The seminar Coral Body, Form the Spine to the Voice with Nathalie Mentha, is part of the International Research Theater Laboratory – OSMOSIS, which will be held as part of the 13th HRTFest.
It is a ten-day, international laboratory with trainers of theater and performing arts from all over the world (Greece, Italy, Germany, Poland, Denmark, USA), which will end in the creation of the show Osmosis – The Performance: an open artistic jam with the directon of Fabrica Athens, which will seal the closing ceremony of the Festival.
Those interested can attend the entire ten-day course, as well as individual seminars. For more information on the International Research Theater Laboratory – Osmosis and the individual seminars follow the link: https://www.fabricaathens.gr/…/international-research…/
Workshop Description:
Objective of the workshop:
Listen, breathe, use the spine and free the voice.
Become aware of the potential of your spine
Discover how energy passes from inside our body through the spine and comes out in the form of song.
A workshop that brings the body to life and through this, it is freed together with the voice.
Listen.
But listen to what, if you do not produce a verbal sound? Listen to the sound of the body and bodies – an activity difficult to do during everyday life due to our being in a hurry, being worried, being immersed in noise pollution.
What we will do:
Breathing exercises and awareness of your spine.
Creation of group sound phrases based on rhythms, suspensions and accents.
Perception of the space where we work to discover how energy passes from inside our body through the spine and communicates with the space through sounds, songs.
What to bring: A small well-memorized text
Bio:
Nathalie Mentha was born in Geneva (Switzerland). After her studies, she attended the Theatre School of clown Dimitri, in Verscio (TI).
In 1978, she graduated from the Higher School of Dramatic Arts of the Conservatory of Geneva.
In 1979, she met the Teatro Potlach, and began her intercultural training with internationally renowned pedagogues such as Iben Nagel Rassmussen (Denmark-actress of the Odin Teatret), Isso Miura (Japan-butoh dancer) Ingemar Lindt (Sweden-disciple of the mime Etienne Decroux), Danilo Terenzi (musician) and Peppe Rio (Spain-flamenco dancer).
Since then, she has lived in Italy and works steadily as an actress in the productions of the Teatro Potlach.
She carries out an intense pedagogical activity both in Italy and abroad, holding seminars and workshops for actors (professional and otherwise), for children, for migrant women and men, for children and young people with learning difficulties, for disabled people.
In 2000 she created the three-year pedagogical project “Marco Polo” on the theme of mutual knowledge of cultures through the encounter with the theatrical techniques of clown, acrobatics and voice and created it for the reception classes of the Cycle d’Orientation des Grandes Communes (Switzerland). Since then she has maintained a relationship of intercultural theatrical pedagogy with some structures of the Geneva Public Education.
Since 2007 she has been a pedagogue at the FLIPT – Intercultural Laboratory Festival of Theatrical Practices, created in Fara Sabina by the Teatro Potlach and in collaboration with the ISTA directed by Eugenio Barba (Denmark) and the support of numerous Italian and international universities.
She is the author of some of the shows of the Teatro Potlach, such as “Direttori d’Orchestra” (1991), “Per Edith Piaf” (2005), “Viva la Vita” (2005), and is the director and performer of the show “Il Mago del Grano” (2021).
With the show “Per Edith Piaf” she is invited all over the world: by the Swiss Embassy in Mexico; by the Swiss Embassy in Delhi for a tour in India and, again in India in Pondicherry and Auroville in the 1st Tantidhatri Festival, followed by a tour in Calcutta and Ahmedabad; in Japan; in Brazil in Recife at the Festival de Grandes Espetaculos; in the USA, in Bethlehem (Pennsylvania) and in San Antonio (Texas); in Iran in Tehran; in Poland at the BRAMT Festival in Goleniow.
She has taken part in numerous international co-productions, between Teatro Potlach and: Omma Studio (Greece), Zid Theatre (Holland), Teatr Brama (Poland), Fanatika Theatre (India), Touchstone Theatre (USA). In the show “Il filo sospeso” she works alongside the great Japanese actress Keiin Yoshimura, one of the greatest interpreters of kamigata-mai dance.
Awards
-In 1994 in Naples she received the “Tassello d’argento” award as best supporting actor and for the value of the pedagogical and artistic activity carried out during the year 1993.
-In 2012, as part of the “30th Fadjr International Theater Festival” in Tehran, she received the award for best actress for her performance in the show “Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea” by Teatro Potlach.
-In 2021 she won the ABE Award in Bethlehem (USA) as best actress in an in-person show for the year 2020 with the co-production “Edith Piaf: hymn to love”.
Links: “Teatro Potlach” page on Facebook and the “teatro.potlach” page on Instagram.
Title of Workshop: Coral Body, Form the Spine to the Voice
Trainer: Nathalie Mentha
Date: 21/09/2025
Hour: 14:15-17:00
Place: Rektifie- Research Center of Mixed Performing Arts
Language: English (possibility of concurrent greek translation)
Prices of International Research Theater Laboratory-OSMOSIS:
For the whole 10-days:
Participants up to 29 years old: 50 euros (limited number of places: 15)
Participants 30 years old and over: 150 euros
Audiance: 100 euros
1 day seminars: 30 euros
2 days seminars: 50 euros
3 days seminars: 70 euros
Participation Forms: https://forms.gle/DRBbqs2GXCzWAQ3A9
