DANC i21: Performance Practices in Dance
In
this course, students are introduced to specific dance styles, which have
contributed to the relation of dance and society both as performative topics as
well as cultural heritage
Three forms of dance deeply rooted in a specific
cultural context will challenge students to strive
for a comprehensive knowledge of the single elements that form a dance act and
its relationship with the audience.
Students are here encouraged in acquiring new skills and broaden their
perspectives for a more compelling performance and a more grounded confidence
on the stage.
DANC i25: Techniques for the Dancer
This
course is primary designed to prepare, train and form the entire body for the complexed
demands of dancing and performing. Movement principles and technical skills
will be taught from a fundamental functional and dance anatomy perspective to
allow students to develop more confidence, competence, and control of their
physical range of movement by reinforcing and developing their skills.
DANC i35: Extended Performance Topics: Dance
This course opens the educational process with a
non-invasive teaching/learning environment in which transmission of knowledge,
physical and cognitive practice happen in a collaborative way. The aim is to
liberate the dance studio and provide a space in which communication channels
can open. The course is a half-structured and half-improvisational format in
which teachers invite students to share the teaching and learning processes so
that practice and theory are combined. Activities and exercises are selected
from a variety of physical techniques, practices and studio hybrids of
contemporary dance techniques. Students gain an understanding that the
classroom and studio are relational.
DANC i33: Choreography
& Somatics
This course focuses on
the nature and process of the stage composition and choreographic creation.
Both sections that
compose the course aim in different ways at deepening specific inner movement
research.
Scores will be given to
the students in order to prepare the body and the mind to employ more
efficiently elements of improvisation and range and also to focus the creative
power for compositional and choreographic purposes.
Students will be
encouraged to incorporate a range of disciplines, including voice and spoken
text into their choreographies and will be exposed to an array of material that
will expand their artistic expression. This course challenges students to make
use of their own physical intelligence through and to build up their own
workgroups to create their own choreographies or performances.
ITAL i10 &
ITAL i11: Italian Language I & II
This elementary level course is directed towards students
who have no prior knowledge of the Italian language. Our language component
course is loaded towards the first portion of the semester in order to give
students basic skills for comprehension and communication in their work with
Italian faculty and guest artists throughout the semester. The emphasis in the
first semester is on developing listening and communication skills in addition
to cultivating a solid grammatical foundation. Direct interaction with Italian Faculty,
students and guest artists ensures the skills acquired in the classroom are implemented
into the daily life and activities of the student. If a core group of students
already has completed a cycle of elementary Italian studies at their home
institutions, an elementary level 2 or intermediate level may be conducted simultaneously.
A placement test on site at ADA is required for entry into the appropriate course. The Italian language component at ADA is required
of all students.
ITAL i21: Italian Advanced Grammar/Conversation
Students attain a degree of linguistic and cultural competence. Conducted entirely in Italian, this course reinforces, builds upon, and refines the listening, speaking, reading, and writing skills that students obtained in ITAL I10 and ITAL I11. The course increases students' ability to understand and use the language, introducing them to more complex grammatical structures, expanding their vocabulary, and building their confidence through a variety of activities and assignments. The course materials allow students to explore various cultural matters and develop cross-cultural skills through comparisons between their native culture and the Italian world.
TART i25: Masked Theatre Topics
Courses for
theatre students interested in the use of the mask in performance, with a
specific focus on Contemporary full head masks, clown work, and mask making. We
begin with improvisation and incorporate masks to the improvisational
structure. We begin each day with training games during which we will be able
create the foundation for our non- verbal and action-oriented work. We
conceptualize and execute the creation of paper Mache masks that will be tested
and further developed by the actors themselves. In addition to discussions and
reflections we will also present and discuss various arguments and aspects of
mask making and construction techniques. Taking from the material created and
the experiences had early in the course the participants will collaborate to
develop a sequence of scenes that will be presented to the public at the end of
the course.
Topics vary each semester
TART i27: Poetics of Performance I
A course conceived to enhance students physical, emotional, imaginative and cognitive playfulness in order to develop individual and ensemble devising techniques. The course prepares students for the challenging task of creating their own work through pre-expressive training, sonic improvisation, musicality/physicality, textual studies, composition, and experimentation.
