Certificate of Advanced Studies SUPSI in Performance and Contemporary Live Arts

PERFORMANCE AND CONTEMPORARY LIVE ARTS
Practice and research in performing arts: action, performance, theatre, visual environments and soundscapes

http://www.teatrodimitri.ch/scuola/Studium/Weiterbildung/CAS-Performance

FIELD OF ACTION / PHILOSOPHY
Preparing artists for today’s scene
Characterized by a spirit of openness and by the idea of demolishing the barriers that divide the practices connected to the scenic arts, this program offers an immersion in the universe of performance and transdisciplinary creation for the stage. The interest for performative aspect of scenic practices in the program is mostly intended as a way to create and place oneself as a scenic artist on the basis of key notions like action, presence, event, commitment, investment and boldness. The program is intended for all artists interested in the exploration and the invention of new modalities of communication on stage, and who are able to shake beaten paths and conventions in terms of creativity and aesthetic, human, political, social, philosophical or spiritual positioning. It is centered around practices based as much on the use of text as on the use of the body, sound, image, and the totalizing presence of the artist. The focal points of the program are hybrid creations – at the border between performance, devised theatre, dance, site specific actions and live installations – in which plastic and visual dimensions are allowed to find a space of co-existence.
The study course is thought as a space for intense reflection, encounter, research and creation. The work focuses on the development of each participant’s creative abilities as a part of a path of exploration of forms, of stakes at play, of places and strategies of innovative scenic languages.
Open to professionals in the fields of the scenic, text, visual, plastic and music arts, it will allow the participating artists to develop a personal project of creation in a context stimulated by a study of both theoretical and historical perspectives.

CREATING / REFLECTING
Accomplishing an individual project of creation
Through an intense teaching that requires a great commitment of participant, this advanced study program aims specifically at accompanying an individual project of creation, for which professional artists wanting to perfect themselves or persons wishing to explore the universe of performance will be selected. This project, on which the participant will work throughout the entire program, can be a solo performance, or a work requiring the collaboration of other artists or participants. It will be shown in front of an audience at the very end of the course.
Orienting oneself in the History of Art and Ideas
While working on a practical process of conceiving and concretely bringing on stage their individual projects, the participants will be invited to bring forward a theoretical reflection through presentations with the goal of identifying historical and contextual references. The courses will address in particular the artistic, aesthetic, political and social implications that have marked the history of the performance and performing arts practices. Participants will tackle questions around the origins and the deep implications raised by the practices connected to performance, that the avant-gardes, in their own times, have brought to the surface through positions characterized by their engagement, their dedication and their desire for change. Such theoretical references will be addressed especially at the crossings between disciplines: theatre, plastic arts, music, dance, etc… It will thus be possible for the participants to acquire a perspective of the hybrid compositions that characterize today’s artistic scenes.
Searching, conceiving, experimenting
Research and experimentation as forms of openness and brave exploration around the encounters of original creative visions will have a paramount position in this program. They will allow participants to get to know themselves better as artists-creators and to develop their own method of work that they will acquire through a practice actively engaging analysis, contextualization and problematization.
An ensemble philosophy in an international context
Centered on the development of the creative personality of each participant, the work will also focus on an ensemble philosophy. Participants will work together towards of an open and shared method of creation, within a united group committed towards a common goal. The international dimension of the program targeted towards a cosmopolite and pluralistic community will also be a fundamental part of the project.

PROGRAM
Organization
The program is structured into two blocks of intensive work in the school’s facilities of 8 and 12 days (121 hours with the pedagogue artist + 45 hours of individual work of creation), and three blocks dedicated to the participant’s personal research and work to be developed between the intensive sessions ( about 90 hours).
The intensive sessions at school are based on essentially practical work focused on the conception and the realization of an artistic project, combined with an introduction to the reflection on historical, aesthetic and theoretical questions.
The times of individual research outside of the school will lead to two pieces of writing and to two live performances :
– The first relates to the personal project of creation
– The second is conceived as a research piece looking into a questioning about performing practices (for instance, taking into account an artist’s work, or focusing on a historical current, or deepening the analysis of an aesthetic question, etc.) This research will have to be presented as a performance piece.

