Choreographic Tools and Methods II
Brief course description
Choreographic Tools and Methods is a course that focuses on various methods for developing, shaping and structuring ideas and movement material into artistic form. The course emphasises work on strategies and techniques that provide insight into how ideas and themes of movement are developed in a choreographic process.
The course includes knowledge of choreographic composition, improvisation strategies, composition and movement analysis, and somatic work.
Through encounters with educators who practise as choreographers and/or other creative or performing artists, students will gain insight into various choreographic and compositional strategies and methods. A particular emphasis is placed on experiential learning and on building professional confidence to develop one’s own artistic work, whether in conjunction with given or self-chosen assignments.
Collaborations with other students, primarily from the Academy of Dance but also from other programmes, are an integral part of the course.
The course will consist of one or two modules on tools and methods, with a particular focus on one or two of the following topics: choreography and composition; improvisation; documentation strategies; and stagecraft elements.
The course’s learning outcomes
The course’s learning outcomes are described as follows:
Knowledge
Upon completing the course, students shall
- have knowledge of various methods and strategies for creating movement in time and space
Skills
Upon completing the course, students shall
- be able to use and develop various choreographic methods and strategies in collaboration with performers in order to create choreographic structures with artistic form and content
- be able to use relevant insight from composition and movement analysis and dramaturgy in their creative work
General competence
Upon completing the course, students shall
- be able to illuminate and independently examine the relationship between choreographic content and form and have a reflective relationship to their own idiom
- be able to integrate and account for their selection and use of various stagecraft elements in order to create a choreographic totality
- be able to convey choreographic problems and analyses to collaborating dancers and others
Teaching and learning methods
The course’s working methods may alternate between teacher-led learning, supervision and independent work. The learning methods may be more process-oriented and include practical exercises, creative assignments, workshops, project-based group work, seminars, lectures, excursions, and independent study. As part of the coursework, the students will share results or experiences from the process with others by documenting their own process, whether in writing, orally, performatively and/or through audiovisual means. Some of the teaching will take place together with the Master of Dance programme or other relevant programmes.
The course requirements are
- mandatory attendance and active participation in the course
- ongoing completion of course assignments
Assessment
All course requirements must be approved in order for a student to receive a final course assessment.
The student’s coursework is assessed on an ongoing basis. This ongoing assessment is based on supervision, the educator’s assessments, group discussions and independent reflection on one’s artistic development as seen in relation to the course’s learning outcomes.
The course is graded pass/fail.