Performance Criticism Workshop Research and Development

Grant:

Instructional Development Fund (IDF)

Academic Year:

2012 - 2013 (June 1, 2012 through May 31, 2013)

Funding Requested:

$496.00

Project Dates:

Thu, 01/10/2013 - Sun, 01/20/2013

Applicant(s):

chcroft

Overview of the Project:

This application seeks funding for a research and development trip to explore the possibility of taking students, on an annual basis, to New York City. The purpose of this annual program, which would be taught as an independent study in conjunction with my Winter term course, Reading and Writing Dance Criticism, would be an immersive performance criticism workshop. The workshop would be held the first weekend of every winter semester, coinciding with three New York dance/performance festivals: American Realness, DanceFocus, and COIL. Securing funding for attending these festivals in January 2013 would allow me to explore the feasibility of this program; meet with festival directors to discuss the possibility of additional programmatic elements that could be added, specifically interviews with arts presenters and artists; and to gauge whether the Michigan program should center on just one festival or move across all three. Other logistical questions to answer include approximating how many days the program would need to last for the students' to get full benefit, while also keeping cost at a minimum.

Final Report Fields

Project Objectives:

The objective of the project was to assess the feasibility of bringing students to a NY dance festival as part of a performance criticism course. I met with artistic directors of two festivals about the possibility of these students working with interns, and also to discuss the feasibility of getting students into more intimate performance venues.

Project Achievements:

The most immediate outcome was my decision to put on hold the possibility of going to NY, as the housing and travel needs of students would be rather large relative to the benefit of seeing performances for three days. I have now begun planning to, instead, take students to a festival in Montreal, as that opens up more funding possibilities as an international trip. I also, however, after talking with artistic directors in New York became convinced that students do need more options to see intimate performances, so I brought Jennifer Monson and DD Dorvillier to perform in Ann Arbor last February, after talking with Monson about this work while on my R&D trip to NY. In essence, the project morphed considerably after the NY trip due to financial and logistical issues. All this said, I am still in touch with Ben Pryor, AD for American Realness, and once the festival begins a new housing program we plan to revisit bringing students.

Continuation:

I am still in touch with Ben Pryor, AD for American Realness, and once the festival begins a new housing program we plan to revisit bringing students. I am also now working on bringing students to Festival Transamerique in Montreal in May 2016, which will be the next term in which I teach the Reading and Writing Dance Criticism course.

Dissemination:

The project resulted in tow levels of dissemination: 1) it led to the public performances of Jennifer Monson and DD Dorvillier in Febraury 2014, which were attended by the entire dance faculty, all 7 of the current MFA dance students, and all undergraduate students enrolled in my two courses. The trip also spurred a longer conversation among the department about how we connect our students to contemporary performance, since that is not something that often have the opportunity to see in Ann Arbor.

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