I would like to share an update and the positive outcomes of the Digital Transitions workshops, now further developed as 'New Digital Transitions'. Their reception and success has been truly fantastic.
Firstly, you can view some of the workshop outcomes here: http://www.paulsadot.com/workshops
New Digital Transitions
Working with Performers Online
Bespoke Specialist Workshops for Performers, Lecturers and Students.
Emerging from the pandemic lockdown scenarios, these unique performer training workshops are the culmination of Paul Sadot's in-depth practical development of DIY digital performances with students and professionals online.
New Digital Transitions draws on Paul’s extensive professional experience in devising for film, theatre and dance where he has worked as an actor, director, choreographer, and movement director with artists and companies such as Shane Meadows, Ultima Vez, Gucci, Kenzo, Sadler’s Wells Breakin’ Convention, Nike, BBC, Channel Four and many more.
These practical workshops introduce new ideas of agency, access, perspective, proximity, and virtuosity, and have inspired excitement and empowerment amongst graduate and post-graduate students of dance and acting.
Using ubiquitous remote technology, the work shares new digital performance methodologies and pedagogies that respond to the shifts in the structures that will make up many post-pandemic performance environments. The work is being recognised as an essential and powerful addition to performer training, offering new skill sets that develop the performers’ reach, autonomy, agency, and transferable skills: such as editing, marketing, and self-taping.
As part of their career development, previous students have successfully utilised the high-quality material generated within the process to further their social media performer profiles, recognising that casting increasingly takes place through these digital spaces.
New Digital Transitions has so far been used in several contexts:
To mediate national and international collaborations between universities and students.
To expand creative networks and develop professional opportunities for artists emerging from educational contexts.
To take courses online.
To create specialist workshops and performances with professional theatre and dance companies.
This workshop, series of workshops, or more extensive course can stand alone or act in collaboration with existing educational formats and pedagogues as a complementary and essential arm to support and nurture our culture’s creative vocabulary as we emerge into post-pandemic modes of expression.
The feedback has been tremendous:
“Paul worked with our Masters level students to produce an innovative and experimental performance work, hosted online via Zoom. The performance outcome was outstanding, very affective, and emotionally engaging. The work employed the technology platform well as an intrinsic part of the creative process and illustrated the potential of dance-making and performing in this way.”
— Dr. Victoria Hunter (Reader in Site-Dance and Choreography, University of Chichester
“Paul Sadot’s workshop introduced students to concepts on liveness, digi-corporeality, and ephemerality through detailed techniques in Zoom. He shared his practice with over 140 students in two workshops which were excellent and helped the students formulate practical ideas for staging their plays. I cannot recommend his workshop enough! I was very impressed with the filmed examples he used as well as the inviting atmosphere he created in an online seminar!”
— Dr Kara Reilly (Senior Lecturer in Drama, University of Exeter)