Movement, text, sound, music- these are some of the areas touched upon while developing skills in performance. The emphasis is on building a vocabulary of performance techniques. These techniques can include breathing, movement improvisation, and voice modulation, as well as exercises in awareness and musicality. These ‘tools of performance’ are often inspired by local sub-continental performance traditions, and then tempered by a plethora of contemporary performance outlooks.
The emphasis in this most preliminary of Ashoka’s performing arts courses is on the individual as a performing entity. The consciousness of one’s own self vis-à-vis performative potentialities lays the foundations for the group work so essential to later performing arts courses. The course work will proceed in a series of ‘etudes’ or studies which will result in small performance ‘moments’ or phrases. Some of the coursework will be based on texts and scripts to be chosen afresh each semester. Other coursework can be based on non-textual concepts.
No previous experience is required. This course is a presumed prerequisite for higher-level performing arts courses.
This course is mandatory for all students wanting to pursue a minor in performing arts.
navtej.johar@ashoka.edu.in
