Professor Rebecca Loukes

Associate Professor

2334

01392 722334

Overview

My research focuses on ways of creating, understanding and articulating performance practice through interdisciplinary, intercultural research.

I combine professional level Practice as Research (PaR) with award-winning RedCape Theatre www.redcapetheatre.co.uk with innovative ways to re-configure and disseminate histories of performance and training; particularly focusing on women’s legacies of training.

I am also currently working with international network ArtsCross (http://rescen.net/events/ArtsCross_index.html#.WTUp29y1vcs) a long term initiative bringing together academics and artists across cultural, national and artistic borders. The project is led by ResCen at Middlesex University and partners include QMUL, Sadlers Wells, The Place, Step Out Arts, Beijing Dance Academy, Taipei National University of the Arts, Shanghai Theatre Academy and Hong Kong Academy of the Performing Arts.

I am co-editing a new Routledge book series Perspectives in Performer Training (with Dr Maria Kapsali, University of Leeds). My own book in the series is forthcoming in 2021.

I am also Director of the MA Theatre Practice in 2021/22

Research

· Practices and histories of performer training

· Practices and histories of devising

· Interdisciplinary approaches to performance

· Women and performance

· Practice Research

Research collaborations

I am co-artistic director of RedCape Theatre www.redcapetheatre.co.uk

I am working with international network ArtsCross (http://rescen.net/events/ArtsCross_index.html#.WTUp29y1vcs) a long term initiative bringing together academics and artists across cultural, national and artistic borders. The project is led by ResCen at Middlesex University and partners include QMUL, Sadlers Wells, The Place, Step Out Arts, Beijing Dance Academy, Taipei National University of the Arts, Shanghai Theatre Academy and Hong Kong Academy of the Performing Arts.

Additionally, I am working with Dr Maria Kapsali at University of Leeds to develop a new book series for Routledge called Perspectives in Performer Training.

Supervision

I am open to discussing research proposals on any relevant subject given my research expertise. I am especially happy to consider working with candidates with interests in the following areas:

· Practices and histories of performer training

· Practices and histories of devising

· Intercultural and interdisciplinary approaches to performance

· Women and performance

· Practice as Research

Research students

Currently supervising:

Zhiyue Hu ‘Representing East Asian Identities on British Stages in the Twenty-first Century.’
Giorgia Ciampi ‘The Actor’s Expression of Affectivity: a Phenomenological and Intercultural Study’.

Graduated students:

Effrosyni Mastrakalou (2017) ‘Exploring ‘Optimal’ States of Consciousness in Michael Chekhov’s Psychological Gesture: Towards a New Phenomenological Paradigm.’
Ellie Nixon (2016) ‘”The Poetic Body”: Jacques Lecoq and Gaston Bachelard’.
Bonghee Son (2015) ‘Korean Performer Training and the ‘Cosmopolitan’ Performer’.
Kelly Miller (2015) ‘Artistic Gymnastics as Performer Training’.
Sam Grogan (2014) ‘”I’m Doing it But I’m So in the Moment”: Towards a Language of Optimal Performance in Dance Theatre’.
Hui-Yun Chen (2012) ‘In Search of ‘Taiwaneseness’: Reconsidering Taiwanese Xing-ju from a Post-colonial Perspective’.
Maria Kapsali (2013) ‘Yoga and Actor Training’.
Jeungsook Yoo (2008) ‘Towards a Korean Language and Psychophysical Process of Approaching Acting and Actor Training’.

Publications

_{Copyright Notice: Any articles made available for download are for personal use only. Any other use requires prior permission of the author and the copyright holder.}

| 2016 | 2015 | 2011 | 2009 | 2008 | 2007 | 2006 | 2005 | 2004 | 2001 |

2016

Loukes RM. (2016) Embodied Translation: Tradition in the Training Legacy of Elsa Gindler, Practising Tradition in Performer Training: A Critical Approach/International Platform for Performer Training Wroclaw 2016, The Grotowski Institute, Wroclaw, Poland, 28th - 31st Jan 2016.

2015

Loukes RM. (2015) Be Brave and Leave for the Unknown: Elsa Gindler and Embodied Translation in Devising and Performer Training; a practice-research project exploring the 'embodied translation' of Gindler's work for devised theatre and performer training.

2011

Loukes RM. (2011) The Idiot Colony: Principles, Processes, and Practices, Isolated Acts: Performance and Asylums, University Of Exeter.
Loukes RM. (2011) Gertrud Falke-Heller at Dartington Hall 1937-1939, Michael Chekhov and the Dartington Archives, University Of Exeter.

2009

Loukes R, Friend C, Coache C, Netherclift S, Holum S. (2009) 1 Beach Road Project.

2008

Loukes RM. (2008) The Idiot Colony Project.

2007

Loukes RM. (2007) Hidden Forest, directed by Elaine Summers (foudner of Judson Dance Theatre).
Loukes RM. (2007) I/Thou: A Collaboration with Anna-Helena McLean (Gardzienice).

