MA STUDIOS PROGRAM

The STUDIOS Master’s program in dance is structured into several study blocks spanning five areas of contemporary dance and performance that P.A.R.T.S. has been continuously exploring since 1995:

Choreography and compositional tools > P.A.R.T.S. approaches choreography as a practice grounded in an artistic methodology sourced from a wide arrange of perspectives, tools and traditions of creation and authorship.

Embodiment and movement research
> P.A.R.T.S. views dance and choreography as embodied practices, rooted in an ongoing exploration of the possibilities of movement and corporeal expression.

Contemporary critical theory and writing
> P.A.R.T.S. considers critical thinking, insights and tools from contemporary theory, as well as writing about art and other contextual areas, as inherent to the contemporary dance and performance practice; it includes writing practice that ranges between academic essay and experimental artistic writing

Studio practice and practical dramaturgy > P.A.R.T.S. sees the studio as the space where the three preceding areas converge in the act of articulated research and creation, and are continuously fed back in an ongoing cycle of reinvention and further development.

Inquiry into other domains of knowledge and practice > for P.A.R.T.S., dance is not an isolated art form, it is part of a muli-disciplinary field which includes other art disciplines, activism, science, etc.

The program features a variety of approaches through workshops, seminars, study trips, and other formats led by the program leaders and invited artists, scholars, and activists from vibrant scenes in Brussels and beyond. Substantial blocks of studio time are provided, allowing the participants to develop their research and artistic work.


PROGRAM DEVELOPMENT AND ACCOMPANIMENT

While the guests and the contents of the first year will be entirely planned in advance, we anticipate that the dialogue with the participants will shape the program of the second year within the given structure.

Students are accompanied by a team of program leaders, each specializing in one or more of the areas the program aims to cover. Program leaders are responsible for one or more study blocks, contribute to the teaching, and oversee the overall pedagogical and artistic guidance of the students. Each year, one of the blocks will be curated by a guest artist (to be determined).

Apart from the guidance of the program leaders, the school also provides mentoring for writing assignments, studio practice and graduation work. In the second year, students receive ongoing structural support from a production manager, as well as technical assistance.


OUTCOMES

The primary objective of the second year is to create a collaborative Master Project which includes a public presentation and an individual reflection paper.

The final collaborative work may take one of the following forms:

• performance (black box, site specific, gallery…)
• time-based work in other media (video, installation, podcast…)
• pedagogical method (lecture demonstration, workshop,...)
• toolbox, portfolio and archive of performance practice as dancer, collaborator…
• other formats can be discussed.

In the reflection paper, the participant revisits the research and creation process, as well as the outcome of the graduation work, guided by a variety of questions and parameters relevant to the specific project. The result is a free-format text that offers insight into the ideas, experiments, sources, and learning experiences underlying the work.

P.A.R.T.S. commits to degrowth, in response to limited resources, the saturation of the art market and ecological re-distribution of wealth. The participants will be guided with tools to develop alliances and companionship and take this MA programme as an opportunity for an in-depth research based on informed, ecologically-driven choices and material constraints. One of the ways in which we want to put this into practice is by letting go of a separate graduation project for each participant and by valorizing co-authorship instead.