Self-defense for the young actress*
Supervisors: Ass.Prof.Dr. Alexandra Portmann (Universität Bern) and Prof. Dr. Priska Gisler (Hochschule der Künste Bern)
A study on potential/future/better/anti-hierarchical/anti-fascist/gender-sensitive education in the performing arts
The international snowball effect of the online #MeToo movement in 2016 clearly drew attention toward a structural problem within the performance art field worldwide. This thesis will be focused around an understanding of the actress*/performer working as a freelancer, in which she/they navigates fluidly between performance, theater, film and dance fields and travels different countries depending on the project. For the sake of this research it will also be focused on the acting/performance/dance student that is non-male identified. My starting point are Belgian performance arts education programs. Speaking up in public or on social media is a powerful tool to protect yourself once you have already been wronged. How can this online movement re-inform performing arts education? Are certain tools and (hi)stories being withheld that entertain a form of maladapted actress*/performer which feed into a system of dominance and dependency?
Alongside academic research, test workshops will be held at specific moments of my research, which will inform the writing. The goal of this study is to produce a monography alongside developing a final workshop format made of lectures and exercises. This will provisionally be structured in three parts: 1) History, dependency and the actress 2) Self-defense as practice 3) Autonomy and the marginalized performer. The second part will be focused on a critical understanding of self-defense teachings as prevention, it’s advantages and problems.