2006

Loukes RM. (2006) Solo piece from 'Underneath Thought'.
Loukes RM. (2006) ‘How to Be “Deadly”: The “Natural” Body in Contemporary Training and Performance?’, The Changing Body International Symposium, University Of Exeter, Exeter.

2005

Loukes RM. (2005) Invitation to Secret Dancers, directed by Elaine Summers (founder of Judson Dance Theatre).
Loukes RM. (2005) ‘Sensation and Relaxation for the Theatre of the Future? The Work of Gertrud-Falke Heller’ (November 2005), Theatre of the Future?: Michael Chekhov and 21st Century Performance, Dartington College Of Arts.
Loukes RM. (2005) The Gindler Project: Underneath Thought.

2004

Loukes RM. (2004) Theatre Exchange: An Arts Council England Funded Project with South Street Arts, Reading.
Loukes RM. (2004) Describing the taste of a strawberry: how to articulate the experience of practice, SCUDD Conference, University Of Aberystwyth.

2001

Loukes RM. (2001) The ‘Experience of the Sacrum’; The Legacy of Elsa Gindler in Training and Performance, Re-Locating the Sacred in Contemporary Performance Practice, University Of Central Lancashire, Preston.
Loukes RM. (2001) Making Sense: The Legacy of Elsa Gindler in Training and Performance, CPR Pastmaster: Grounded in Europe - Tanztheater and its Legacy, Roehampton, University Of Surrey.

External impact and engagement

Impact and public engagement is at the heart of my work with RedCape Theatre www.redcapetheatre.co.uk both in the award-winning material that we take to new audiences drawing on challenging true stories (women and mental health, coastal erosion, dementia and bereavement) and also through work in schools around the UK to develop (Key Stage 4 and 5) drama and devising skills drawn from this research. I have created innovative Education Resource Packs to be used by teachers and RedCape’s work has been used in the GCSE curriculum in schools in the South-East of England.

I am also working on the international ArtsCross project: an initiative which brings together academics and artists across cultural, national and artistic borders, led by ResCen at Middlesex University, and working with partners including Beijing Dance Academy, Taipei National University of the Arts, Hong Kong Academy of the Performing ArtsQMUL as well as UK arts partners Sadler’s Wells, Step Out Arts and The Place. http://rescen.net/events/ArtsCross_index.html#.U8ZCBLFwbcs

This work was used as a RCUK case study ‘Shaping the Future: UK-China Collaborative Research’, 2016 and a CBI Case Study ‘Bridges to the Future: The Role of Universities in the UK-China Relationship’, 2017.

My work was submitted as part of one of the Impact Case Studies REF2014 for Drama ‘Intercultural Performer Training and Performance’ http://www.exeter.ac.uk/ref2014/impact/humanities/performance/.

Contribution to discipline

Co-editing (with Dr Maria Kapsali, University of Leeds) Perspectives on Performer Training Book Series (Routledge).
Associate Editor, Routledge journal of Theatre, Dance and Performer Training, (2008-present).
Invited assessor of AHRC grant applications.
Member of TaPRA (Performer Training Working Group).
Subject External Examiner, University of Plymouth (2016-20).

I have also organised three international conferences/symposia, regularly host international practitioners in Drama and review book proposals for publishers such as Routledge and Palgrave Macmillan.

Media

Awards and Selected Press for RedCape Theatre work

· Scotsman Fringe First for Innovation and New Writing 2008

· Total Theatre Award for Best Visual Theatre 2008

· Finalist Carole Tambor, New York Award (last 4) 2008

· Finalist Holden Street Theatres, Adelaide Award (last 2) 2008

· Finalist Amnesty International Freedom of Speech Award (last 5) 2008

‘Luminous… ravishing… one to catch before it slips away’ The Guardian

‘An affecting, humorous piece of physical theatre… an excellent vehicle for the company’s founding members.’ The Times

‘Endlessly inventive ... thoroughly disquieting. It's stunning; you can't help but catch your breath’ Metro

‘Proving the power of physical theatre’ The List

‘A delicate work of damaged poetry and slow-moving grace… a remarkable debut’ The Herald

Teaching

My teaching across the MA and the BA programme is inspired by my research and professional practice and I have developed my current modules from research over the last 10 years. I synthesise my professional level theatre practice with theoretical and historical knowledge in relation to the material of each module. In turn, this teaching feeds back to my research (Zarrilli, Daboo and Loukes 2013).

I am regularly invited to give workshops and lectures on devising in universities and schools around the UK. I have also developed a range of teaching resources with RedCape Theatre designed for KS4 and 5 teachers http://www.redcapetheatre.co.uk/resources.

I am a Fellow of the Higher Education Academy and I contributed to the design, development and implementation of the new MA Theatre Practice programme https://humanities.exeter.ac.uk/drama/postgraduate/taught/.

Modules taught

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