Performer Training 2017

Full Name: Maria Kapsali

Annual Conference Theme (if applicable): The End of Training

What were the main points that emerged from your WG this year?
We had a very successful conference this year and the delegates responded to the theme of the conference in varied ways. The CfP invited delegates to consider the various meanings of the word ‘end’ in relation to training. As such, we discussed:

• issues of transmission, copyright and leadership, especially in relation to the sustainability and longevity of training institutions and traditions;
• questions around imperatives/ideologies on perpetual development, improvement and achievement and how training may be complicit or resist such discourses;
• questions on agency and how training can develop methodologies that foster the trainee’s agency and her ability to position her work and herself as an artist in relation to wider social and political discourses;
• the space/zone between  training and performance and how the two often spill into each other;
• questions of success; accomplishment; and achievement in terms of artistic and personal development: what does it mean to be ‘good’ at training?
• questions around institutionalisation and how training may be affected by assessment  as well as what happens when training is not linked to credit bearing assessment.
• areas of interdisciplinarity: how training manifests in other areas, for example mountaineering, and conversely how these areas might productively inform performer training discourse and practice.

We also explored through practical presentations and/or participation task-based methodologies that sought to trouble the space between training and performance making. In addition to the discussions that took place as part of the sessions, several panels have been reviewed by delegates on the Theatre Dance and Performance Training Blog. This has proved a very productive exercise and the delegates commented very positively on the use of the Blog, as it allows the group to both have a repository of discussions as well as share those with a wider international community

Reflections on the open panel of the Performer Training Working Group – ‘Training and Other Disciplines/Practices’ – 1st September 2017

TaPRA Conference 2017 — Performer Training Working Group — Training Comedy and Transgression

On Modes of Sharing: Blog Report on Training and the Ensemble/Training Beyond Training Session at TaPRA Conference 2017

What was discussed at your business meeting?

In addition to various announcements, the AGM touched upon the following areas:

• the position of performer training as a discreet field of research and knowledge production as well as its relation to other fields;
• the ethics that underlie engagements between trainers and trainees, especially within HEI environments;
• the way the group is set up and the way different kind of activities enabled reflection, knowledge production and exchange.

Types of contributions:
Papers, workshops, demonstrations of PaR

Number of formal contributors (those listed in book of abstracts) 18

Approx. overall number of delegates who attended your WG Sessions around 45, with a core of 20 attending mostly all sessions
Composition of WG (PG, ECR, etc.)
1 PhD candicate; 3 lecturers that are currently doing a PhD; 4 practitioners, 3 with a PhD and 1 with an MA, all of them teaching in HEI; 3 mid-career academics; 2 professors; the rest were ECR.

Did you have any non-UK participants? Yes

If your WG hosted an Open Panel, do you have any feedback?

Yes, we did and it was well attended. It is a very good way to both open up the research to other researchers as well as schedule papers that straddle disciplinary lines.

Any additional points or feedback not covered above?

Being in the same room for the duration of the conference made a lot of sense and allowed us to use the walls for reflective activities, on which the delegates commented positively.

There were problems with the technology throughout the three days. The student helper was immensely helpful but a few times the problems were beyond her expertise and technical support was not able to sort out the issues. This caused delays in sessions and prevented delegates from sharing audio-visual material. It is a shame that this happened, especially since both we as the convenors  and the conference organisers put so much effort in ensuring that technical resources were in place.