Master in Performing Arts

The Master in Performing Arts offers an approach that is both theoretical and practical, for students with a passion for the performing arts (theatre, dance, performance art, opera, circus, film…).

With this dual approach, students who graduate from the programme will be able—depending on their choice of focus—to analyse a theatrical event and provide support for the creative process in live performing arts; or to combine a reflexive and a practical process as they build their knowledge of the cinematographic language and learn to apprehend the various forms of screenwriting (fiction, documentary, adaptation, but also multimedia), the history of film, and cinematographic techniques.

The Master in Performing Arts at ULB offers an interdisciplinary approach of the performing arts, covering theatre, dance, performance art, circus, and contemporary art. Courses are given in French, providing analytical tools that give students insights into art performances while also introducing them to various aspects of contemporary theatre in Europe and beyond (dramaturgy, cultural policies, aesthetic codes, etc.).

Much of the curriculum is dedicated to personal projects (seminars, work placement, dissertation), as well as to direct contacts with the industry. The purpose of these two perspectives is to give students the tools required for an intelligent and critical analysis of contemporary practices in the performing arts. At the centre of the programme is the idea of the performance as an event within a society, whose role and function should be analysed within the surrounding culture and whose relationship with other art forms and new media should be examined. A workshop based on practice (‘Education on artistic practices’) and a mandatory work placement (6 to 8 weeks) provide a solid foundation for the development of a learning experience centred on reflection. Students in the Master programme will also have the opportunity to take part in the Avignon festival and to choose elective courses on circus and performance art, given respectively by ESAC (the Superior School of Circus Arts) and La Cambre. Students will be immersed into the vibrant community of Brussels, with close collaborations with institutions such as the Kaaitheater, the Brigittines, and the Tanneurs theatre.

The Master in Performing Arts with a focus on live performances places these performances at the very heart of society, studies how their work and how they contribute to global culture, and opens up new perspectives related to how we perceive new media. Its goal is to build the students' knowledge, methodology, and comparative approaches to live performances, especially (but not exclusively) theatre, in an interdisciplinary perspective. The Master in Performing Arts with a focus on live performances provides real-world experience—including through work placements—that contribute to the students' reflection on how art is performed. Several classes enable students to gain practical knowledge, with a course on live performances and a variety of related modules. The programme also maintains a close relationship with many theatres and other places dedicated to artistic creation. In addition to exchange programmes abroad, the Master programme gives students the opportunity to take part in international workshops, including during the Avignon festival. In addition, high-profile professionals in the industry are regularly invited to give talks as part of the programme.

With specialised training that explores all facets of film creation, students in the Master in Performing Arts with a focus on cinematographic writing and analysis will be familiar with screenwriting techniques, as well as with the history of film, new media, production, and research. The Master in Performing Arts with a focus on cinematographic writing and analysis is fully open to the world: in addition to Erasmus exchange programmes (with Montreal, Paris, Rome, Strasbourg, Bologna, etc.), the Faculty has hosted talks from celebrities of global renown, such as script doctor Robert McKee and screenwriter Jean-Claude Carrière. Since 2013, students in the second year of the Master attend a one-week seminar as part of their curriculum—offered in partnership with the Emile Bernhein foundation—, with sessions hosted by professionals such as Agnès Varda, Bertrand Tavernier, or Olivier Assayas.

The Master in Performing Arts with a focus on Comparative Dramaturgy and Performance Research is offered through a partnership between four European universities. This programme is intended for students who plan to work in the international and intercultural context of festivals, co-productions, exchange programmes, and partnerships between organisations.

Students are required to complete a work placement, and spend a total of four semesters in two of the four partner universities: Frankfurt, Brussels, Paris, and Helsinki. Upon graduation, they will hold a joint degree in ‘Dramaturgy and Performance Research’, awarded by both universities they have attended.

This Master programme is a response to the challenge of developing international and intercultural collaborations in performing arts; it also creates a new field of research dedicated to general and comparative dramaturgy. Going beyond our traditional understanding of dramaturgy, the programme aims to train dramaturgists whose expertise on international and intercultural topics will help us perceive proximity to the Other as an opportunity rather than a danger. Through a comparative approach, the programme also intends to build bridges between different theatrical cultures and foster mutual understanding. At the same time, the concept of ‘general’ dramaturgy means that these future dramaturgists, as theatre theorists, will be able to answer questions that go beyond the day-to-day of theatre and instead look into its foundations.

This dual perspective—aesthetic and intercultural—is the result of a broader definition of theatre, and it changes the profile of work in dramaturgy as it has developed over the past decades with the development of practices such as ‘post-dramatic theatre’ and the ‘performative turn’. Future dramaturgists will also be equipped with the proper tools to engage with spatial theories, city planning, or networking, all of which have roots in the fields of philosophy, sociology, politics, and history.

nd specific perspectives (archiving and conservation problems, economical networks, juridical questions). From the screenwriting perspective, the MA offers the possibility to follow workshops given by screenwriters-directors, but also specialized Master Classes that allow students to undertake real fiction or documentary scripts. The Emile Bernheim Master Class (2012) gives the student to learn from the practice of an internationally known filmmaker.

Far from staying inside the university, the MA opens to the world, through screenwriting seminars by famous American screenwriter like Robert McKee, workshops given by famous screenwriters (Jean-Claude Carrière), known directors (E. Scola, B. Podalydès, A. Delvaux, A. Wajda), as well as international congresses (Revisiting Film Melodrama in 2009 or 4^th Screenwriting Research Conference in 2011).

The MA program in Performing Arts focuses on an interdisciplinary analysis of all forms of spectacular representation and also aims at initiating the student to contemporary performance practice. An important part is dedicated to the development of personal work (seminars, internships, thesis) as well as to direct contact with the professional field, both aiming at providing students with the necessary tools for an intelligent, critical analysis of contemporary performance practice. It aims at understanding the spectular (« liveness ») as an integral part of our society, analysing its role and fonction within global culture, while at the same time investigating its relation with other arts and new media. A practice-based workshop (« Sensibilisation à la pratique artistique ») as well as a compulsory internship (8 weeks or 6 weeks) provide a solid basis for the development of reflexive experience. The MA program also offers the possibility to participate in the so-called Rencontres dramatiques internationales at Pont-à-Moussoin or in the Avignon Festival. The ULB program focuses on the development of professional skills by providing a number of specific courses : a dramaturgy course followed by a workshop of applied dramaturgy, two introductory courses on opera and dance and two optional modules of 15 credits each :« Publics et gestion » (15 credits) or « Critique et Rédaction » (15 credits). The European program offers the student the possibility to acquire specific, specialized competences (opera, dance, theatre anthropology, etc) within a network of 11 partner universities. Students will receive an international certificate of this European Master. The Didactic program prepares students for all functions related to education and offers theoretical and practical courses, exercices, tutoring for individual work and internships.