What is this all about?
This is the creative webspace/blogsite for the UBC/GNWC course: Mapping Empire: Interdisciplinary Performance Creation. Otherwise known in registration-speak as THTR408B 001: Advanced Topics in Design and Scenography or even THTR 547A 922 – Directed Studies for those at the graduate level. What we are doing here is creating an online seminar room – a chance to share information and files, and to each create our own visual/aural/textual presentations in the site-specific space called Webpress.
About the Course:
This course will explore the creation of a site specific performance from a core theme. Students from any/all disciplines are encouraged to become involved: music, dance, theatre, visual arts, writing, and bring their skills and tools into a joint forum where a diverse group of students/artists can work across disciplines. Another point of the course is to work with space in a variety of real contexts. Creating installations and presentations completely out of what is present – dealing with site-specific realities including online space.
We will begin with the themes of ”maps” and “mapping” – mapping space, mapping the body, mapping time. We will be investigating questions: Why do we map/chart? What are the truth or lies behind this mapping? What is the connection between power and mapping? Students will work together on a number of group exercises exploring this theme and the ideas and emotions it evokes. They will then be required to find/write/choreograph/draw/create their own work based on the initial explorations, which will culminate in a final presentation to a small invited audience. Students will have to explore the primary theme in ways unfamiliar to them, as well as in their own usual areas of creativity. They will not only be encouraged to develop their own specialization, but to use their area of expertise/study to communicate with students from other disciplines. There will also be an online component to the course with the creation of a class blog and webspace.
About the Instructor:
Colleen Lanki is a professional actor and director interested in movement-based theatre and intercultural performance practices. She lived in Tokyo from 1995-2002 where she studied nihon buyô (Japanese classical dance) under FUJIMA Yûko and nô (traditional Japanese theatre) chant and dance under master Kita school actor ÔMURA Sadamu. 
She is also the founder of Kee Company, through which she worked on multilingual, collaborative performances in Japan, Hawaii, Australia and Canada. She is currently teaching acting and movement in Vancouver, directing contemporary Asian plays, and creating new dance and theatre works based on various traditions. She is the artistic producer of Rhizome Productions, a company committed to interdisciplinary and intercultural communication <www.rhizomeproductions.com>. You can also see my personal “site-in-progress” at <http://members.shaw.ca/lanki/>.
Need to contact me?
Colleen Lanki: lanki@shaw.ca