In November 2015, the Theatre, Dance and Performance Training Journal launched this blog to create an online presence for the journal and to develop a community of artists, academics, researchers and practitioners to share practice and examples of work. We hope that the TDPT blog will generate debate, conversation, argument, provocation and light, not only around matters presented within the journal itself, but also outside it – issues churning away in the territory of global performer training not yet articulated and presented within the virtual or hard covers of TDPT. One of our aspirations for the blog is that, on gaining momentum, it should represent a very productive and discursive teaching ‘tool’ – or forum – within all levels of education and training preoccupied with dance, performance and theatre.
The Home page of the TDPT blog provides a space for posts on training methods, practices and reflections or processes or training-related events. All contributions on training in the areas of theatre, dance and performance are welcome on this page which has a broad focus on training in different contexts. The “Home” page provides space for posts which are not directly relevant to The Studio, Comeback, or My Training.
My Training is a space where individuals can reflect on their own personal experiences of training. This will allow traditions of training and particular companies’ unique training methodologies to be examined from a variety of subjective perspectives. Posts may include descriptions of the origins and principles of training methodologies as well as reflections from students, workshop leaders, and others associated with the training of their experience of it.
Anyone who wishes to contribute is encouraged to submit their own post, or to comment on any of the existing pieces, allowing organic, living discussions about personal experiences of distinct trainings to evolve.
The Studio is the area of the TDPT blog dedicated to the audio-visual documentation of training practices. We hope that over time the studio will act as a repository of performance training materials, making them available for research and for use in studios and classrooms across the world. Some materials will also provide models of how to document training, possibly with short examples of reflective writing to complement the documentation.
Audio-visual materials should clearly demonstrate a particular aspect of the research/practice. They can be a recording of a training exercise, a series of comments/interviews on a particular approach, or a provocation to adopt, rethink or transform a training example – and an invitation to share these transformations on the blog.
Comebacks is a space which offers the opportunity to respond to ideas and arguments put forth in other contexts. These might be ones that were explored within the pages of the Theatre, Dance and Performance Training Journal proper, other academic journals, conferences, workshops or broader practical sessions. While we encourage authors whose work has been included in past or current issues of the journal to return to ideas previously discussed, we equally invite new contributors to provoke conversation on any content related to training.
A comeback might be defined as:
- a return
- a reply after a period of consideration
- a quick reply; retort
- making fashionable again
- coming back to something forgotten (to return to someone’s memory)
TDPT Blog Artist Awards
The TDPT blog was launched last year to encourage a growing community of artists, academics, practitioners and researchers to share practice and debate issues that are currently alive within the disciplines of theatre, dance and performance training. In November to mark the one year anniversary of the launch of the site we will be launching a series of blog posts supported by the new TDPT Blog Artist Awards.
One of our aims was to engage a new audience for the TDPT journal while also creating an online space that encourages spontaneous and productive conversation and debate. We are grateful to everyone who has posted their work on the site to date and we are looking to further grow our network of artists, researchers and performance-makers. The blog currently has around 1000 visitors a month from around the world.
We are keen to encourage artists, practitioners, students and freelance performance-makers to engage with the blog and are launching the TDPT Blog Artist Awards which aim to facilitate those not in full-time employment and students to be able to contribute to the site and the community. We have small pots of money (£50-150) to support artists who pitch an idea for a contribution to the site, either audio-visual, text-based or audio that disseminates an area of performer training that may be of interest to the wider community. To apply, please write a short proposal (no more than 300 words) outlining your suggested submission, format and any media you intend to use. You should also include in your statement how you intend to disseminate your blog post to your network and email proposals to the editor email addresses provided below.
Editorial Policy
A small team of academics and practitioners from the Theatre, Dance and Performance Training editorial team will review all contributions to the blog. We are interested in receiving a mix of different kinds of content and formats including audio and video, as well as opinion pieces, edited discussions, interviews or shorter responses. There is no set word count for submissions but as the blog invites a range of types of contributions, article-length submissions should be reserved for the journal itself. You could submit extended ideas or articles over a series of blog posts. The posts are not peer-reviewed, but are moderated and curated by a small editorial team. For submissions to the blog “Home” page or “My Training” please get in touch with James McLaughlin ([email protected]). Submissions to the “Comeback” section can be emailed to Bryan Brown ([email protected]).
Those interested in submitting audio-visual materials for “The Studio” should make contact with the Studio Editor Maria Kapsali ([email protected]) in the first instance. Submissions need to be hosted on an external site – YouTube, Vimeo, Metacafe, DailyMotion, Veoh, Soundcloud – and will be linked to/embedded in the blog. All rights remain with the producer of the material. Any copyright permissions will need to be in place before being shown on the TDPT blog. All material will be assessed for editorial suitability and quality.
Videos should meet the Technical Specifications criteria listed below:
• Length: Aim for 5 minutes (If there is a case to be made for longer then make it to us – but also consider chunking the video down into separate sections and submitting a number of videos).
• We strongly encourage you to accompany your videos with a short written statement (up to 250 words), giving a title, a list of contributors, information of context; explaining the purpose of the exercise; providing any other relevant information.
• As with our written articles, videos should be accessible to those who may not have experience or prior knowledge of the particular activity.
• Videos in a language other than English need to have subtitles.
• All videos need to be hosted on an external site, following their submission guidelines. We do not have the capacity to host videos directly on our site.
• Videos must meet minimum standards of quality for both visual and audio components. Poor audio can often compromise the effectiveness of a video, irrespective of the quality of the visuals. Use a camera with a good built-in microphone and get as close to the sound as possible. Use an external microphone if you must stay farther away.