Overview

Description

CALENDAR DESCRIPTION:

Students are encouraged to focus their efforts on an individual practice and to develop new work mentored by faculty and guest artists. The research from this course will be carried over to the spring term senior projects in CA 425. Part of the class will focus on documentation and approaches to building personal profiles. This course can be repeated once for credit.

COURSE DETAILS:

CA 424: Making/Artistic Research offers fourth year Dance Majors an opportunity to review and frame their performance practice as a unique method of inquiry. Students establish the context of both their individual and collaborative practices while experimenting with methods of creation, reflection, and potential presentation models for their capstone projects. This class focuses on art making as a thinking process, and prioritizes “not knowing” as a necessary stage of development towards making new work.There are two synchronous streams of participation, either as a choreographer, or as dancer / collaborator. For both roles, the course work will support the creative process, both artistically and logistically. Learning by doing, sharing, and witnessing alongside each other, this course fosters research processes. 

This course is the first of two geared towards developing a final project for the Live Acts Festival in the Spring of 2026. Students will be led through research prompts to support the development of a new work. In addition to sharing outcomes from research prompts throughout the semester, all students will develop an artist biography, an artist statement, and develop written project proposals and descriptions of their works. Production-related propositions for their works will be carried into the spring semester.

Throughout the semester, the class will work together on several components of research and making experiments, including interdisciplinary collaborative research centred on work emerging from makers of different disciplines meeting. Dance students will work with Music and Sound students once a week to create unified artistic gestures crafted over time by two or more makers coming together. The priority in this component of the course is to develop material, conceptual frameworks, experiments and approaches to making that are generative across disciplines, support new lines of inquiry, question form, and develop methodologies. In the interdisciplinary sessions, the collaborative findings do not need to be centred on a particular discipline. Students are invited to think expansively about their respective form and arrive with an openness to potentially develop gestures outside of their discipline. Through this process, students will identify emergent methodologies that may support and serve the choreographic development of their specific individual projects for Live Acts. Those participating in the role of dancer / collaborators will interrogate and develop their critical role as a creative contributor / collaborator from within a creative process. 

The class will allow students to experience building techniques and strategies for preparing for and running rehearsals, project management, developing and learning choreography, coping with the challenges, questions, and pressures of creation, giving, receiving and implementing feedback, communicating with designers and production teams, producing, and supporting one another as a cohort to create healthy creative practices.

Peer, faculty and guest artist mentorship will be provided throughout the semester. Time will be allotted for independent and collaborative work during class hours. Choreographers and dancers should expect to rehearse and show their findings frequently within the class schedule. Occasionally, rehearsals and runs will be required outside of class hours, and extended notice will be provided whenever possible. Some rehearsals will be self-scheduled, and others will be determined by production needs. Choreographers will be responsible for communicating scheduling information with their collaborators. 

Students will create archival material for their processes, using written and drawn notes, video / audio recordings, or other methods that serve as documentation and as references during and after the projects complete.

General Class Structure:

The first class of each week (Monday) will be focused on the individual practice of each choreographer towards developing a concept, process, methodology, and vocabulary for the Live Acts presentation in the Spring of 2026. The second class of each week (Wednesday) will focus on interdisciplinary collaborative research with Music and Sound students towards making/working processes that are expansive and generate new approaches for developing work.

Culture / Agreement:

In this class, the work occurs both when we are in the room together, and independently. Students are expected to come to class prepared to participate, and to honour and be accountable to all timelines and due dates for components and phases of the work. Students are expected to always participate at their varying capacities, to avoid injury, and to keep one another healthy, mentally and physically. Students are encouraged and will be supported to collectively problem solve shared or individual challenges. Making and presenting work is a challenging, rigorous, and demanding undertaking. The instructor and the students will work together to build processes that allow everyone to be prepared for the work at hand.

Please do not come to class if you are ill and exhibiting symptoms of viruses / illnesses. Please DO come to participate in alternative ways if you are well enough. The class will have daily check-ins to support access needs. You are also welcome to state access needs to the instructor privately. 

Please inform the instructor of any absences or lateness with as much notice as possible. Sometimes emergencies come up at the last minute, but please communicate or ask someone to communicate on your behalf if you are not going to be somewhere that you are expected to be. 

If you would like to arrange a meeting or have a conversation throughout the semester, please contact the instructor by email to arrange an appointment outside of class.

COURSE-LEVEL EDUCATIONAL GOALS:

To provide students with the opportunity to individually lead the creation of a new performance work, and/or participate as a collaborator in the development of a peer’s work

To provide students with the opportunity to collaboratively and interdisciplinarily develop expansive approaches, methodologies for thinking, making and being in work.

To provide the opportunity to engage deeply with the process of creative research, developing personal and shared artistic practice and process

To provide introductions and form connections with professional artists within the local arts community

Grading

Materials

MATERIALS + SUPPLIES:

Come prepared to move, dance, share and engage. Bring materials to take notes and record. Bring materials needed to run or participate in rehearsal such as laptop, notebook, basic (necessary) props or stand in props, recording device. Specific further requests may be made throughout the semester (ie bring an object, bring a reference, bring a text).

REQUIRED READING NOTES: