Keynote Presentation on body/word and Performance Writing – March 2018
 | So, what is this multimodal approach to writing, called body/word and how has it been useful in research, creation and education since 2009? An overview of it’s history and relation to DCA’s Performance Writing. |
On hearing about my method body/word and Performance Writing as practiced in DCA, Dr Maro Galani was intrigued by its educational merits and specifically for her then current research in the frame of her MA in Creative Writing. She participated in my masterclass at the Kalamata Dance Festival; this reoriented her research and led to her inviting me to design and deliver the 1st official presentation of body/word and Performance Writing in an academic frame in Greece. Thank you Dr Galani.
This keynote was part of a group of presentations on Performance Writing as practiced in Dartington College of Arts, my method body/word and applied, contemporary educational methodologies. Dr John Hall, Professor of Performance Writing and Jerome Fletcher, Associate Professor of Performance Writing, Dr Barbara Bridger, Dr Mark Leahy, Melanie Thompson all had been working in the field of PW in DCA to say the least. I will be forever grateful for their trust and very specific input, as this panel and posters was very specifically designed.
The keynote begins with historical information on this radical approach to writing, as a multimodal approach interrogation of how writing relates to other creative fields. Language is regarded as an event. Performance Writing itself is a field, rather than a genre, subject to constant updating and reconfiguration. It is in this frame, during my MA in Performance Writing (2009-2010), that body/word first appeared focusing on links between body and word, through and for the sake of research, practice and education. Principles and tools of the method around the performativity of the text and corporeal interfaces and outlets of writing were presented: Dramaturgy, Gut Feeling, Process, Materiality, Performativity, Corporeality, Multimodality. Last but not least, an ongoing definition of writing, an updated version of the one proposed during the Do You Speak Dance? masterclass. Examples of creations and educational approaches were analysed through the prism of the body/word method and PW to be offered as multimodal educational approaches to teaching writing and more.
If the above sound interesting, please do get in touch. It might be mutually rewarding as it was for Dr Galani and myself. The minutes of the congress have been printed and the online version is much expected.
Premier: 24 March 2018, 2nd Congress Performing Arts in Education, University of Patras, Archaelogical Museum of Patras, Funded by the University of Patras, Research Committee.