Second study year
The second study year continues to offer diverse and punctual input that is now structured in longer Blocks (like the ‘Film Workshop’ and ‘ Thinking through Gender’ or ‘Rework’ block which can take between 3 and 6 weeks) or in weekly labs with different artists. This is the year where focus shifts from orientation to expanding one’s investigative and learning tools, getting acquainted with critical theory and starting to give the more articulate contours to own artistic practice. The assessed studio performance programme/creation of a chroreographic object takes place in the Block 4.
Third study year
This study year provides platform for going from the studio performances and input to placing one’s own (emerging) practice in dialogue with theatrical apparatus and on this occasion with the proscenium stage.
The year starts with creation process for Dance Theatre (assessed performance) programme/creation of a chroreographic object. This is paralleled with six-week Philosophy course ending in writing an essay.
The second semester of third year introduces structurally the notion of collaboration in the curriculum. Though performance making is always a collaborative process, in this semester different actual collaborations take place. One is the project SNDO/ECD/JMD where SNDO students work together with their peers from the two dance BA programmes at our Academy. The performances take place during the Block 4 and are presented outside the school premises in the Veem House for Performance - a black-box venue in Amsterdam.
The collaboration is further explored in the form of 2-3 weeks open lab where the students have THE ‘carte blanche’ to conceive of what to do and how to spend these weeks together as a class. A structural exchange and mutual visits with group of students from Choreography MA from Giessen takes place in the 2nd semester. Finally a mini-lab with teenagers from the 5 O’clock class offers another look into collaboration and the role, position and responsibilities of choreographer(s) in it.
This year also contains preparation for the Graduation phase. The entrance into the Graduation Phase is marked by the so-called ‘green light’ moment. This takes place in the last assessment meeting at the end of the third year study when the student and artistic director sign the Graduation Agreement containing outline of the fourth year study. The Graduation Agreement contains outline of the plan containing the four obligatory elements:
- Stage (internship) trajectory (including obligatory stage report),
- final paper
- one new choreographic work presented in professional context in Amsterdam and - one work of student’s choice which is presented within the frame of the Graduation Festival in June of the respective final study year.
During the third year the student is preparing their fourth year plans – conceptualizing and arranging their stage (internship) months, conceptualizing and preparing for the writing of the Final Paper (reading, collecting material), as well as starting to think through where they imagine and wish their future work to take shape.