Process and Practice 1

This subject has the following teaching availabilities in 2015:

140 hours

The Master of Dance offers graduates of BFA (Dance), equivalent degrees and those with appropriate levels of industry experience in choreography and performance the opportunity to further develop and enrich their professional practice. Placing a distinctive focus on the integration of performance skills and choreographic practice to facilitate a holistic physical sensibility underpinned by a commitment to collaborative and interdisciplinary approaches, the Master of Dance is suited to dancers, performers, improvisers, dance-makers and body-based practitioners and will equip them with a high level of professional skill and expertise as multi-dimensional dance artists.

For the purposes of considering request for Reasonable Adjustments under the Disability Standards for Education (Cwth 2005), and Student Support and Engagement Policy, academic requirements for this subject are articulated in the Subject Overview, Learning Outcomes, Assessment and Generic Skills sections of this entry.

It is University policy to take all reasonable steps to minimise the impact of disability upon academic study, and reasonable adjustments will be made to enhance a student's participation in the University's programs. Students who feel their disability may impact on meeting the requirements of this subject are encouraged to discuss this matter with a Faculty Student Adviser and Student Equity and Disability Support: http://services.unimelb.edu.au/disability

This subject focuses on dance making and performing fundamentals through compositional and improvisational approaches and strategies for generating and presenting materials. Corporeality, space, and time are investigated within aesthetic parameters. A number of concepts such as presence, identity and embodiment are fore-grounded. Techniques for releasing and shaping the spontaneous self through improvisation are explored. Frameworks for structuring and performing material within performative contexts are developed and short studies created and presented. Contextual seminars provide a basis for application of the strategies in a range of choreographic and performance practices.

On completing this subject students will:

• Identify and respond in movement form to internal and external impulses
• Develop the ability to connect imagery and action
• Develop the ability to recognise, work within, and conceptualise frameworks that support improvising experience
• Develop the capacity to organise spontaneously generated movement form into artistic structures
• Exhibit the ability to develop and organise performed movement form
• Develop the ability to recognise, synthesise and adapt idiosyncratic performance materials
• Develop an individual productive working method or approach

• 3-5 minute dance works and practical presentations each with specific objectives (4 minimum) - Regular intervals through semester (55%)
• Short written report reflecting upon each practical presentation equivalent to no more than 2000 words - Regular intervals through semester (20%)
• 1 x 1000 word written paper - End semester (25%)
• Hurdle requirement 80% attendance

This subject is not available as a breadth subject.

On completion of the subject students should have developed

• The ability to create, organise and present aesthetic material
• The ability to solve problems
• The ability to interpret and analyse
• The capacity for critical thinking
• The ability to synthesize data and other information