Contents
– The first block of work is dedicated to research. The participant will have to get started on a piece of writing connected to the artistic projects that s/he intends to work on during the program, including specifically a description of the project in terms of environment, implications and chosen themes.
– The second block of work will take place in the form of an intensive session at the school. It will last 8 days (45 hours with the pedagogue artist + 15 hours of individual research and creation). During this time, the participant will start to practically experiment his work for his practical project.
– The third block of work is dedicated to the participant’s personal research. It will last a month and a half during which the participant will keep working on his first piece (creation project and writing) and get started on the second piece (theoretical research leading to a live piece).
* The piece of writing relative to the project of artistic creation will lead in particular to a dramaturgic proposition.
* The second piece of research inspired by a theoretical, aesthetic or historical theme connected to the performing arts will lead to a live piece of between 15 and 30 minutes presented in front of an audience (block 4).
– The fourth block of work will take the form of an intensive session at the school. It will last 12 days (76 hours of work with the pedagogue artist + 30 hours of individual research and creation). At this time, the participant will be working on the presentations of his two artistic pieces (research and creation project) to the audience.
– The fifth block of work will take place during the month following the final presentation. It is dedicated to the finalization of the participant’s first piece of writing on artistic project in a professional perspective.

Schedule
– Two blocks of intensive practical sessions and theoretical classes at the Scuola Teatro Dimitri, Verscio (CH). March 19th to 26th 2014 and May 6 th to May 18 th 2014. From 11 a.m a to 22 p.m daily (121 hours with the pedagogue artist + 45 hours of individual work of creation)
– Three blocks of individual research on personal project. Outside school. Free schedule. Between March and May 2014 (about 90 hours).

Dates and places of study
Block 1. Personal Research on individual project. Outside school. Free schedule. March 1st to 17th 2014
Block 2. Intensive Practice and theoretical courses. Scuola Teatro Dimitri. March 19th to 26th 2014
Block 3. Personal Research on individual project and one theoretical subject/piece. Outside school. Free schedule from March 28 th until May 5 th 2014
Block 4. Intensive Practice. Scuola Teatro Dimitri. Verscio. (CH) May 6 th to May 18 th 2014
Block 5. Personal Research. Outside school. Free schedule. May 20 th to May 30 th 2014

Potential candidates
Scenic, visual arts, writing and music professionals. Actors, performers, dancers, writers, plastic artists, musicians, etc, who are willing to explore performing strategies within their artistic practice, to deepen their theoretical, historical and practical knowledge within this frame and who wish to bring to life an individual project of creation within a group of creative personalities with the support of a coordinator-pedagogue-artist.

Requisites
University education degree (Bachelor or Master), higher education diploma, equivalent degree or demonstrated artistic experience at professional level. In particular cases, candidates without the required requisites can be admitted based on the quality and pertinence of their application.

Pedagogical Coordinator and artistic teaching
Stéphanie Lupo, PhD, performing artist, actress, stage director, author, scholar, pedagogue. External collaborator to the STD SUPSI.

Program Coordinator
Demis Quadri, PhD, Professor of Theory and History of Theatre, scholar, head of the Advanced Studies Department at the STD SUPSI

Diploma
Certificate of Advanced Studies SUPSI (Scuola Universitaria Professionale della Swizzera Italiana)

Credits
10 ECTS (Work with pedagogue artist : 4 ECTS. Individual work : 2 ECTS. Two pieces of research and creation : 4 ECTS)

Application Deadline
By December 30th 2013

Costs
CHF 2’200.— / 1’777 Euros (installment agreements possible)

Number of participants
Between 8 and 12

Selection / Admission
Applicants should submit a detailed curriculum vitae, a selective list of works, a motivation letter and brief description of the artistic project and theme of research s/he wishes to develop during the program.

