Workshops

Internships, laboratories and research residencies

TCHAÏKA 

WORKSHOPS 2025

FONDS 304 The workshops organised by the Tchaïka Company in 2025 are supported by FONDS 304 which will intervene at the amount indicated on each workshop. FONDS 304 is available to workers in the performing arts sector (joint committee 304) in the Walloon or Brussels region, who are currently in a position covered by CP 304 or who can prove that they have worked for one or more French-speaking CP 304 employers for 30 days over the past 24 months. To obtain support from FONDS 304, participants must submit an application.

> Fonds 304 Application Form – Intimate Models Laboratory

> Fonds 304 Application Form – Creating a Puppet Workshop

The forms should be sent to Fonds 304 via fonds304@apefasbl.org and to workshop@tchaika.art.

Contact workshop@tchaika.art for any questions regarding our training programs.

INTIMATE MODELS
Workshop by Pablo Gershanik 

Dates : 2 > 6 June 2025
Working schedule : 10am – 5pm with a one-hour lunch break.
Address : Zinneke, Place Masui 13, 1000 Brussels (Belgium)
Fee : 550 € Materials included
Meals, transport and accommodation not included.
Request for support from FONDS 304 possible up to 450€
Language : french, english, spanish and italian
Number of participants : maximum 15
Profile of the participants :Artists, performers, visual artists, technicians, performing arts educators, professionals in the sociocultural field and art therapy, and anyone interested in the relationship between art and care.

Objectives : The Intimate Model Laboratory aims to explore « metaphor » as the possibility of transforming a painful experience by symbolizing it in a new way. To provide professional tools to people working in the artistic field of performance and socio-cultural support.
In a process of research and creation, a group of people work with art tools, and from a lived experience, to create a multimedia object intended to create links between personal and social history. This device, created by the Argentinean artist Pablo Gershanik, was born out of an interest in aesthetically addressing traumatic experiences that are emblematic for a person, a family or a community. The process of « mise en page » was proposed as a tool for transposing moments experienced by Argentine society, through the creation of aesthetic mechanisms of mediation and resilience in the face of an experience of suffering in both personal and social history.

Method : The Intimate Models Laboratory directed by Pablo Gershanik is a research creation device for a group of “modellers” (people who have had a traumatic or emblematic personal experience) who will work, during some team sessions, on three aspects:
1. Representation. The team will use tools from the theater of movement (expressive play, object’s theatre) to search for the symbolic and metaphorical universe that makes up each intimate model).
2. Memory. Composition and production of models. Each participant will develop their model work based on their personal experience and their narration of it. Although each creation can be purely individual, the project seeks to generate dialogues and exchanges where each model can be nourished by the work of the other participants. Creation groups bring together artists, people from the therapeutic field, people who want to explore the device, and people who have experienced a traumatic or emblematic event.
3. Social ties. Interaction between participants for reflection, documentation and presentation of the models to the public.
Each participant will engage in the creation of a multimedia or three-dimensional device (a model). This work of theatrical storytelling will be the result of the work of creation and transposition from a personal experience as well as from the interaction with the proposals of the other participants.

To find out more about Pablo Gershanik and his work : maquetasintimas.com / Teaser Maquettes Intimes

To apply please complete the Application Form
Closing date for applications May 2025

In 2025, Pablo Gershanik will also offer his Intimate Models Laboratory in Paris from May 26 to 30, 2025. For more information and registration: > arteologies@gmail.com or +33 6 51 22 22 38

CREATING A PUPPET WORKSHOP
Laboratory of creation and experimentation led by Loïc Nebreda, assisted by Isis Hauben,

Dates : 25 August > 06 September 2025
Working schedule : 9am – 5pm with a one-hour lunch break.The workshop remains open until 7pm.
Address : Zinneke, Place Masui 13, 1000 Brussels (Belgium)
Fee : 1005€ materials included.
Specific supplies requested by the participant (materials other than those proposed) are not included. 
Meals, transport and accommodation not included.
Request for support from FONDS 304 possible up to 550€
Language : french and english
Number of participants : maximum 15
Profile of the participants : Actors, puppeteers, performers, technicians, performing arts educators, visual artists, etc.

Deadline for applications: 25 April 2025. Selected participants will be notified by email around 5 May 2025.

Objectives: The overall goal is to learn how to create puppets for the stage. More specifically, the aim is to understand how to define a creation project (within the context of a performance), understand the specificities of this type of instrument, organize work from both technical and creative perspectives, acquire a set of fabrication techniques, and create a « carried » puppet. The main idea is to leave with the tools that will allow participants to continue working autonomously afterward.

During the 3-day training, a sound technician and a makeup artist will help participants enhance their work and bring it to life on stage.

Methods used: This workshop combines theory and practice to develop skills in artistic creation. It covers project definition, sketching, clay modeling, foam carving, and thermoforming with thermoplastics. Participants will also explore material preparation, patinas, as well as creating headdresses, makeup, silhouettes, and costumes. Reinforcement techniques and attachments will be addressed, along with physical exercises and improvisation to stimulate creativity. A sound research component will focus on voice transposition.

The teaching methods include demonstrations, hands-on workshops, and group or individual work to encourage experimentation and innovation.

To find out more about Loïc Nebreda and his work: loicnebreda.com 

To apply please complete the Application Form
Closing date for applications May 2025

ONLINE WORKSHOP
Human-arm puppet creation workshop, by Natacha Belova

Plateform : belova.podia.com
Dates : You have access to all information and videos for one year from the day of registration
Fee : 150€
Language : English and French

Description : Through these 8 video capsules Natacha Belova will guide you through the process of making a human-arm puppet; from the original design to the first stage appearance.
The human-arm puppet is attached to the puppeteer’s waist and their legs and hands become those of the puppet. The bodies of the puppet and puppeteer combine into a single unit.
In these 8 video capsules, Natacha will be making a puppet for a project that she intends to stage. This is not just about sharing the secrets of puppet-making step-by-step, but it also involves serious considerations of meaning and form; which are an essential part of the process of making a puppet.
Fabrication method : the head will be sculpted out of clay and finished in Worbla (thermoplastic resin) and the body will be made from foam. For this first workshop the puppet’s mouth will not be articulated.
The process is divided up into the following steps : preparation (project, visual palette, outline sketches, materials); clay sculpture of the head (pattern, volume, proportions, the character’s personality); the eyes (either sculpted in the clay or made separately and added later); sculpting the hand; finishing the head in thermoplastics (covering with sheets of resin, finishing touches, fitting the eyes, fitting the control rod); making the body (cutting out the torso, the arms, assembly); making the neck, hair, painting; costume; stage testing with the actress/puppeteer Tita Iacobelli.