CREATIVE AND PERFORMING ARTS

YOUR FUTURE

STARTS WITH HOPE

LIVERPOOL HOPE UNIVERSITY

FACULT Y OF ARTS AND HUMANITIES

CREATIVE AND

PERFORMING

ARTS

Creative and Performing Arts Fact File

Faculty:

Arts and Humanities

Department:

Drama, Dance and Performance Studies

Campus Location:

The Creative Campus

Entry Requirements:

The standard offer level is between 260-300 UCAS points, including a minimum of two A/A2 Levels or equivalent. In addition, applicants should normally be studying towards an A/A2 Level in a relevant discipline and have relevant experience in another discipline; or a BTEC National Diploma or AVCE in Performing Arts. Consideration will be given to those who do not have formal qualifications, but can demonstrate aptitude and passion for the programme’s content as well as the academic potential for the course.

UCAS Code: W430

Duration:

Degree:

You may also be interested in...

• Dance

• Drama and Theatre Studies • Fine Art • Music

Contact Details:

3 Creative and Performing Arts is a single honours degree providing the opportunity for foundational study of Dance, Drama and Music in the first year and advanced study of two of these three disciplines in the second and third year. To that end it is designed for students who have ability across the performing arts field and offers exciting opportunities for practical and theoretical exploration of the interplay between these subjects. Students will be based in the Department of Drama, Dance and

Performance Studies and develop academic and performative expertise within these disciplines whilst also exploring the varied intertextual links between them. In order to achieve this, the disciplines are brought together, after the first year, through a sequence of themed projects, offering a range of research and performance opportunities. The emphasis will be upon

drawing the threads of lectures, workshops etc, together with teaching and rehearsal culminating in assessed ‘project week’ performances. There is an emphasis upon research in the final year and all students will prepare a dissertation as well as a

conference-style research presentation. Throughout the course, students experience live performance in a professional setting through theatre/concert visits

complemented by visiting artists.

The performing arts do not exist in a social vacuum. They provide a vibrant commentary on lives lived, lost and longed for. Throughout your time in the Drama, Dance and

Performance Studies department you will be asked to place performance work in a social and ethical context that deepens societal understanding and broadens personal responsibility.

Level C (Year One)

There will be two core lectures per week; one will have a theoretical performance focus and one will look at key

performance practitioners.

Groups of ten students will have a weekly tutorial developing the themes of the lecture series and deepening their conceptual understanding of the various philosophical contexts in which the creative and performing arts function.

There will be a mixture of seminars,

addressing critical and performance literacy, and workshops, providing foundational skills in devising and text-based performance. Students will be introduced to a considerable amount of performance material through a combination of screenings, attendance at performance and prescribed own-time viewing and listening.

Level I (Year Two)

Methodologies’ lecture; the purpose of this lecture is two-fold: the first is to embed good bibliographic practice including strategies for information retrieval, formatting and using citation software, as well as to deepen and broaden the theoretical concepts and discourses. The lecture will be followed by a tutorial in groups of 15 – this will follow established practice from the small group tutorials in your first year but there will be an emphasis on depth of understanding, comprehension and vocabulary building.

What you will study

The second year will also cultivate

explorations in studio practice, with students choosing to specialise in two disciplines, chosen from Drama, Music and Dance. A one-hour lecture in each discipline is followed by a two-hour seminar/workshop in each, during which students will prepare work which will contribute to the ‘project week’ performances at the end of term. These will include interdisciplinary text-based and devised projects.

Level H (Year Three)

Students will develop an advanced studio practice, continuing the specialisms chosen Level I. Practical work will, once again, be presented publicly during the ‘project week’ performances at the end of each term. The pattern of lectures and seminars will continue, supplemented by a two-hour seminar which will provide support for the Dissertation assessment. This seminar will also provide a forum in which students can develop their research in preparation for the annual ‘Creative and Performing Arts Research Conference’.

5 By the end of the three years of study, students will be able to:

• interpret and evaluate performance texts, production techniques and performance events sensitively, and to engage creatively and analytically with a range of critical and theoretical perspectives • demonstrate an increased sophistication in

creative and critical engagement with the nature and purpose of a range of

performance practices, and have an ability to select, refine and present in these practices • show a sensitive understanding of

performance vocabularies, techniques, structures and working methods, and be able to apply these critically to the creation and production of a performance

• demonstrate confident independence in undertaking research, and in presenting research in written and oral form.

Employability and Career Opportunities

There is a range of career opportunities available to Performing Arts graduates. You may wish to pursue a teaching specialism through further qualification or take on the challenge of postgraduate work at Masters or Doctoral level. The University currently offers an MA Contemporary Popular Theatres course. Many of our students have gone on to work in the profession, after first completing a supplementary vocational qualification. The communication skills inherent in the subject will also stand you in good stead in any work that requires confidence, articulacy and the ability to work under pressure.

• You will have the opportunity to work with experienced artists and like-minded students in a highly-creative environment. • You will study at an attractive city-centre

campus with excellent facilities.

• There are resident academic and practical staff published in various fields.

• We offer an exciting programme of guest lecturers, artists and speakers.

Why study this subject at Liverpool Hope?

• This is an established department (over 50 years old) that has deep roots in the city and performance culture of Liverpool and the North-West.

• You will have opportunities to engage with an exciting range of venues, drama, dance and music practices and creative ideas.

7

Graduate Profiles

Donna Redgrave

Donna is the founding director of RMD Memory Matters. The company won the O2 Entrepreneur Award in 2011 for its groundbreaking work with dementia patients and their carers. The Creative and Performing Arts course helped equip Donna with the presentational skills necessary in this challenging work.

