MUSTHEAT 2001 - Music Theatre Performance 2A

Dance: An emphasis on more advanced technical work is addressed along with a greater understanding of style, along with the encouragement of more rapid and accurate learning of basic choreographic combinations. Greater strength and flexibility is also addressed along with stylistic accuracy. Pas de deux continues with a focus on ensuring students are capable of dancing in harmony with a partner in different styles, and able to perform moves such as lifts and turns safely. Voice/Movement: Second year voice brings students to a practical awareness of the way they use themselves as actors: working towards greater physical freedom and relaxation; increased breath capacity and control; more effective resonance; increased pitch range; and greater articulatory agility. The second year of voice production is largely exercise oriented, focusing on heightened language while connecting to vocal presence and action. Character voice is the primary focus, while resonance, vocal placement and support continue to be addressed. Student’s connection to language, the importance of oracy, the deeper need of words and rhetoric, and awareness of the three-dimensional physical muscularity of body/vocal tract and language/image. Using Shakespeare’s text, students will learn to trust the instincts and needs of the character rather than the intellectual presentation of the language, poetry and style of the play. Acting: This course builds on the foundational skills achieved throughout the first year of study by focussing on the issue of performance 'style'. Specifically, Non-Naturalistic text - material with a strong sense of heightened theatricality and overt poeticism - and is designed to increase the musical theatre performer's ability to adapt the performing self to the demands of text in a heightened style. Students will be asked to explore text from a variety of stylistic genres, examining each with a mind to formulating work methods and rehearsal strategies that might accommodate performance demands.