Experimental Performance
Postgraduate courses in Experimental Performance
Is your creative practice hard to categorise? Do you create interdisciplinary work? If you want to study performance that’s out of the ordinary, with or without a focus on sound, then this might be the ideal course for you.
Designed for emerging arts practitioners, Royal Birmingham Conservatoire’s MMus course in Experimental Performance provides a unique opportunity to undertake independent artistic projects in a fully supportive environment.
The course enables practitioners from a variety of disciplines (including, but not limited to, instrumental/vocal performance, composition, dance, choreography, theatre, visual and performance art and creative writing), and particularly those who sit between them, to come together with likeminded people.
It doesn’t ask you to measure yourself against the expectations of tradition but gives you agency. We emphasise idea-development and rigorous conceptual thought. By focusing on these non-discipline-specific aspects of performance, you will contribute to a collaborative, discursive and interdisciplinary working environment.
Your own artistic ideas are at the heart of your studies and will be developed, through research and dialogue, into practical projects.
You will be allocated a mentoring team comprising a personal tutor who has experience in collaborative and conceptual approaches alongside additional specialist support according to your individual needs. Your mentoring team is there to help you realise your ideas into fully developed performances in the best possible way.
Tutors
Our Experimental Performance courses will equip you with the skills you need to engage successfully with diverse contemporary creative practice. While our PgCert focuses exclusively on Experimental Performance work, complementary modules on the PgDip and MMus are intended to enhance your wider professional development. These will be chosen, in discussion with your personal tutor, from a varied list shared with other postgraduate Principal Study disciplines.
Assessment of your principal study is through the submission of a portfolio at the end of every year (at the end of years 2 and 3 in the part-time option), followed by a viva voce.
RBC has created a space, the Lab, that is dedicated to experimental work. It’s a black box theatre space with theatre lighting and a surround sound system that offers maximum flexibility in terms of performance set ups.
Hear from our students and follow @ExPerfMasters on Instagram, TikTok and YouTube.
