|
Creativity and performance are words that lie not just at the heart of the performing arts but are also essential tools for living well. This course introduces students to a number of performance skills and tools with which they might both analyse and create performances. We wish to expand students perceptions about what Performance might be and what functions it might serve in past, contemporary and future societies. The course focuses on three particular performance art forms - dance, theatre, and music - and also attempts to illuminate areas of collaboration between these distinctive performance art forms.
Part of the coursework involves making a performance in a small group of which you will feel justifiably proud. A challenge you don’t encounter in other courses; it won’t just be your head that aches.
At the 100 level we are primarily interested in the individual response to the various performance experiences. An emphasis, if you like, on personal feeling. We encourage students to trust their intuitions and to be spontaneous. In some cases this involves re-awakening an ability to play. We invite curiosity about the performing arts, something that most people are aware of but have never really thought about.
Format
Students work with 4 teachers on this course, each one of them providing a unique perspective on their particular field of expertise. The class meets twice a week but potential students should be aware that they are expected to attend three performances during the course and to attend a dance weekend, sometime halfway through the semester. This course has three distinct components:
1. Practical Workshops. These take the form of workshops in each of the three disciplines. Students reflect upon these classes by writing a logbook that includes reviews and reflections on the professional work encountered during the semester. Tjitse Vogel leads the musical workshops; Richard Hinam leads the theatre workshops and Marisa Grande the intensive dance weekend.
2. As a way to contextualize the practical workshops, 8 classroom sessions are organised. The aim of these sessions is twofold.
Firstly, as a way of understanding the intrinsic qualities of live performance the student are introduced to various approaches to performance. Notions of ritual, play, performance, staging, performativity and theatricality are explored thereby giving the student a rough idea of the territory of performance studies.
Secondly, we focus on analyzing live performances. It is not hard to have an opinion on what you might have seen. Perhaps it was brilliant, boring, provocative, or it just sucked. But why? In these sessions we make a start with how to look at performances. How might we distinguish between different theatrical means and their inherent sign systems? How do they communicate with us both as audience and as young performance makers?
Only after having determined how a theatre maker, choreographer or composer handles or represents space, time and body, can we start to try to make sense of a performance. Konstantina Georgelou teaches this part of the course.
3.Synthesis.
Working in small groups students devise three short performances based upon a theme chosen by the course instructors. The relationship between the practical sessions and reflection upon those activities serves as the core of the course. Students are encouraged to reflect upon their own experiences and to engage with what the meaning and functions of the Performing Arts mean today. No previous experience in music, dance or theatre is required, only a willingness to engage both body and mind in personal and collective adventures.
|