Sally Smithson

“Liverpool Hope is a very personal University and the course and lecturers are very motivated in helping you achieve your best. I am very grateful to have had the attention and dedication from Hope to provide me with confidence and knowledge to set up my own children’s theatre company.”

9

Academic Staff Profiles

Dr Gary Anderson,

Lecturer

Dr Gary Anderson publishes and exhibits in Performance Studies. His current areas of research are triangulated by an interest in critical education, social justice and activist performance practices. He supervises postgraduate students (MA, PhD) and has won many funding bids for projects including the internationally acclaimed The Institute for the Art and Practice of Dissent at Home and The Free University of Liverpool (both of which he co-founded).

Dr John Bennett,

Head and Principal

Lecturer

Dr John Bennett is a Principal Lecturer in Drama and Theatre Studies. He researches and publishes in the field of Contemporary British Popular and Mainstream Theatre and is currently looking at the rise of the ‘football play’ as a regional theatre staple. He began his career appearing with John Godber in the first ever production of Bouncers at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe in 1976 and is now a leading expert on the work of this popular playwright.

Sarah Black, Lecturer

Sarah Black’s background is dance and choreography and she is currently working with dance and film. Sarah’s teaching and research focuses on the Humphrey/ Limon technique and Site-Specific dance

performance. Sarah completed the Professional Studies programme at the Limon Institute in New York 2006 and is the Artistic Director of Liverpool dance company ‘Us Geese are Swans’ and also is resident choreographer for Zho Productions a Liverpool based theatre group who recently won a Capital of Culture grant for their production of The Quiet Little Englishman.

Dr Claudia Brazzale,

Lecturer

Dr Claudia Brazzale is a dancer, choreographer and scholar from Italy. Claudia holds a PhD in Culture and Performance from the department of World Arts and Cultures at the University of California, Los Angeles, and a Masters in Performance Studies from New York University. Her current research focuses on the circulation of West African dance forms and practices in Italy.

Dr David Crilly,

Senior Lecturer

Dr David Crilly is Senior Lecturer in Creative and Performing Arts. He studied at the Universities of Southampton and London gaining a Masters in Drama and Theatre Studies with Distinction before undertaking research at Magdalen College, Oxford, where he gained a DPhil in Music. He is Artistic Director of the annual Cambridge Shakespeare Festival and has published on the music of Benjamin Britten, Debussy, Charlie Parker and issues in music analysis and aesthetics.

Dr Brian Desmond,

Lecturer

Dr Brian Desmond is a theatre director and researcher with particular interest in Epic Theatre, Contemporary Irish Theatre, Storytelling in Theatre, European Actor Training, Clowning/Mask Theatre, and Avant-Garde Theatre. Brian’s projects as a theatre director have been presented nationally and internationally, with extensive tours of Ireland and the US. He is a member of TaPRA, SCUDD and the British

Association of Irish Studies.

Mark Greenwood, Post Doctoral

Teaching Fellow

Mark Greenwood is a performance artist and writer based in Liverpool. He has recently completed his PhD in Fine Art at Kingston University. Mark’s specialities lie in contemporary performance, 20th century theatre practice and performance writing. Mark has a first-class Master’s degree from Dartington College of Arts and is an active agent in the international performance art/ live art movement as a performer, lecturer and critic.

Dr Niamh Malone,

Lecturer

Dr Niamh Malone is a specialist in applied theatre. She holds a PhD from Trinity College Dublin (2011). Her research interests include community theatre, narrative, globalisation and identity. She teaches across all levels, covering applied theatre practices, voice and theatre history. She directs the in-house Graduate Theatre Company and founded The Writer’s Studio in 2012.

11

Dr Declan Patrick,

Lecturer

Dr Declan Patrick trained as a professional actor and dancer in New Zealand and in London, and holds a Bachelor’s degree in English, a postgraduate Diploma in Drama and a Master of Arts degree in English (Drama and Film Studies), all from the University of Auckland. He has a PhD in Contemporary Arts (Dance) from Manchester Metropolitan University and his research is concerned with intercultural performance and cultural identity. Declan is Artistic Director of performance company, Fighting Fit Productions, which has toured both nationally and internationally.

Dr Lena Simic,

Lecturer

Dr Lena Simic is a

performance practitioner and researcher with particular interest in Contemporary Performance Practice, Transnational Arts Practice, Art Activism, Feminist Performance and Theatre, Autobiographical Performance, Postmodern Interventions into Classic Plays and Live Art. Lena’s solo and collaborative performances have been presented nationally and internationally (at the Bluecoat, Contact Theatre, Artsadmin, Arnolfini, V&A Museum, Live Art Development Agency, Art Workshop Lazareti and Odin Teatret among others).

Dr Rachel Sweeney,

Lecturer

Dr Rachel Sweeney has lectured in dance at the University of Plymouth, Middlesex University, Chichester University and the Irish Academy for Music and Dance. She was recently Visiting Fellow at the

Humanities Research Centre at the Australian National University (2012) and was appointed Research Fellow at the Centre for Sustainable Futures, University of Plymouth (2007-09). She holds a practice as research PhD from Middlesex University, funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council. Her teaching specialisms include site specific dance practice, dance anthropology and European Dance Theatre history.

Dr Zoe Zontou,

Lecturer

Dr Zoe Zontou is a Lecturer in Drama and Theatre Studies. She joined

Liverpool Hope University in 2011 having just completed a PhD in Drama (University of Manchester). She holds an MA in Applied Theatre (University of Manchester) and a BA in Theatre Studies (University of Patras). Recently, she was awarded the Postgraduate Certificate in Academic Practice (Liverpool Hope University). Her principal research and teaching interests lie in the field of applied theatre and social change.

Liverpool Hope University

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