fot. Foundation for Development and Educational Initiatives
WORKSHOPS FOR WOMEN. CONFIDENT, CREATIVE, EFFECTIVE
“Every mistake is a precious gift. This is what I think every time something goes wrong in my everyday life. Can you hear anything more optimistic? This is the opinion of one of the participants of the INTRIGUING ARTISTS – improvisation workshops.
The workshops are part of the project “The power of diversity – strengthening the competences of Hajnówka women”, which is implemented by the Foundation for Development and Educational Initiatives. They lasted on September 19 and 20.
Improvised theater is, above all, great fun. Regardless of whether we have any stage experience or not - improvisation has a way of bringing everyone together through its games, being together, laughing and discovering what we thought we couldn't do. We stop judging ourselves, we stop being afraid of our mistakes. And it turns out that not only do we have great fun, but we stop being afraid, we make friends and we create very lively, cool, funny scenes, games, jokes, and sometimes serious performances together. You never know what will happen - because really, we make everything up live and nothing is prepared.
The workshops were led by Joanna Pawluśkiewicz and Katarzyna Paterek. The first one is a volcano of energy – a writer, improviser, screenwriter. Winner of the Orzeł film award for the film “Warsaw Uprising”, author of series and films on HBO, Netflix and other stations. The second host is a haven of peace – a psychologist and anti-burnout trainer. He has been singing in groups and with groups for years. Associated with projects including: Therapeutic singing, Atmospheric choir, (un)ordinary singing, Warsaw Singing, Old Singing, i.e. amateur groups of people singing mainly Slavic traditional songs.
The aim of the project was, generally speaking, to enable women to acquire various types of new skills, useful both in everyday and professional life.
Previously, CREATIVE WOMEN, i.e. creative writing and storytelling workshops, were held. It was led by Marta Urbaniak-Piotrowska, a journalism graduate, writer, editor of the Zwierciadło portal. The meeting was a proposal: for people who want to overcome creative blocks, are looking for an idea for a literary work, who would like to learn what favors writing and what hinders it, what are the ways of arranging a story, how to create a plot and dialogues. The ability to create a story can be useful both in private life, for example, to tell a fairy tale to a child, and professionally, when, for example, we want to present our achievements during a job interview. Importantly, the participants learned not only how to improve the art of writing, but also how to communicate effectively.
Another big event was the MEDITATING WISELY yoga workshop, led by Maciej Soja, a yogi, photographer and activist from Berlin. It was a time to break away from everyday life and catch my breath. And also an opportunity to learn relaxation techniques, practical learning of the basics of yoga, meditation and breathing. The participants also learned tips on massage, proper diet and mental hygiene.
The fact that participants who had no experience with yoga before started practicing yoga can be considered a great success of this project.