Altamira Studio Teater

Altamira Studio Teater is an international group of theatre creation and research based in West Jutland, Danmark. The group was founded in Denmark in 2014 by the italian director Pierangelo Pompa, after several years of international activity in the frame of Altamira Laboratory and as assistant director of Eugenio Barba at Odin Teatret. The work of the group has three main focuses: performance, research/pedagogy, community theatre. The wide range of actvities includes in fact the creation and the diffusion of professional performances, a constant self-pedagogical and experimental activity based on physical and vocal training, in addition to the application of theatrical techniques to ever new fields of community work.

Altamira Studio Teater's performances have a strong dramaturgical, musical and visual character, with focus on the craft and the physical language of the performer. The repertoire of the group consists of experimental performances for adults, together with theatre concerts, indoor and outdoor performances for children and families. The artistic approach of Altamira Studio Teater relies strongly on the physical presence of the actors on stage and their organic relationship with each other and with music, space and text. The poetic and narrative potential of the physical and vocal actions is the expressive base of every new creation, which is developed around evocative knots of images, more than linear narrative structures. Dramaturgy is often developed around a musical structure and an original composition of texts fragments. It's not limited to the work with the text, but is extended to the compositions of all the elements of the performance. The dramaturgical work is in this way consubstantial with the competences of the director. Music is intended as an organic element, completely integrated in the work of the actor, which is often also a musician. Scenographic and technical simplicity, together with the reinvention of the scenic space, are both an esthetic choice and an economical strategy. The handcraft of the actor and of the dramaturgist/director has been since the beginning the fundamental value in the work of Altamira Studio Teater. It is not only the handcraft of entertainment and good composition, even if intended in the most aristocratic sense, but it is also the ancestral ability to establish organic human relationships. This handcraft is intended as the political and anthropological justification of performance work in contemporary society. On the base of these principles, Altamira Studio Teater develops in international, professional pedagogical projects with focus on actor's technique and dramaturgy, in partnership with prestigious Danish and international universities and theater schools.

Altamira Studio Teater creates moreover a wide range site-specific, locally based theatre projects both in Danmark and abroad, which can generate surprising events in the public spaces, involving any kind of social groups, in strict collaboration with schools, old people's houses, libraries, churches, galleries, museums, universities, associations etc. These projects are a part of Altamira's research into “applied theatre”, which means reusing, recycling theatre skills and materials in a context which is not theatrical in itself and not necessarily in order to create a performance in its traditional meaning. These projects are based on the direct involvement of groups and communities, but also of interested individuals and other artists. A strong collaboration with every kind of associations or institutions is the fundamental condition for this work, which has the aim of refreshing the net of the human, cultural and institutional relationships and renew the experience of daily places and routines. Theatre is used as the tool for sparking a virtous process of reinvention of the public spaces, both materially and simbolically. The citizens and the institutions are provocated to socialise their private or professional cultures and identities, becoming the leading actors of the cultural life of their homeplace, contributing in this way to the affirmation of differences. Altamira Studio Teater is formally an “association”, with a statute and a board of directors. The members of the board are: Ingeborg Svennevig, Anders Gaardboe Jensen, Tatiana Chemi, Helle Kappel Nielsen and Anders Bech.