About Me
Dilreen Kaur is a versatile practitioner who has spent more than a decade working with pedagogy, educators, corporate leaders, young people, and marginalised communities through a variety of mediums, including Energy Medicine, Tai Chi, Qi-Gong, Arhatic Yoga, Breathwork, Inter-Generational Trauma healing, and Theatre.
I have been on a mission to engage with marginalised communities; a mission to create positive transformation…and now a mission to infuse every breath with conscious living
Dilreen holds an MPhil in English Literature and has been trained in Augusto Boal’s Theatre of the Oppressed methodology in Vancouver and Berlin, as well as a movement-based pedagogy rooted in the teachings of Jacques Lecoq in Berlin.
Kaur’s work in theatre spans over 10 years and involves collaborating with communities to create meaningful productions. Her forum play, ‘Are You a Man?’ was screened at the Aesthetics of Justice Theatre Festival in Berlin and the International Impulse in die Jugendarbeit in Zittau, Germany. Her unique approach involves engaging individuals and communities in the exploration of complex subjects like power dynamics, gender violence, body shame, abuse, and trauma through the collaborative process of theatre creation.
Kaur has also studied various ancient healing traditions and the body’s energy patterns to create a holistic healing experience for her clients. She integrates and combines various healing modalities to bring the body’s energy system into balance and flow, promoting vibrant health, revitalisation, joy, and clarity.
Her workshops and individual sessions focus on aspects of energetic wellness, breathing practices, simple yet powerful Qi-Gong routines, meditation practices, spiritual teachings, contemplations, and self-awareness techniques to help people navigate their transformational healing processes. Through her work, Kaur strives to help individuals live and lead with a state of aliveness, courage, clarity, confidence, and compassion in their personal and professional lives.
Dilreen attends a 10-day Vipassana meditation retreat every year to achieve clarity of mind, and a heightened ability to perceive things as they truly are. In her personal time, she enjoys trekking to high-altitude lakes in various parts of the world
Follow Dilreen Kaur’s YouTube channel for spiritual teachings, contemplations, reflections and meditation practices
Honours
Designed and facilitated a four-week program for 20 students from George Brown College in Toronto each year from 2016-2019
Self-produced Forum play* "Are You a Man?” was selected as the only play from India for Aesthetics of Justice Forum Theatre Festival in Berlin and screened in Zittau, Germany in 2018
Invited to be on panel for The Principles for Responsible Management Education (PRME’s) fifth international conference in New Delhi in 2018
Conducted theatre workshops for educators in Bhutan in both 2016 and 2018, covering Western and Southern Bhutan districts
Invited by the King of Bhutan's Armed Forces School Project, a school improvement program incorporating drama as a pedagogical device was implemented in government schools of Thimphu, Punakha, and Wangdue Phodrang districts from 2011 to 2015
Ran a theatre lab for emerging artists in India as part of the Kala Sakshi Memorial Trust's mentorship program in New Delhi in 2017
Conducted theatre workshops for educators for Pallavan School in Jhalawar, Rajasthan to make high impact education accessible to rural and economically deprived children
Conducted an experiential session on team building and collaboration for the International Summer School's leadership program in New Delhi in 2016
Invited by His Holiness Tenzin Gyatso the XIVth Dalai Lama to conduct theatre workshops for educators in Mussoorie in 2015 for the Tibetan Homes Foundation
Funded by the MacArthur Foundation, a Life Skills Program for Educators was designed to address reproductive and sexual health of young adolescents. Currently implemented in 1500 government schools in Rajasthan's Kota, Baran, and Jhlawar districts, the program aims to reduce HIV/AIDS infections, early marriage, teenage pregnancies, and gender violence
PORTFOLIO / THEATRE AND WRITINGS
Forum Theatre is a type of theatre created by Brazilian theatre director Augusto Boal. It is one of the techniques under the umbrella term of Theatre of the Oppressed (TO). This relates to the engagement of spectators influencing and engaging with the performance as both spectators and actors, termed “spect-actors”, with the power to stop and change the performance.
Personal blog on theatre and masculinity and theatre in slums: https://spectactorblog.wordpress.com