France Première S2TMD (theatre, music and dance) — 1re specialties
Chapters: 7
1. Economics, law and the live-performance world
Sociology of cultural practices · Culture’s weight in the economy and jobs · What is special about live-show economics · Aims and history of cultural policy · The professional world of live performance · Live-performance law
- Sociology of Culture: Who Likes What, and Why – In sociology, culture means ways of living and shared practices: what people read, watch, play and listen to. These practices are not only personal choice. Studies find patterns by age, class and schooling, gender and place, because family, school, friends and money shape taste. Digital streaming gives wider access, yet gaps in devices, data and know-how remain, and many people now mix tastes (omnivores). Cultures also mix through travel and media. To judge such claims we read audience statistics carefully. In music, we ask who plays and who listens, how music reaches people (live, radio, recordings, streaming) and what an album, a festival or an advert tell us about the business.
- Cultural Economics: Culture, Jobs and Live Shows – Culture (books, films, music, theatre, heritage) is a small but real part of the economy, often about 2 to 4 percent of output and jobs. Copyable goods like books get cheaper per copy; live shows cannot, so their costs rise faster than other prices (the cost disease). Ticket money often does not cover the cost, so public funding and patrons fill the gap.
- Cultural Policy: Why and How Governments Support Culture – Cultural policy is the set of public choices that protect heritage, support artistic creation, teach the arts and open culture to everyone. Many countries built arts ministries and councils after the 1940s and 1950s with the aim of "democratising culture". Results are debated: audiences grew, but the audience of cultural venues is still not as mixed as the whole population, and people disagree about who should decide what is worth funding.
- Arts Management: Organising a Live Show – Arts management is the work of turning an artistic idea into a show that reaches an audience. Every live performance needs artistic, technical and administrative people, and many of them work freelance, do several jobs and find work through networks. A show is a project: idea, planning, rehearsal, performance and sometimes a tour. Managers plan the schedule, make a budget where income (tickets, grants, sponsors) covers costs (fees, venue, equipment, advertising), promote the event with posters and social media, keep everyone safe, and treat artists and audiences with respect. Digital tools have changed how shows are made, sold and shared.
- Data Protection and Intellectual Property Rights – Intellectual property (IP) is a creation of the mind, such as a story, song, program, invention or logo. Intellectual Property Rights (IPR) give the creator control over its use. Copyright protects creative works (text, music, art, software code) automatically once created; a patent protects a new, useful invention for about 20 years and must be applied for; a trademark protects brand names, logos and slogans. Plagiarism is presenting someone else's work as your own without credit. Infringement is using protected IP without permission (copyright, patent or trademark infringement). Public licences let creators share on their own terms: Creative Commons (BY, SA, NC, ND) for creative works, and software licences such as GPL (copyleft: modified versions must stay open) and Apache (permissive: can be used in closed products with notices).
2. Dance culture and science (dance)
Dance fields of inquiry · History of dance · Watching, analysing, arguing · Music culture for dancers · Body science for dancers
- Dance: Elements, Choreography and Forms – Dance is movement of the body, in space and time, with energy, used to express feelings, tell stories or celebrate. Every dance can be described with four elements: Body (what moves), Space (where: levels, directions, pathways), Time (when: tempo, rhythm, pause) and Energy (how: sharp or smooth, strong or light). Choreography is the art of arranging movement using devices such as motif, repetition, canon, unison, contrast and formations. Good performers train technique, safety and expression, and good audiences describe, analyse, interpret and judge what they see. Dance forms, from classical and folk to ballet and hip-hop, grow out of their culture and history.
- Performance Analysis – To analyse a performance (dance or theatre), watch closely, describe what you see and hear without opinion, interpret what it might mean, and judge with reasons taken from the show. Look at five elements: body, space, light, sound and costume or set. Notice the creative process, the choreographer's or director's signature, the relation between stage and audience, and compare productions to become a critical spectator.
- Music History: From Chant to Pop – Music is older than writing. Every culture grew its own music, often passed on by ear, like Indian raga, African drumming and gamelan. In the Western tradition the main eras are Medieval (chant, about 500–1400), Renaissance (polyphony, 1400–1600), Baroque (1600–1750), Classical (1750–1820), Romantic (1820–1910) and the 20th century to today (jazz, recording, film, pop, electronic). Each era changed the texture (how many lines sound together), the size of the group and music's place in society.
- Locomotion and Movement – Movement is a change in position of a body part; locomotion is moving the whole body from place to place. Cells move in three ways: amoeboid, ciliary and flagellar. Humans use muscular movement. Muscles are skeletal, visceral or cardiac. A skeletal muscle is made of fibres, each packed with myofibrils made of repeating sarcomeres of actin and myosin. A nerve signal releases Ca2+, myosin heads pull actin using ATP, and the sarcomere shortens (sliding filament theory). The skeleton has 206 bones. Joints can be fibrous, cartilaginous or synovial (ball and socket, hinge, pivot, gliding, saddle). Disorders include myasthenia gravis, tetany, muscular dystrophy, arthritis, osteoporosis and gout.
