BA World Performance
UCAS code: W495 BA/WP
Southend Campus
About
BA World Performance
This is a unique course designed for creative and intellectually demanding
students who wish to combine practical performance skills with advanced
understanding of global performance approaches. It extends the western-centred
teaching and learning processes at East 15 into a diverse and more global
context.
BA World Performance offers a hybrid practice-based and theoretical study that explores historical, theoretical and skill-centred approaches to performance forms across the world. The course deals with selected aspects of performance forms, traditions and styles from Europe, Asia, Africa and North and South America. The course looks at theatre, dance-drama, masks, music and dance within different cultural environments, concurrently developing a broad range of creative skills in media, writing and directing
Students
are involved in devising, researching, creating and performing projects that
reflect the influences and styles of performance worldwide. Work develops
into practical projects allowing students to explore creatively in a
performance environment, drawing on the styles and forms of performance
introduced during the three years.
Applicant information
BA World Performance is aimed at students who have an interest in performance
but want to go above and beyond the definition of “actor” in the traditional
sense. The course interests students with a thirst for cultural experiences and
a broader context of performance than that traditionally offered in a
conservatoire program.
First year
The first year offers a foundation of skills for study and performance, as
well as an exploration of World Theatre forms and comparative performance
theory. There is a study of the role of music in world performance, allowing
students to engage from the outset with a range of cultural influences and
to experiment with their own performance interests and abilities, and to
broaden their knowledge of different cultural contexts of performance.
Students gain a foundation in Western performance practices as a strong
point of relation to the more intensive multicultural performance training
they experience in the Second Year.
Second year
In the second year, work is centred on a set of case studies, such as
Chinese, Balinese, Japanese, or African performance styles which allow
students to gain and demonstrate a broad base of knowledge of different
traditions, approaches and issues in world performance, while at the same
time developing and applying a significant level of performance skill. There
is an opportunity to work intensively with visiting practitioners, resident
in Southend, in a non-Western or intercultural performance form. This work
culminates in a major performance. During this year students also increase
their competence and confidence as independent researchers, conducting
independent study and presenting the results orally and in written form.
Third year
In the third year, students continue their study of context and analysis
through research projects, while skills work continues and is focussed on
a series of major independent group performance projects, in which
students have increasing autonomy and freedom to pursue their own
aesthetic, intellectual and professional priorities. The emphasis is on
collaborative working and evolving a professional practice, supported by
teaching in organisational and entrepreneurial skills and by substantial
independent research.
After East 15
Graduating students will be equipped as performers and could also be producers,
writers or researchers because they will have add-on skills that “traditional
actors” do not possess. They will also have knowledge of different cultures that
will prepare them for working anywhere in the world.
Find out more
Further information about this exciting new course is available by downloading the PDF version of BA
World Performance leaflet