Language
The courses will be held in either English, French or Italian according to the composition of the group of participants. The pieces of writing should be written in one of the above-mentioned languages or in German.

Information
Scuola Teatro Dimitri SUPSI
Stradon 28
CH – 6653 Verscio
Phone: +41 (0)91 796 24 14
Fax: +41 (0)91 796 23 93
[email protected]

STEPHANIE LUPO

http://contemporaryperformance.org/profile/lupo

Stéphanie Lupo is a performing artist, actress, stage director, scholar and author. She holds a PhD in Theatre Studies (2005), a Master Degree in Art Philosophy from the Sorbonne university, as well as an Advanced Studies diploma (Bac +5) in Training and Research in Theatre Directing from ENSATT (Ecole Nationale Supérieure des Arts et Techniques du Théâtre) (2008) in collaboration with the Moscow Theatre “School of Dramatic Art” directed by Anatoly Vassiliev. Her path can be noted for her research in the field of performing arts at the permanent crossing between practice and theory.
Lupo kicks off her artistic exploration with a professional dance training at Off Jazz in Nice, before engaging herself in an education as actress in London and Paris, most notably at la Cartoucherie in Vincennes with teachers such as Russians Natalia Zvereva (GITIS) and Anatoly Vassiliev. Living in Europe and the United States, she has collaborated to several artistic projects in contemporary art, video, performing arts and live arts. Then starts a long-term training of several years with Anatoly Vassiliev, with whom she works as actress and stage directing student in intensive laboratory style course which developed between France and Moscow. Lupo has published around this work “Anatoli Vassiliev, Au cœur de la pédagogie théâtrale, Rigueur et Anarchie” (2006), which has earned her the Jamati award for Best publication of theatre of the year.

As performer and actress, Lupo has also worked with Yoshito Ohno, Chantal Ysermans, Tristan Christann, Fiorenza Menini, Jan Lauwers, Thomas Ostermeier, Meredith Monk, Cristian Soto, Krzysztof Garbaczewski…As assistant, she has trained among others with Bob Wilson and Peter Stein and attended rehearsal works of Guy Cassiers, Arpad Shilling and Krzysztof Warlikowsky.

Lupo has created, directed and performed pieces inspired by writings on art, novels, essays or philosophical texts by Oscar Wilde, Heiner Muller, Plato, Marguerite Duras, Nietzsche, Roland Barthes… She also writes and performs her own texts or compositions as group or solo pieces : “The deserts of Love” (2008), “Hiroshima” (2009), “Story of an unknown” (2010), “Soleilsang –Sunblood-” (2011), “I want to talk about youth falling” (2012). She has shown her works in different artistic realities in Europe among which : Mains d’œuvres, Centre d’art le Plateau, ARTA, la Cartoucherie de Vincennes, Théâtre du Grutli, P.A.R.T.S studios, La Bellone, Center Jerzy Grotowski, Palazzo delle esposizioni, Centro di Ricerca Teatrale, Festival d’Avignon, Paris UNESCO, Festival ZOA…

She has taught courses on History of Art Theatre, Performance art, Art Philosophy, at University of Amiens and Nice. In 2012 she has led a workshop at L’ENSAV La Cambre in Brussels within the Performance and Art of the body track. Since 2013, she’s leading a workshop based on improvisations and tasks, at the Scuola Teatro Dimitri in Switzerland, where she’s also associate researcher as well as pedagogical coordinator of the Certificate of Advanced Studies in Performance and Contemporary Live Arts. She led researches on Action Art in the Fifties and Sixties (Happenings, Fluxus, GUTAI, Viennese actionnism…), on the birth of performance and the mutations of forms and theatrical languages from the Sixties to this day and on Russian and Polish theatre. She was invited to give a series of conferences on this subjects at the Ecole du Louvre, Scuola Teatro Dimitri, Festival ZOA, Théâtre d’Orléans… She is mostly interested in the creative process, the place and role of art in society, in the concept of the performative act, of artistic community, and of living alternatives through art.