Dr Ilona Krawczyk

Dr. Ilona Krawczyk joined Norwich University of the Arts after finishing her Practice-as-Research PhD on embodied voice at the University of Huddersfield. She is a performer and singer specialising in post-Grotowskian physical and musical actor training, which she teaches on our BA (Hons) Acting course. Ilona’s recent work explores possible overlaps between physical, musical theatre, experimental music, and sound art, investigating new ethics and aesthetics of voicework and acting in the theatre informed by post-Grotowskian practice. The result of her interdisciplinary artistic experimentation is site-specific performance-sound installations.

I have worked as a freelance artist, researcher, and an educator in various artistic and research projects, collaborating with Grotowski Institute (Poland), NeTTheatre (Poland), SheWolf Company (UK), Mechanical Animal Corporation (UK), Musical Theatre CAPITOL (Poland), Anna Zubrzycki Studio (Poland), Urban Research Theatre (US/UK), Royal Exchange Theatre (UK), Drift Ensemple (UK), Replica Institute for Creative Anticipation and Performing Arts (Germany), among others.

I graduated from Manchester Metropolitan University (MA in Acting), the course run jointly with the multi-award-winning Polish company, Song of the Goat Theatre. I also hold a diploma from Musical Theatre School run by CAPITOL Musical Theatre in Poland. In my Practice-as-Research PhD in Drama Dance and Performance, thanks to the North of England Consortium for Arts and Humanities studentship, I developed a process-oriented approach to voicework and performer training focused on care and preservation of a performer’s wellbeing. I continue exploring the theme of ethics in embodying voice and performance practice with the Replica Institute for Creative Anticipation and Performing Arts, researching how working with artistic practices from the fields of wearable design and contemporary performing arts can contribute to debates about ethics and AI.

I am a founder of DreamVoice practice and a co-founder of Insoundout collective.

Performances

• 2021 KJJ x RH x IK: experimental music concert in Taupe, Manchester performed with Kelly Jayne Jones and Richard Harrison
• 2019 Wild Symphonies: performance based on the writings of Bernie Krausse; for Co:LAB Festival in Royal Exchange Theatre in Manchester – performer
• 2019 Concert with Drift Ensemble:  performing Different Surfaces: a composition of Cristian Morales Osso, improvisation with the ensemble based on extended vocal techniques; Huddersfield
• 2019 Dreamvoice: performance/sound installation devised as a part of PhD (PaR) final submission – artistic director, performer, producer
• 2017, 2018 Soundings: site-specific performance in public spaces of Huddersfield – artistic director, performer
• 2017 Dziubanina: world premiere at the Stage Song Festival (PPA) Wroclaw, directed by Agata Duda-Gracz with music of Piotr Dziubek – actor
• 2016 Medea: theatre performance by Anna Zubrzycki Studio for Stage Song Festival (PPA) Wroclaw, directed by Sabine Herbeke – actor
• 2015 Cavesong. Symphony in a Miner Key performance by SheWolf Company in Dudley Limestone Caverns and Birmingham Repertory Theatre – performer
• 2015 Khora: a performance research project into belief and the body by Mechanical Animal Corporation in cooperation with DanceXchange in Birmingham – performer and co-leader of workshops
• 2012-2014 The Dynamics of Metamorphosis: performance as research led by Pawel Passini, Przemyslaw Wasilkowski and Elizabeth Rojek in collaboration with Robert Hayden (Ultimavez), Tomasz Krzyzanowski (Chorea) in Grotowski Institute – performer, researcher
• 2012 Drawing on Schulz: theatre performance, directed by Gabriel Gawin, Anna Zubrzycki, performed in the Song of the Goat Theatre in Wroclaw, Capitol Theatre in Manchester, The Young Vic Theatre in London – actor
• 2008-2010 A Little Day: a musical in Capitol Music Theatre – leading role

Publications

• 2022 Spatz, B. with Erçin, E., Krawczyk, I., and Mendel, A. (2022). Whiteness. Performance Philosophy 7 (2):169-72. https://doi.org/10.21476/PP.2022.72349
• 2021 Barrett, K., Krawczyk, I., & Cederblad, C. G. (2021). Three Illuminated Videos. Journal of Embodied Research, 4(2), 3 (29:33). http://doi.org/10.16995/jer.92
• 2021 Krawczyk, Ilona (2021) Embodying Voice in Training and Performance: A Process-oriented Approach. Doctoral thesis, University of Huddersfield.
• 2021 Krawczyk, I., Spatz, B. (2021). Dreaming voice: A dialog. In: Kapadocha, C. (Ed.) Somatic voices in performance research and beyond (pp. 140-155). Routledge
• 2020 Frank, C., Fuentes Antonazzi, C., Krawczyk, I., & Moroz, S. (2020). Devising Interaction and Communication in Motion Studies project. CeReNeM Journal 7, pp.82-104.

Conference Presentations

• 2022 Artificial Intelligence – Intelligent Art? Human-Machine Interaction and Creative Practice TU Braunschweig and online Transdisciplinary conference. Delivery of a paper Embodying Voice with AI in co-authorship with Prof. Scott deLahunta, Dr. Diana Serbanescu, Kate Ryan and Mika Satomi
• 2019 Symposium: Somatic Voices in Performance Research and Beyond, East 15 Acting School – Delivery of a practical workshop Dreamvoice: a dialogue with…
• 2018 AHRC Heritage Consortium & NECAH Annual Conference, Sheffield Hallam University – Delivery of a paper The Touch of Embodied Voice. Perception-expression Loop
• 2018 AVBODY: Symposium on the Audiovisual Body, University of Huddersfield. Delivery of a paper The Sound Like Theatre, organisational and technical support
• 2017 Voice and Identity, University of Winchester. Performative presentation Placing sound on the example of Persian Tahreer, Yiddish and Eastern European traditional singing
• 2017 Vocality//Instrumentality, University of Huddersfield. Delivery of a paper The Experiential Research on Embodied Voice. Meeting Technique and Spirituality 2014 Voice and Something Else, University of Aberystwyth. Contribution to the performative part of the programme