The Biting School

Sliding Scale $50

Sliding Scale $75

Sliding Scale $100

<span contenteditable="false" data-custom-variable="{{firstname}}" fr-original-class="fr-deletable styled-tag-chip" fr-original-style="" style="background-color: rgb(248, 248, 255); border: 1px solid rgb(191, 191, 255); border-radius: 4px; color: rgb(42, 42, 196); padding: 1px 8px; font-size: 11px; display: inline-block; margin: 0px; overflow-wrap: anywhere; user-select: none; box-sizing: inherit;">First name, Thank you for registering for the Physical Experiments in Performance Making event with The Biting School. We&#39;re excited to have you join us. If you have any questions, feel free to reach out to us at <a fr-original-style="" href="mailto:thebitingschool@gmail.com" style="text-decoration-color: initial; user-select: auto; box-sizing: inherit;">thebitingschool@gmail.com</a>. Thank you for being a part of our community. Warm regards, Arash and Aryo Khakpour The Biting School

The Biting School Workshop Physical Experiments in Performance Making Join us on December 5 or 6, 2025 for a full day featuring two 2.5-hour workshops, each facilitated by Arash and Aryo Khakpour. The content will be the same on both days. Please choose the date that works best for you. Designed for intermediate and advanced dancers, actors and performance artists, this workshop invites participants to take artistic risks and deepen their collaborative creation skills. If you're unsure whether this workshop is a good fit for your experience level, please email us at thebitingschool@gmail.comThe class capacity is limited to 9 participants. Schedule:10:30 a.m. – 1 p.m. ⇒ non-verbal warm-up facilitated by Arash1 – 2 p.m. ⇒ break1 – 4:30 p.m. ⇒ playmaking facilitated by Aryo Location: hopbopshop (150 McLean Dr., Vancouver)Please note that the studio is not wheelchair accessible. Price: Sliding scale price for each one-day workshop: $50-100 We ask that you pick a rate that’s sustainable for your current financial situation while keeping in mind that your contribution helps keep our studio running and makes space for others who may have fewer resources. What to Bring: Loose comfortable clothing (no shoes in the studio), a water bottle and lunch if you’d like.  <a href="http://www.bitingschool.com/" target="_blank">www.bitingschool.com</a> Arash Khakpour ⇒ The Dimensions of Perception How would you live your morning warm-up if you were a god?In a singular, personal and collective action, located in a dance studio, we attempt to get ‘warmed up’ together while maneuvering the inner and outer landscapes of sensation, emotion and perception. In this 2-hour attempt to be non-verbal, non-descriptive, and tender with our humanity, we incorporate and work with the energy in the room as our material for the warm-up. What are the different levels of warming up our attention and tuning into the improvisational mind? What are the habits and tendencies that keep me from seeing the essence of the other? Who is this 'me' seeing this 'we'? This is not a space that is seeking to be strict and rigid, but a generative space of guidance and awakening. Awakening to the dreams of the night before and nights ahead. From north to south and east to west, above and below, we are steeped in dimensions that guide us and our choices. We are the dimensions. We are the directions that bring love and light to the dark corners of abandonment and despair. What are my limits of comfort in meeting myself and the other? Is there room to lean into the unknown? In an attempt to let go of the need to possess, impress, or dominate, we practice kindness with ourselves and others to experience what warming up means to us today. "The intuitive mind is a sacred gift, and the rational mind is a faithful servant. We have created a society that honors the servant and has forgotten the gift." --Albert Einstein (or someone else)The exploration in class will include movement with vocalization, physical touch with sensitivity, and improvisation. Please note that this class will be guided completely non-verbally.  The class will be 2 hours, with a 30-minute conversation at the endArash 💜 Aryo Khakpour ⇒ The Materials of ImaginationThrough a series of exercises and explorations rooted in Grotowski’s actor training, corporeal mime, and Viewpoints, I'll be holding a space of intentional play and learning how to negotiate together in making something creative. Through structured improvisations and ensemble-based exercises, we will explore ways of activating our imagination and collective creation. We will make short scenes from nothing and shape them into new scenes. My intention is to study together how to play intelligently as a group and as part of a group, and how to utilize our physical imagination in interacting with collaborators and other performance materials.Duration: 2.5 hours BIOS Aryo KhakpourAryo Khakpour is an interdisciplinary actor, director, dramaturg and filmmaker. Born and raised in Tehran, he has been involved in multiple theatre, dance, and film productions in Vancouver since 2006. He cofounded The Biting School in 2013, which was the company-in-residence at PuSh Festival and The Dance Centre 2018 – 2019. In his practice, he explores dynamics of power, implications of ideologies, repetition of mythologies, and cultural adaptation. He is an intersectional feminist; and he interrogates patriarchy and its harmful effects on people. His practice is heavily physical and surrealistic; it moves from theatre to performance art to dance to film and back to theatre; it deals with pain and pleasure; it is sex-positive; and it aims to queer the status quo. He was trained in devised practices of non-hierarchical collective creation; that is his favourite way of creating. He is the recipient of the 2024-25 Theatre Replacement Accelerator Lab Fellowship, which focuses on international touring within the context of experimental theatre and interdisciplinary performance. He currently serves on the Boards of Directors for Leaky Heaven Performance and the MENA Film Festival. Arash Khakpour (آرش خاکپور) is a dancer and choreographer from Tehran and based in the Coast Salish Territory. Arash has been practicing dance and performance for the past 16 years and has been a company member and part of the EDAM ensemble since 2017.  He tends to invest in the nuances of prejudices in the body as a way of inviting the unconscious to the conscious, and as a doorway to meet the unknown emotions. He sees dance as a process of emotional and spiritual discoveries and a mode of transformation. He works with dance as a language that researches the human condition through mythical, historical, social and animistic interpretations. As a first-generation immigrant, he continuously considers what healing he can bring to the land and communities he works with. He is building a culture of relationality and reciprocity that celebrates the multiplicity of presences and approaches. He is the co-founder and artistic director of the dance-theatre-film company <a href="https://www.bitingschool.com/" target="_blank">The Biting School</a> (alongside his brother Aryo Khakpour). Most recently, Arash was one of nineteen participants in ‘the Mystery School of Choreography’ in Lisbon directed by Meg Stuart and Ana Rocha.

The Biting School

Physical Experiments in Performance Making - December 5 or 6

150 McLean Dr

Sliding Scale $50

$50

Sliding Scale $75

$75

Sliding Scale $100

$100

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