Concordia’s International Graduate Seminar in Circus & Invention. Montreal June 26–July 10

The fourth edition of Concordia’s Intensive Graduate Summer Seminar focusing on Contemporary Circus. This time, the focus will be on Circus & Invention and participants will include designers, engineers, as well as artists, acrobatics coaches and many more artists and pedagogues. There will be talks, conferences, master classes, shows, demonstrations, discussions.

The seminar will run from 26 June to 10 July, in Montreal, Canada, every weekday, all day, from 10 am to 5 pm then students attend evening performances of Montréal Complètement Cirque festival. Students will have the opportunity to be housed in residence on campus for the duration of the seminar.

Full details here: http://www.concordia.ca/summer/artsci/circus-inventions-2020.html

CIRCUS & INVENTION
A research-creation seminar on apparatus, performance vocabulary and meaning

June 26 – July 10, 2020

Overview
This interdisciplinary seminar provides an opportunity to learn, explore and refine research and design methods in the performing arts with a focus on contemporary circus and physical theatre. In addition to discussions of form and discipline, DIY culture, artistic hybridity and creative process, the seminar’s focus will very much be on the performance apparatus.

The main principle on which the seminar is constructed is experiential learning and self-reflexivity concerning the creative process.

This year’s theme is Circus & Invention (apparatus, performance vocabulary, meaning) with a day also focused on Circus and Sustainability and Durability.

2020 Collaborators: Concordia’s 4TH SPACE, Montréal Complètement Cirque (International Market of Contemporary Circus), National Circus School (Center for Circus Arts Research, Innovation and Knowledge Transfer – CRITAC) and Dix2 design.

Following three successful intensive summer seminars coinciding with Montréal Complètement Cirque, professor Louis Patrick Leroux and his team are pleased to reprise the intensive intellectual and artistic “boot camp” experience for its fourth installation.

The 2019 seminar attracted 25 students from 12 countries: one third were performers, one third graduate students, one-third teachers/coaches/professors and most of them were an interesting cross-section of all of those categories.
 
Target audience
This is a graduate seminar that is also open to professional performing arts practitioners wishing to explore the junction of academic and artistic pursuits.

Successful candidates will possess a fascinating variety of experiences, both artistic and intellectual, and for the most part have experience in circus, theatre, music, video art or dance.

Given the diversity of experiences and academic backgrounds, we encourage an environment of respectful debate and discussion. Students are expected to attend all morning and afternoon lectures and many of the evening performances. They are also expected to contribute to their blog and experiential research project.

This seminar is for thinker-doers, for artists and scholars who are open to experiential learning and interested in process.

Up to four international students could be awarded fellowships covering the full tuition.

Link to tuition and fees on page http://www.concordia.ca/summer/artsci/circus-inventions-2020.html 
 
Course objectives

  • Offer a space for sustained discussion on research-creation, practice-as-research and experiential modes of research into the performing arts;
  • Collaboratively explore successful and more challenging examples of such research design, implementation and dissemination bringing artists, engineers, designers and scholars together;
  • Share experiences, expertise and insights into a variety of international and interdisciplinary practices;
  • Encourage research-action and create an environment that fosters embedded research and creation;
  • Offer an opportunity to engage in a group research-creation project involving elements of the conception, design and implementation of an apparatus;
  • Create an environment of intellectual and artistic exchange and possibilities that will run alongside a major festival and hopefully contribute to further projects and exchanges. 

Full details here: http://www.concordia.ca/summer/artsci/circus-inventions-2020.html

Deadline: March 20, 2020
Please send your letter of motivation and CV. Late applications will not be accepted.
We will accept between 14 and 20 applications.

Dr. Louis Patrick Leroux
Associate Dean, Research
Faculty of Arts and Science
Professor, Department of English & Département d’études françaises
Concordia University