TEACHING - Professional Training and HIGHER EDUCATION
Given Stephan Koplowitz’s training and experience in music, dance, and media and his long career in arts education that spans K-12 through the BA-BFA- MFA levels, he is uniquely qualified to offer a wide range of lectures, workshops, master classes that span different age levels and artistic disciplines. With Oxford University Press, his book On Site : Methods for Site-Specific Performance Creation (2022) is considered one of the leading textbooks on the creation/production of site-specific performance. (for more info and to purchase the book, click here)
FOR DANCE ARTISTS AND STUDENTS
Collaboration - An in-depth lecture/discussion on the process of collaboration and collaborating. How does one foster healthy and productive relationships when working with other artists and art forms? What are some “best practices” to keep in mind? What are the advantages and dangers of different types of collaborative relationships? This lecture can be tailored to diverse populations, ages, and backgrounds. It is also applicable to other industries.
FOR THEATER ARTISTS AND STUDENTS
Site Specificity and the Director’s Eye - This workshop will approach the act of creating works of theater and performance through exercises using the conceptual lens of site-specificity. The intention is to spark new approaches in text creation, character development, movement and production design in terms of set and sound. How does the physical environment influence a work, how does it exist both as part of or separate from text? Working from specific sites nearby as a laboratory, participants will work on developing short performance works based on original or found texts.
Strategies For Devised Theater Works - A workshop on how to: (1) Devise text for performance, (2) devise movement and (3) how to find a balance between text and movement in works of dance/theater or theater movements works.
Developing Character - A movement workshop on strategies and techniques for actors and directors: How to develop a movement world and vocabulary for a specific character. An investigation of gesture, body leanguage (a look at gesture, body language) with and without text.
FOR VISUAL ARTS/PHOTOGRAPHY/MEDIA ARTISTS AND STUDENTS
A creative workshop on capturing images related to site/environment. How to approach a site or specific environment to inspire new strategies for creating unique images.
A lecture, focusing on examples of Stephan Koplowitz’s interactive media/performance works and how performance and technology are interacting with the human form and in response to specific sites. A discussion on strategies towards melding technology, media and site.
A lecture/demonstration on the camera obscura and how it can and does relate to 21st-century imaging technology.
A workshop/discussion on site art and its relation to the performance art, dance, music and theater.
FOR MUSIC ARTISTS AND STUDENTS
Music Composition for Dance and Theater - A lecture/discussion or short course on composition techniques towards approaching writing for the dance concert or theatrical stage. A survey of the different relationships music and dance and theater can occupy. Strategies for collaborating with directors and choreographers and finding common language.
A Survey of Contemporary American Music and its relationship to the Performing Arts - A look at the history, both recent and past of American composers and their involvement in dance, theater and performance art. How has advances in all the fields impacted each other and what role did music play.
FOR ALL ARTISTS AND STUDENTS: (DANCE, MUSIC, THEATER, VISUAL ARTS)
Collaboration - An in depth lecture/discussion on the process of collaboration and collaborating. How does one foster healthy and productive relationships when working with other artists and art forms? What are some “best practices” to keep in mind? What are the advantages and dangers of different types of collaborative relationships? This lecture can be tailored to many different populations, ages and backgrounds. It is also applicable to other industries.