3. Dance practice (dance)
Technique in the main style · Technique in a second style · Improvisation and composition workshops
- Dance: Elements, Choreography and Forms – Dance is movement of the body, in space and time, with energy, used to express feelings, tell stories or celebrate. Every dance can be described with four elements: Body (what moves), Space (where: levels, directions, pathways), Time (when: tempo, rhythm, pause) and Energy (how: sharp or smooth, strong or light). Choreography is the art of arranging movement using devices such as motif, repetition, canon, unison, contrast and formations. Good performers train technique, safety and expression, and good audiences describe, analyse, interpret and judge what they see. Dance forms, from classical and folk to ballet and hip-hop, grow out of their culture and history.
4. Music culture and science (music)
Music fields of inquiry · History of music and the arts · Music cultures and techniques across styles · Music analysis and listening · Music and digital tools · Musical instruments
- Music Appreciation: How to Listen and Understand Music – Music appreciation means listening with attention, noticing what is happening in the music, and being able to talk about it. Every piece is built from a few elements: pitch and melody, rhythm and tempo, dynamics (loud and soft), timbre (tone colour), texture (how many layers) and form (the plan of the piece). Knowing these words helps you compare music from any culture, from a symphony to a raga to a film song, and explain why you like it.
- Music History: From Chant to Pop – Music is older than writing. Every culture grew its own music, often passed on by ear, like Indian raga, African drumming and gamelan. In the Western tradition the main eras are Medieval (chant, about 500–1400), Renaissance (polyphony, 1400–1600), Baroque (1600–1750), Classical (1750–1820), Romantic (1820–1910) and the 20th century to today (jazz, recording, film, pop, electronic). Each era changed the texture (how many lines sound together), the size of the group and music's place in society.
- Music Technology: from Sound to Digital Music – Music technology turns sound into signals and numbers we can record, edit and share. A microphone changes air vibrations into a voltage; an audio interface samples it many thousands of times a second (sample rate) and stores each sample as a number (bit depth). A DAW arranges audio and MIDI tracks, and mixing sets each track's level, pan and effects before the music reaches speakers, films, games or streaming.
- Musical Instruments – Every musical instrument makes something vibrate: a string, a column of air, a stretched skin, a solid body or an electronic circuit and speaker. We group instruments by what vibrates: strings (chordophones), wind (aerophones), drums with skins (membranophones), solid percussion (idiophones) and electronic (electrophones). Smaller, shorter or tighter vibrating parts give higher notes. Each instrument has its own timbre (tone colour) because it adds its own mix of harmonics. In an orchestra or band, instruments are combined to make rich colours.
5. Music practice (music)
Sustained practice in a main area · Ensemble practice · Creating and inventing · Group singing · Body and voice awareness, gesture, posture
- Music Performance: Playing Solo and in an Ensemble – Performing music means playing or singing a piece for listeners. A good performance is accurate (right notes, right rhythm), keeps a steady tempo, uses dynamics and phrasing to show feeling, and fits the style of the music. In an ensemble, players also listen to each other, balance their volume and follow cues. Good preparation is slow, careful practice in small chunks, then speeding up and performing for others.
- Music Composition: How to Build a Piece from a Tiny Idea – Composing means building music from small ideas. Start with a motif (a few notes). Develop it by repetition, sequence (the same shape higher or lower), and variation (change rhythm, turn it upside down). Put harmony under it: chords like I, IV, V, I, ending with a cadence. Choose a texture (tune alone, tune with chords, or many tunes together). Shape the whole piece with a form like A B A or verse-chorus. Improvising is composing on the spot. A brief tells you the purpose, length and instruments; you plan, draft, test and refine.
6. Theatre culture and science (theatre)
Theatre fields of inquiry · History of theatre · Theatre and the other arts · Contemporary live-performance aesthetics · Analysing shows
- Theatre Studies: How We Read a Live Performance – Theatre is live art made for an audience. To study it we look through three lenses: society (venue, spectators, politics), language (text, verse, genre, stagecraft) and aesthetics (styles of acting and directing). Stage shape, history and the mixing of arts all change what a show means.
- Performance Analysis – To analyse a performance (dance or theatre), watch closely, describe what you see and hear without opinion, interpret what it might mean, and judge with reasons taken from the show. Look at five elements: body, space, light, sound and costume or set. Notice the creative process, the choreographer's or director's signature, the relation between stage and audience, and compare productions to become a critical spectator.
7. Theatre practice (theatre)
Advanced acting training · Advanced interpretation · Techniques and practices · Designing and staging projects
- Acting: Bringing a Character to Life – Acting means showing a character truthfully to an audience. An actor first studies the given circumstances (who, where, when) and the character's objective (what they want). Then the actor uses the body (posture, gesture, levels, status) and the voice (volume, pace, pitch, pause) to show it. On stage, acting is action and reaction: you listen and answer your partner. Timing, pauses and tension shape a scene, and theatre can also explore real social issues.
- Drama: Elements, Stagecraft and Performance – Drama is a story told by actors who become characters and act it out in front of an audience. Every drama has characters who want something, a conflict when those wants clash, a plot that builds tension to a climax and then resolves, dialogue, a setting and a theme. On stage, actors use voice and body, and the production adds lighting, set, costume and sound.