Balancing Act Workshops

Life is a constant Balancing Act and this project reflects on efforts dealing with our individual and collective Mental Health. Theatre and performance have a healing potential and can enhance our sense of equilibrium, which helps us to adapt to our daily life challenges. 

‘Sunset Reflections’ is a series of 8 workshops at Heart Place located at the Fibonacci Centre and on Monument Hill in Fremantle. 

Starting on Friday 4th February these weekly sessions will commence at 6pm at the Fib and after one hour the group will walk together to Monument Hill for a gathering around sunset. 

The workshop series will provide the following outcomes for participants: 

• Improved social well being 

• Improved mental, physical and emotional equilibrium 

• Improved confidence 

• Improved self-esteem 

All sessions will have three components: 

• Movement: exploring the ‘dance of life’

• Singing: unlocking the voice 

• Meditation: watching the sun go down

4 sessions in February will be open to anyone who joins with respect and tolerance. Playfulness and pleasure is the main goal. 

4 sessions in March are exclusively for those who want to continue to work on a short public performance at Monument Hill on Friday 1st April ’22. The group of ‘performers’ will be invited to participate in creating a piece of physical theatre. The focus will be on chorus composition. Moving in unison and singing as a group is an important aspect here. However, a chorus is not necessarily uniform and individual input will be encouraged.

History: The ‘Balancing Act’ workshop series is an initiative that has already benefited the mental health and wellbeing of our community in the first half of 2021, when Dr. Ralf Rauker collaborated with Clinical Psychologist Dr. Kaine Grigg, founder of Fremantle Mind Inc. and used elements of performing arts training to improve wellbeing. 

This time ‘Balancing Act Workshops’ are invited by Sydel Weinstein, founder of the Mental Health Station and Heart Place at the Fibonacci Centre in Blinco Street, to offer ‘Sunset Reflections’. We believe that bringing together different initiatives in Fremantle that engage in enhancing Mental Health in the community is a good step forward. 

With ‘Sunset Reflections’ at Monument Hill, we aim to offer participation in a creative process and a public performance on the 1. April 2022. Playfulness creates pleasure as well as an experience of catharsis. Synergies between physical theatre and singing benefit all those involved and strengthen the spirit of the community.

Dr. Ralf Rauker - workshop facilitator, artistic director

I’m working for three decades in professional performance making, directing and actors training, have created 25 theatre/performance productions in Europe/Australia//India and teach the psychophysical acting method “Meyerhold’s Biomechanics” internationally. 

While the topics of my performances are diverse, there was always an underlying fascination about the fragility and resilience of human nature and consequently with healing, as an inherent aspect of performing arts practice. The concept of catharsis in ancient Greece and the therapeutic effects of performative rituals in much older cultures like the Indigenous Australian, were my inspiration here. 

I felt a growing passion for political theatre at the same time. Bertolt Brecht’s attempt to raise political awareness through his plays, rather than ‘hypnotise’ the audience with emotional identification, was an important counterbalance to the concept of catharsis. Brecht’s use of music and the suggestion that actors could step in and out of character, to break the illusion that they ‘are’ the character, were very useful for me as a Performance Maker and director. 

15 years ago I got more frequently involved in “Applied Theatre”. Working with non-professionals on the benefits that acting and theatre could have on their personal and/or professional life, was an eye-opener. A research project on “Emotional Intelligence and Performing Arts” led to a staff development program at Edith Cowan University in Perth and I’ve continued to develop similar programs since then. 

https://education.unimelb.edu.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0009/2889549/rauker.pdf

I’ve also worked in Community Theatre in Perth and in December 2019 “Breaking Ice / SOS - Seniors on Stage”, was produced with support of the City of Cockburn. And in March 2021 “The Handover” an intergenerational performance project“ was staged at John Curtin College of the Arts with support of the City of Cockburn and City of Fremantle.

‘Balancing Act Workshops’ was officially registered with ASIC in 2019.

Fees:

This is a collaboration with Heart Place and our Community Art & Culture program heartplace.community