Overview

Description

CALENDAR DESCRIPTION:

Body I introduces 'the body' as a primary material of performance. With rotating topics, students develop the foundational skills for creating original, contemporary live art.

COURSE DETAILS:

 

CA 254 Body I introduces the body as a primary material of performance. With rotating topics, students develop foundational skills for creating original, contemporary live art.

BODY I prepares the performer to be a versatile creative thinker, capable of generating original material for live performance by utilizing the body in space and time, and training the body to be aware, ready, and responsive. The course combines techniques for building ensembles, the vocabulary of composition, improvisation, the language of cinema, and the exploration of emotion, desire, dance, and working in contrast or in concert with music. The course will cover elements of Viewpoints, the Suzuki Method of Acting, immersive techniques, and contemporary dance—tempo, duration, kinesthetic response, repetition, shape, gesture, architecture, spatial relationship, and topography—and apply these to composition as it relates to a text, theme, design, or image.

Throughout the course, we will incorporate improvisations drawn from the class theme, students’ own writing, and selected classical and contemporary texts, in order to strengthen the performer's presence and to create original material for live performance. The aim of the class is for a performer/maker to explore, through the body, the art of listening and the principles of composition in order to find their unique voice and speak with their entire body—ultimately giving a performance that is intelligent, precise, and visceral.

Students will engage in daily warm-ups, improvisations, and intensive training in the Suzuki Method of Acting, Viewpoints, and contemporary dance techniques—body, action, space, time, energy, gravity, balance and off-balance, tension and relaxation, contraction and release, among others. Students will use the body as a tool for creative expression to build corporal confidence, while using the lens of the body to create micro-compositions to be explored and developed in class with ongoing feedback throughout the course.

*open to all SCA students with permissioin of instructor, please email me at erika_latta@sfu.ca

COURSE-LEVEL EDUCATIONAL GOALS:

Course Learning Outcomes /
 

• discuss, analyze, and apply the composition tools: their use and application as part of performer training and for composition to specific text or themes. 

• attain economy of movement, kinesthetic awareness, group listening, strength, flexibility and freeing the physical instrument. 

• be able to use physicality on stage and be aware of the body in space and time, training the body to be aware, ready and listening. 

• utilize a greater theatrical presence through listening skills and a heightened body awareness. 

• perform various warm-up exercises, stretches, and ensemble training. 

• knowledge of how to use the body as a tool for creative expression, corporeal confidence and physical openness. 

• attain a greater understanding of ensemble work, what it means to be a part of an ensemble and the discipline it takes to create a role and construct original material. 

• to self-direct, to be able to give ideas and generate material 
• experience gained in constructing, making and scoring original material. 

• experience in building a character or event with the starting point of the body through the use of the training and through text analysis and research.
• understand the value, discipline and focus it takes to be a performer and create new innovative work. 


Grading

Materials

RECOMMENDED READING:

REQUIRED READING NOTES: