What is to be Experimental Performance Now?

to be on the edge . . .

      to perform live, and know you’re taking a risk . . .

      to love the nervousness of taking an intellectual chance . . .

            while being physically safe . . .

. . . are the fundamentals of what I call experimental performance art.

This class is about such intellectual risk taking.

What performance edges are, today, real?

It can’t be something you’ve already seen, or heard about — those edges have been blunted.

It has to be an idea — that you’ve invented.

This class is about taking the time to create (an idea) and implement (or, perform) such an idea,

live on stage.

Sometimes, it’s easy to have and idea — but it can take a while to figure out how to implement.

Sometimes the reverse is true.

We’ll be reading, listening to, and watching works of theater, music, and dance that have, in their creators’ minds, been experimental in some form. These works are not models to be obeyed, but rather, finished attempts to implement their creator’s idea.

Students will be asked to create and perform five performance pieces, in small groups, involving either music, theater or dance. These will be performed every two weeks for the class. The last set of pieces will be performed at a public concert in week 10.

Students will also be asked to give a presentation on an experimental artist they admire, and submit a written paper about that artist.

Anticipated Credit Equivalencies:

4 - Performance Techniques

4 - Research: Contemporary Experimental Artist