Theatre and Dance Department Statement on Scholarship
Prologue: Scholarship and Teaching
Scholarly teachers. Teaching scholars. In the performing arts, “scholarship” is most clearly understood as active engagement as artists in the public arena. As artists who teach in a liberal arts college environment, our scholarship manifests itself in tandem with and in connection to our lives as teachers/learners. We teach through example, creating art in the classroom and lab in collaboration with our students and each other; and our attention to teaching and learning informs the choices we make as artists as we clarify and refine our own ideas and intentions in our work As we continue to exercise our understanding within the performing arts discipline through personal study and reflection, explore this understanding through and within our artistry, and question and cultivate our scholarly pursuits through teaching, we remain fresh and vital in the classroom and in the performance arena.
1. What forms of scholarship define the work of those in your department at their best?
As students progress through the Theatre/Dance program they are asked to move away from imitating and toward initiating personal artistic expression. At the heart of this process is the formation, development, and exploration of questions about one’s art and craft. As teaching artists we model the integration of this discovery into the classroom, and through this modeling become teachers of our art form. Visual and literal articulation of this symbiotic relationship of artist and teacher, demonstrated in substantive ways, distinguishes the theatre/dance faculty member.
2. What forms of peer review—including those beyond the Luther campus—are appropriate for that work?
As theatre/dance artists, we look to each other and our audience for response to our work. The best forms of review are those that engage the artists and the audience-at-large in formal and informal dialogue. In addition, peer review by members of the profession, articulated in written form or live dialogue, provides invaluable information that connects our work as artists to the world beyond our department and college. As teachers, then, the feedback thus garnered feeds directly back into our work in the classroom as we prepare our students for similar experiences of exposure and review.
Peer review of faculty scholarship can, and will, take on many forms. Review may come in the form of written reviews (formal and informal) of artistic work; dialog, feedback, and oral response to artistic work from peers, students, and audience members and/or the larger community; adjudication of artistic work by outside entities or individuals; and response to discernible ways in which an individual’s artistic work influences one’s teaching.
3. How can you encourage and enable your colleagues to see that such work bears fruit in their teaching?
The theatre/dance department believes that a commitment to the rehearsal process over the production product informed by one’s research is the first and foremost way in which our scholarly pursuits can inform our teaching. Theatre/dance department members are encouraged to pursue personally nourishing artistic work. We also hold that scholarship should contain an awareness of and connection to current directions in the art and craft of theatre/dance. Department members are encouraged to find ways to explore diverse forms of expression within the art and craft of theatre/dance, and that this exploration may be beyond one’s immediate field of expertise. Theoretical exploration, development and/or writing are also encouraged. It is scholarship that helps keep our artistry and teaching lively and robust.
What depth and range of achievement in scholarship at the third year, tenure review, and application for promotion for full professor should distinguish the work of Luther faculty?
Forms of scholarship undertaken by theatre/dance artists will be diverse and varied. It would be reasonable to assume that at the beginning of a faculty member’s academic career, he or she will concentrate on artistic activities and scholarly pursuits that directly inform the development of courses that he or she may teach. As teaching experience develops, scholarship or artistic activity may likewise expand to include interdisciplinary exploration with the liberal arts. Any scholarly endeavor that makes connections between the individual’s scholarly or artistic interests and their teaching/learning objectives consistent with the goals of the department and college should be supported and encouraged.
As a faculty member in the Theatre/Dance department progresses through an academic career, it is expected that the depth and breadth of his or her understanding, appreciation, and experience in the art form will increase, and that his or her work as a teacher in the classroom will reflect that continued growth and learning. In our department we seek out colleagues who are committed to this kind of “life long learning” in the context of their desire to be excellent teachers and accomplished artists. Our constant scholarly pursuit of self-awareness, curiosity and appreciation allows us to model an accomplished understanding of our chosen art form for our students and each other.
In a faculty member’s first three years the department encourages attendance at local, regional, national and/or international performance events and conferences; collaboration with students in the design, performance, and/or direction of performing arts works; and collaboration with theatre and/or dance artists that directly relate to their teaching.
After establishing a solid connection to the department’s curriculum, the department encourages faculty members to begin collaboration with artists outside of the theatre/dance discipline, including but not limited to, interdisciplinary collaborations within the liberal arts context, participation in local, regional, national and/or international seminars, workshops, conferences and professional gatherings, mentoring undergraduate research projects and participation and/or leadership in experimental/laboratory workshops for peers, students, and larger community.
As the faculty member’s scholarship goals expand, the department encourages its members to continue pedagogical exploration, innovation, research through written publications, performances, designs, direction or choreography with established professional companies and individuals. This includes the creation of original works, presentation of public lectures, workshops, seminars, and/or panel discussions, serving on grant review panels or other forms of adjudication.
In all forms the department expects the scholarly pursuits will provide the theatre/dance faculty member avenues in which to unite his or her commitment to personal artistic development with their teaching.
5. What distinctive forms of scholarship can thrive at a liberal arts college of the church?
Peter Brook calls theatre “the Empty Space” – a place of endless possibilities. What happens in this place is limited only by one’s imagination. As a department in a liberal arts college of the church we believe this place of endless possibilities makes both imperative and feasible our keen and unencumbered exploration – as artists, teachers, and learners – of what it means to be human and how one connects with the world. The connection with the church offers a platform and foundation from which one can explore issues and ideas of the spirit—human and divine—in an open and accepting environment. As artists working in a college of the church our aim is to be whole persons: informed artists; and capable, passionate, accountable citizens; who empower and enliven the creative imagination in ourselves and our community.
Art and faith have the ability to make one aware of the important stories by asking the questions “Who am I?”, “Where do I come from?” and “Where am I going?”. Art and faith deal with truth. As faculty of a college of the church, we as artists are able to more freely explore the ways in which art and faith intersect in our scholarship and in our curriculum. Our scholarship and artistry can provide relevance to the secular culture and to the church by finding new ways for the imagination and art to explore the religious experience.