Theatre takes center stage

University of Houston-Clear Lake is seeing a reemergence of performance art classes after they were discontinued in 1992 when the theatre and dance programs were eliminated. “Performance Art” and “Storytelling and Oral Communication” are two classes at UHCL that focus on the idea of visual art and dramatic performance.

ARTS 4391 Performance Art is taught by Beverly Williams, an adjunct instructor who has an extensive background with arts. Williams danced professionally with Houston Ballet, teaches classes for Houston Ballet as well as other schools throughout Houston including UHCL.

“Performance art is an interactive, multi-media art form whose definition is diverse and intriguing,” Williams said. “Its aesthetic qualities include realizations in action and art. The interpretation of Performance art by observers is the inspiration behind the quest to create a work that will leave an expression and impression.”

Performance art is a non-traditional type of art that often features a live performance in front of an audience or onlookers in the form of poetry, music, dance, painting or acting. Students have the ability to interact with literature and movement as well as display personal thought and emotional experiences in their daily lives.

“The goal of the course is to provoke perception, emotion, abstract thinking, personal thoughts and experiences in our lives,” Williams said. “To use performing and visual arts, history, literature, philosophy, science, social sciences, and our cultures, beliefs and daily lives encounters as inspiration, collection, creation and presentation of performance art.”

Amy Diaz Hollis, communication major and current student in the Performance Art class, has enjoyed her experience thus far but says she originally had a different perspective of what exactly it would entail.

“I was not entirely sure what it was when I signed up for it; I did not know performance art was a thing by itself,” Hollis said. “I thought performance art was any art that is expressed through performance such as music, dance and theatre.”

Hollis thinks that Performance Arts is a class that should be taken by every student regardless of the major because of the materials being taught. She points out that the class builds certain skill sets that are transferable to everyday settings including an openness to new experiences as well as increased confidence in uncertain situations.

“In class, it acts as an improvisation; the professor goes over some content, but then it’s kind of split – we get up and we perform,” Hollis said. “Improvisations are done not only in class but often outside and around the campus.”

Andrea Baldwin, a lecturer in communication who received a Ph.D. from Southern Illinois University-Carbondale in communication studies, teaches COMM 4391 Storytelling and Oral Communication. Baldwin has a background in performance studies where her interest involves storytelling, adaptation and rhetoric.

The Storytelling and Oral Communication class gives individuals the opportunity to have spoken word or face-to-face interaction with others. It includes stories that allow communication with not only themselves but with the community such as fairytales, proverbs and jokes. The class promotes an effective way to communicate through storytelling and focuses on drawing emotion from the individual.

“One of the things they do get out of it, is the understanding and importance of narrative,” Baldwin said. “When I use the word narrative, what I mean here is, how people move and understand each other through a sequence of events and how we communicate. Students have the opportunity to do undergraduate research and travel to National Conferences.

Baldwin would like to arrange those same opportunities at UHCL and want to make sure storytelling could make its time. Her former and current students continue to actively participate in working to attend conferences and beyond and with activities covered in class.

Baldwin said her hope and intention for the students is to see growth.

“My background is in performance studies and communication, so a lot of my work is working with students to do group and individual performances and then take them to National Conferences and competitions,” Baldwin said

Diana Perez, an art studio major, says the Storytelling and Oral Communication class is fun, and she was able to give some insight on one of the current projects assigned to her group.

“The class is pretty fun; we do a lot of hands on experiments,” Perez said. “We do social theory, and currently we are working on a project which requires us to reenact the film of ‘Kill Bill,’ therefore, we have a lot of people and we have props and costumes.”

Also published on Medium.