eileen Mc Clory - dancer, choreographer, teacher, Director of the BA Dance program at Ulster University (Ireland).

"IUGTE has opened up the door to multicultural collaboration, and each culture we come in contact with will have its ingrained beliefs and social structures. Awareness of your own cultural norms, versus those of the people you are working with, is very important if you want to maintain a collective approach to any project -- whether it is a ten minute exercise or a full length play. I have always felt drawn to learning and working with people from other countries, and IUGTE has confirmed my belief in the great benefit of studying with people from different backgrounds."

Alayha McNamara - performer, director, arts administrator (USA).

"We attended the IUGTE conference in Carrara where 31 countries assembled to explore art, theatre, music, dance. We presented our Butterfly interactive study to a very enthusiastic group of artists, academics and students. I was honoured to be a part of this conference and I’d like to thank the IUGTE organizers for an excellently run event and manifesting such a rich celebration of art and culture." Read full article...

Gwenyth Dobie - Founder and Co-Artistic Director of “Out of the Box Productions”,

Associate Professor at The School for Arts, Media, Performance and Design at York University (Canada).

"The IUGTE Conference was an incredible opportunity to connect with like-minded colleagues from all over the world. Through IUGTE, I have made many valuable contacts for continuing my work, and I have made lifetime friendships with other artists".

Laura Wayth - Assistant Professor of Acting and Coordinator of Actor Training at San Francisco State University (USA).

"IUGTE Conference is a perfect platform to link up people who work in the performance industry from different cultures. Theatre people are always very generous and are ready to share with other people about their own culture and always welcome people from other cultures to share their own...As we can see in IUGTE Conference, the participants use up every minute to talk about their culture and ask questions about others’ culture. Everyone is so enthusiastic. This exchange is valuable and should never stop". Read full article...

Kady Cheung Cheuk-Ki - teacher, Chinese Opera performer, writer (Hong Kong).

"The conference organized by IUGTE provided the space and opportunity for creative dialogue and exchange that for me are fundamental elements and the essence of contemporary art making. Thank you for organizing an excellent conference. I was very happy to experience very special moments..."

Prof. Dr. Daniela Gatti - Professor of Dance, Teacher, Institute of Arts, State University of Campinas (Brazil).

"The exchange that became important to create something new, this is what I was breathing during the four days; this have been a wonderful opportunity for artists, educators, teachers and designers. I hope it's the beginning of a series of meetings and collaborations..."

Sandra Ventarelli - artist, stage designer, sculptor (Italy).

"IUGTE network meeting helped me to gain experience and expand my knowledge and skills in arts organization, as well as to expand my professional network.

I consider that I will develop several international multicultural arts exhange project ideas and establish new collaboration between Turkey and EU countries".

Melek Can - arts manager, teacher, performer (Turkey).

"I felt as though I gained a huge insight into other areas of drama, dance, performing arts, and experience. The different viewpoints regarding the arts and work ethic demonstrate different techniques in acting and training. This opened my mind up to different possibilities and caused me to brainstorm ways that I could apply the work from the conference to shape my training and career in the future".

Prof. Youngsuck Kim, Voice and Opera - Mansfield University (USA).

"This was a fantastic experience that allowed me to meet many people from different countries and to be able to communicate with them and learn the aspects of their cultures. This experience was very valuable, and not only artistically, but also in terms of relationships with other participants. All the people were very helpful and ready to share their experiences and knowledge..."

Sonia Ravenna - artist, costume and stage designer (Italy).

"IUGTE's conference was very well organized and operated on highly professional level, giving oppotunity to the artisting practitioners and as well as academics".

Sheila Gordon - Acting, Voice and Movement expert, certified Feldenkrais and Anat Baniel Method Practitioner (USA).

"This shared enthusiasm for creativity and collaboration created a congenial atmosphere, facilitating an open exchange of ideas, new friendships and paving the way for future research and development of collaborative productions. Some of my new found colleagues and I discussed joint ventures even before leaving the conference".

Amy Drake - award winning director and writer, playwright, actor (USA).

"The different viewpoints on the arts, on work ethic, on training, all opened my mind to different possibilities for how to use the work from the conference and how to shape my training and career in the future. While I plan to share what I learned with the students at my university and grow an interest in physical theatre there, this conference has given me a professional network of artists with related interests that I may create with in the future".

Alex Elliott - theatre and film actor, dancer, performer, circus artist (USA).

"I thoroughly enjoyed the experience and feel I gain a huge insight into other areas of dance, performing arts and experience. I feel I developed both as an individual and as a member of my company, and have made some invaluable contacts along the way. I was very inspired by the diversity of people who attended".

Rebecca Price - educator, performer, tutor for circus and dance (UK).

"The opportunities to be a part of international conference was really grateful choice for demonstrate different techniques in acting. For me as a teacher was this practical training the best chance to get together theory and practice".

Katarina Misikova - performing arts educator, teacher (Slovakia).

"This event aligned directly with the mission of IUGTE, in that it effectively made the bridge between continents that much smaller, and in turn, produced multicultural dialogues that enlightened and informed participants with new knowledge, both practical and perceived".

Andrew Carroll - performer, teacher, researcher, performing arts administrator (USA).

"This experience was very precious, and not only artistically but also with regards to relationships with the other participants. Finding yourself in front of so many people coming from different backgrounds and with different artistic experiences helps to see theatre as a realty which is always changing and creating new expressive channels".

Giuseppe Perez - actor, performer (Italy).

"The Conference provided me with a new understanding of different training programs in different aspects of theatre and performance from all over the world. The other wonderful part about the conference that went beyond my expectations was the people I met from all over the world, all of them brilliant artists".

Anya Gibian - actor, singer, dancer, stage and film performer (USA).

"This was a fantastic experience as I feel that in just a week I’ve learnt so much. I brought a lot of knowledge back to my country and I’ll make sure to use it in the best way possible".

Anthea Xuereb - actor, performer (Malta).

Organized by IUGTE in collaboration with ArtUniverse and NIPAI.