| Course code | CPM001 |
| Name of the course | Contemporary Performance Practices I |
| Languages of instruction | english |
| Teaching staff | |
| Responsible staff member | Jüri Nael |
| Graded or pass/fail examinations |
| Semester |
| ECTS |
| Total ECTS | 15 ECTS |
Course aims
This course provides an extensive and critical examination of contemporary performance practices through an immersive studio-based pedagogy. Designed to facilitate direct engagement with leading practitioners in theatre and performance, this course allows students to delve deeply into the theoretical and practical dimensions of performance-making. Emphasis is placed on experimentation, creative inquiry, and interrogating evolving methodologies, strategies, and conceptual frameworks within contemporary performance.
The primary aims of the course are multi-faceted, engaging students in both applied and reflective dimensions. Specifically, the course aims to:
1) Provide Advanced Exploration: Facilitate an in-depth exploration of diverse training and creative methodologies that are foundational to contemporary performance. This will deepen students' understanding of interdisciplinary perspectives, allowing them to situate their creative work within the broader artistic and theoretical discourse.
2) Promote Critical Analysis: Cultivate a critical perspective on different modes of artistic creation, prompting students to interrogate the ways in which varied training methodologies inform and shape the creative process. This analytical approach fosters an appreciation of the intersections between technical training and innovative creative practice.
3) Enhance Applied Artistic Competence: Equip students with practical expertise in the implementation of multiple creative strategies, tools, and techniques. By integrating training and creative methodologies, students will develop the capacity to contribute substantively to the discourse on contemporary performance practice.
4) Encourage Reflective Artistic Practice: Enable reflective practices that allow students to critically evaluate their evolving artistic trajectories. Through continuous self-examination, students will develop an awareness of how training experiences shape their artistic identity and creative output, thus enhancing their resilience as practitioners.
Learning outcomes
Upon successful completion of the course, students will have demonstrated significant growth in both their practical skills and their critical understanding of contemporary performance practices. Specifically, students will be able to:
1) Critique and Situate Creative Methods: Critically evaluate a wide spectrum of training and creative methods, positioning these approaches within the broader landscape of contemporary performance. Students will articulate their significance in relation to prevailing trends, debates, and theoretical frameworks.
2) Integrate Theory with Artistic Practice: Synthesize theoretical frameworks and creative methods in a sophisticated manner, incorporating diverse strategies into their own practice. This outcome will be demonstrated through the development of individual and collaborative works that embody a nuanced integration of theory and practice.
3) Compare and Contextualize Training Approaches: Compare, contrast, and evaluate various training methodologies, reflecting upon their practical implications for the creative process. Students will articulate these insights with depth, emphasizing how such methods can be strategically employed in their own work and within the wider performance field.
4) Reflect Critically on Artistic Development: Articulate a reflective analysis of their development as performance artists throughout the course. This includes identifying critical stages of artistic growth, highlighting transformative insights, and recognizing how exposure to diverse methodologies has influenced their creative evolution.
5) Engage in Productive Collaboration: Effectively contribute to collaborative projects, leveraging the diversity of peer perspectives to enrich the learning process. Students will demonstrate leadership skills in research initiatives and manage group dynamics, ensuring that collaboration becomes a pivotal aspect of their artistic practice.
