This performance project course is open to anyone who is interested in a text-based experimental performance, which may not fit in a frame of dance or theater in the traditional sense.
Mina Nishimura will facilitate the creative process of making a new text-based performance, Pressing Face Against That Window [working title], written and directed by co-facilitator Kota Yamazaki. This work dives into the ever-complicating and un-resolving universe of language and movement, and examines conversations that don’t make sense as conversations.
Sina: “I washed and hung my shirt.”
Racroa: “A time that creates an illusion of being one mile away, maybe?”
Besides our inherent poetical sense, what can potentially bridge those two lines in the context of performance? Long silence? A performer’s particular presence or expressions? Abstract movements? Scenography or history of a performing site? What is happening between those two lines? Such potentiality of in-between space (Ma in Japanese) can be found often in traditional Japanese performing art forms. It is time and space for emptiness and mystery that activate our imagination and bring some magic.
This site-specific project also takes inspiration from history, energy and the scenography of Newman Court in VAPA, where the final project will be performed toward the end of the term. Students are expected to commit to the creative process as collaborators, and to perform in the final production as performers. Students with some dance or theater experiences are welcomed although not required.
Learning Outcomes:
-Expand your perspectives on dance and theater
-Learn an experimental and unorthodox approach to use of language
-Be able to deliver movements and texts confidently in a performance production
-Connect seemingly unrelated subjects and images through somatic experience
-Develop understanding of a site-inspired performance
-Cultivate your performance presence
Delivery Method: Fully in-person
Corequisites: Dance or Drama lab assignment if students sign up for 4 or more credits in designated dance courses.
Course Level: 2000-level
Credits: 2
M/Th 1:40PM - 3:30PM (Full-term)
Maximum Enrollment: 11
Course Frequency: One time only
Categories: 2000 , All courses , Dance , Drama , Fully In-Person , Two Credit
Tags: dance , drama , performance