Trinity Laban

MA Dance Theatre: The Body in Performance

Advance your creative practice and question ideas of the body and performance through an integrated theoretical and practical programme.

 

"I'm always excited and challenged by the range of artists who attend the MA Dance Theatre Programme. Throughout the year we exchange ideas through practical sessions and seminar discussions, resulting in a lively and critically supportive research environment. The resulting performances and installations act as a key moment where a wider audience is invited in to share the results of this rigorous investigation of the body in performance."
Martin Hargreaves
Programme Leader, MA Dance Theatre: The Body in Performance

This programme provides the opportunity for you to engage in the creation of dance theatre work which pushes at the boundaries of the discipline. This will be work that focuses on the live act and does not necessarily involve the display of technique or the abstract arrangement of bodies moving in space. It will not always appear in dance spaces, and may address an audience outside of theatrical frameworks - or it may redeploy these techniques, spaces and frameworks to position the performing body in new relationships to the bodies of the spectator.

The interrogation of ideas of 'the body' and of 'performance', as posed by traditions of dance and theatre, as well as by other art forms, will be central to your research. The intertwining of theory and practice is stressed within this programme and your investigations will have outcomes which employ both live performance and written documentation.

Programme Content

The focus is on the students' own creative performance practice and you will be introduced to various methodologies for devising, articulating, documenting and presenting this practice. Investigative and creative processes are explored within studio-based modules, with opportunities to consolidate this research into performances across Laban's theatres. Lectures and seminars that discuss philosophical concepts of subjectivity and embodiment do so in the context of artistic movements concerned with rethinking the nature of the body, movement and identity. This offers a sense of historical context, and the opportunity to consider your work within wider discourses on the performing body. The programme nurtures and fosters collaborative and interdisciplinary experiences as a means of exploring the devising process within a situation where exchange, discussion and critical reflection are central.

The taught content of the modules is delivered by a team comprised of Trinity Laban staff and visiting artists and lecturers. It consists of the following:

The Project (M505) may take the form of a performance, a lecture demonstration, a written dissertation, or a mixed mode project.

Please note that technical training (technique classes) is not provided within the fee structure of the programme. However, classes are available on payment of a supplementary fee to cover direct teaching costs - please see further information Technique Training.

Alternatively evening classes offered by the Education and Community department are available.

A range of professional classes are also offered at our partner organisation Greenwich Dance located some 15 minutes walk away.

The aims of the programme are:
• To engage with contemporary research into the body in performance through the provision of studio-based explorations of methods for creative practice, documentation and performance presentation.
• To facilitate collaborative and interdisciplinary practice as a means to synthesise knowledge from complex, incomplete or contradictory perspectives embedded in arts practice.
• To consider key concepts of the body and subjectivity in 20th-21st century art-making, their philosophical context and the manner in which they have informed innovations in performance.