TART i29: Techniques for the Physical Actor I
This course is designed
to develop, train and prepare a student’s body and voice for the unique demands
of physical acting and performance. With a pre-performative focus, students
engage with psycho-physical techniques sourced from different European
theorists and practitioners of the 20th century, including those developed by
Jerzy Grotowsky, Roy Hart and Jacque Lecoq, among others. The course also has a
strong emphasis on exploration-based processes in movement and voice, meant to
foster individual strategies for training and preparation for performance.
Through this course, students will develop a more expressive body and voice and
enhance awareness of, and connection to, these vital facets of their
instrument.
TART i31: Social Acceleration in the Avant Guard
This course is an interdisciplinary survey
that looks at the intersection between the acceleration of change in social
forms in the 19th and 20th century and the perception of those
changes as expressed in contemporary Avant-Garde art movements. Through discussion of essential prose texts, poems,
manifestos, films, paintings, theater performances and music, students will
gain insight into various Avant-Garde creations and their ongoing impact on
art, literature, and today’s culture. Guiding questions of the course
are: What was original about the historical
Avant-Gardes? What connections between art and revolution did Avant-Garde
writers and artists imagine? Besides “art manifestos”, what strategies did they
utilize to meet their aesthetic imperatives? To what extent did their projects
maintain a critical attitude towards the culture industry?
TART i33: Pre-performative studies in Theatre
Students work on voice and body integration, extended vocal techniques
and body expression using the internationally recognized work developed by
Alfred Wolfsohn and Roy Hart as well as drawing on the physical practices in
the tradition of J. Grotowsky. The intention is to open the boundaries of what
is possible with the body and voice to provide essential material for the
development of expressive characteristics of the participant.
TART i36: Thinker on Stage: Theoretical Foundations in Devising
Thinking is a skill
like any other human ability. It does not come from nature but emerges out of
the attachment to socio-human culture and is developed by the desire for
knowledge. This class acknowledges that an artist and creator employs thinking
in their work and as such must develop this ability in the artistic sphere. As
such this class explores the realm known as theoretical poetics in order to
interrogate our habitual modes of thought and see where how we think is
connected to what we call art. We will approach story from different strategic
vantage points and ask whether or not art has its own set of laws. What role
does art play in our thinking and what role does thinking play in art?
TART i37: Poetics of Performance II
This course delves deeper into techniques of devising
and the understanding of how style is created. The student will continue to
develop the concept of ensemble through chorus work and play as key ingredients
of their work. Moreover, the student will become familiar with a perspective
usually reserved for the director’s chair thus enabling them to confront
creation with clear strategies, understanding how decision making and the
manner with which one expresses their ideas in a collaborative environment are
a fundamental aspect of devised work. The students are thus given the tools to
concretize their original ideas in the spirit of collaboration.
TART i39: Techniques for the Physical Actor II
In this course the student continues their technical
training of the body and voice, exploring in more depth their work in this
field. Students will experience a variety of teachings integrally connected to
the core substance of physical theatre training, such as musicality and acting.
As the student moves toward a rigorous harnessing of the possibilities of
movement and vocal production, these latter are considered in conjunction with
elements of the mis-en-scene so that a focus is given to creating a connection
between pre-expressive techniques and dramaturgy.
TART i40: Performance Practices I
In this course, the student is introduced to different
and specific theatrical styles. This allows the student to heighten their
connection with the stage, their fellow actors and their awareness of an
audience. By learning different theatrical languages, the students will be able
to experience performance on a holistic scale while simultaneously learning the
specific techniques that each style demands. Great emphasis is given to the Commedia dell’Arte, as it demands of the
actor a complete knowledge of all the elements of theatre (mask work, plot
construction, improvisation, physical and vocal acrobatics, scene work and
social commentary.) Other styles will include Clown, Traditional Song and
Dance, Storytelling, basic Circus skills and more.
TART i41: Performance Practices II
This course is designed to move the student into more
contemporary practices, which acknowledge the transformations in the arts that
took place over the course of the 20th century. These practices
include Tanzeteater, Butoh, Storytelling, and contemporary mask work and post
dramatic practices such as viewpoints. The student will be immersed into stage
experiences, which are demanding of a heightened sensitivity not only to their
body and the stage, but also to the meaning that a given performance conveys.
The guided creation of performance material serves to enhance the student’s
awareness of the body as a conduit of such meaning and expression.