Study-Unit Description

Study-Unit Description


CODE PFA2003

 
TITLE Collective Performance

 
UM LEVEL 02 - Years 2, 3 in Modular Undergraduate Course

 
MQF LEVEL 5

 
ECTS CREDITS 5

 
DEPARTMENT School of Performing Arts

 
DESCRIPTION This study-unit provides opportunity for collaboration between the three disciplines of Music, Dance and Theatre within the School of Performing Arts. These art forms require first, a wide range of knowledge and skills in their own disciplines - i.e. acting, dancing, playing instruments, choreographing, directing, composing. Secondly, they need to offer young practitioners offer experiences that allow them to learn each other's languages, share approaches to stimulating, developing and structuring performance, acquire skills of collaboration, cooperation and negotiation, and widen their performance skills. These are all transferable skills which are necessary for working professionally in the real world of opera, ballet, theatre, television and film.

This interdisciplinary study-unit provides a holistic view of what goes into the making of a performance. It should also be seen as a practical outcome for the ongoing practice as research modules that students take throughout their formation in the school, independently of which programme they come from. It also complements theoretical study-units in cultural management such as THS2107 and THS3107, and practical study-units in Dance Devising (DCS1007) and Performance Collaboration (DCS1008).
This study-unit allows students to engage in a creative experience and teaches them to negotiate between different artistic processes through research and practice. It will consist primarily of practical work, discussion and the elaboration of tools and methods directed towards the production of a finished practical product that can be watched and criticized by an audience.

The unit introduces and extends ideas of negotiated performance-making processes and develops them in relation to collaboration with other artists; the group will work with students from other art forms to create a series of short works which share intention and process and explore the problems and opportunities of artistic collaboration.

Study-unit Aims:

- To engage in collaborative research;
- To identify and interpret selected interdisciplinary frameworks which may surround performance events;
- To instigate and manage creative approaches to performance collaboration across two or more disciplines;
- To take these into account with creativity and imagination in planning the creation of performances;
- To introduce a range of facilitation skills appropriate to artistic collaboration;
- To help students to work effectively as members of an ensemble in terms of negotiation, discussion and critical reflection.

Learning Outcomes:

1. Knowledge & Understanding:

By the end of the study-unit the student will be able to:
- apply the theoretical and practical aspects acquired from his/her knowledge and experience to the creation of a collective performance;
- plan and articulate shared working processes, responding to group needs;
- set joint intentions/objectives as ensemble;
- explore a range of facilitation skills appropriate to artistic collaboration;
- demonstrate understanding and application of methods of collective work and strategies for negotiation among the different disciplines;
- develop knowledge of making performance, including the production period and final performance.

2. Skills:

By the end of the study-unit the student will be able to:
- demonstrate skills in teamwork and research organization;
- demonstrate ability to solve problems arising from working with different disciplines;
- create original work using the skills and crafts of performance making, applying them effectively to communicate to an audience;
- demonstrate skills in sophisticated thought, self and collective reflection.

Main Text/s and any supplementary readings:

Main Texts:

- Allegue, L., Simon Jones, Baz Kershaw, and Angela Piccini, (eds). 2009. Practice-as-Research in Performance and Screen. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan.
- Benson, J. F. (1987). Working More Creatively with Groups. London: Routledge
- Bicât, T and C Baldwin, (eds) (2002) Devised and collaborative theatre : a practical guide Marlborough : Crowood, 2002.

Other indicative reading:

- Brown, A. (1994). Groupwork (3rd ed). Aldershot: Arena, Ashgate Publishing Ltd.
- Brown, S (1998) Peer Assessment in Practice, B'ham: Staff and Ed Dev Association.
- Dean, R. (1989) Creative Improvisation. Milton Keynes:Open University Press.
- Douglas, T, (2000), Basic group Work. London: Routledge.
- Fisher, J and B Shelton (2002) Face to face: Making dance and theatre in community. Melbourne: Spinifex.
- Landy, L, and Jamieson, E, (2000), Devising Dance and Music: Idee Fixe Experimental Sound and Movement Theatre. Sunderland: University of Sunderland Press.
- Oddey, A. (1994). Devising Theatre: A Practical and Theoretical Handbook. London: Routledge.
- Oddey, A & C White, (eds) (2006) The potentials of spaces : the theory and practice of scenography and performance, Bristol, UK ; Portland, OR : Intellect Books.
- Sawyer, R. K. (2003) Group creativity : music, theater, collaboration, Mahwah, N.J. : L. Erlbaum Associates
- Williams, D (ed) (1999), Collaborative Theatre; The Théâtre du Soleil sourcebook Routledge.

 
ADDITIONAL NOTES Venue - Valletta Campus Theatre (Ex-MITP)

 
STUDY-UNIT TYPE Independent Study, Performance & Practicum

 
METHOD OF ASSESSMENT
Assessment Component/s Assessment Due Sept. Asst Session Weighting
Portfolio SEM2 Yes 30%
Presentation SEM2 No 70%

 
LECTURER/S Frank Camilleri (Co-ord.)

 

 
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The availability of optional units may be subject to timetabling constraints.
Units not attracting a sufficient number of registrations may be withdrawn without notice.
It should be noted that all the information in the description above applies to study-units available during the academic year 2025/6. It may be subject to change in subsequent years.

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