ABOUT ME
My experience stems from both acting/performing practice and years of conducting theatrical research at the Grotowski Institute and beyond. Utilizing Jerzy Grotowski's concept of laboratory theatre, I integrated psycho-somatic techniques with various fields such as martial arts, dance techniques, ritual practices, pedagogy and philosophies related to the body in performing arts and theatre anthropology. This fusion became the foundation of my research, allowing for a comprehensive understanding of the relationship between the body and theatrical expression.
The research also involved the analysis of psycho-somatic reactions, both on an individual level and within group contexts in the theater. I also explore the fascinating concept of rooted body memory, encompassing not only personal memories but also transgenerational and cultural heritage embedded within the human body.
As a result of these experiences, it is important to me to share this knowledge, fostering creativity, and providing tools for self-regulation on somatic, professional, and spiritual levels.
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Matej Matejka is a multi-award winning movement and theatre practitioner and movement therapist who specializes in opening up the creative potentials of the body, and this comes out in his teaching and directing.
Most recently, he was movement director for Flabbergast Theatre's Macbeth (Assembly Roxy - Edinburgh Fringe) and co-director of Saksi Bisou's 'Prayers for a Hungry Ghost' (Barbican Centre) and 'Promised Land' (Bloomsbury Festival) UK. Born and raised in Czecho-Slovakia, curently living in Poland, he was an actor and movement co-trainer with Farm in the Cave studio in Prague from 2000-2005 and Teatr ZAR, Wroclaw, Poland from 2005-2018, where he performed in 'Dark Love Sonnets', 'SCLAVI: Song of an Emigrant', 'Anhelli: The Calling' and 'Caesarean Section: Essays on Suicide', winnning Herald Angel and Total Theatre awards in Edinburgh in 2006 and 2012. He is the founder and leader of Studio Matejka, a performance research studio and company under the auspices of the Grotowski Institute, in which he directed and created multiple theatre productions, short films and interactive performances among others 'Awkward Happiness or Everything I Don’t Remember About Meeting You', 'Charmolypi', site-specific projects including 'Angry Man: Variations in Defense of Anger' nominated for The Best OFF 2018/2019 in Poland. Matej directed seven short films, including 'Pearadise', which won the Best Foreign Film award at the Los Angeles International Underground Film Festival in 2013 and 'Conflict of Apathy' in NUDANCE Festival, Bratislava 2014.