Growing up I had the fortunate opportunity to be able to have various training in dance, drama, and music. I took dance lessons from ballet to traditional African dance. Learned to play instruments from the classical flute to the piano. And participated in a variety of plays such as Shakespeare’s Othello, to the musical Joseph and his Technicolor Dream Coat! I believe that all of these past experiences have formed me into the performer that I am today.

I believe that with the knowledge of difference art forms, an artist has a broader perspective and more tools to create a variety of ways of presenting a piece, therefore having more possibilities to choose from in determining the direction of a piece. I also believe other art forms can strengthen each another. For example, Dance makes you more aware of your body and it’s expressive capabilities. This awareness can be useful for actors and musicians as they realize that they can also enhance their performance with body language and are not limited to communicate only with words and/or music notes.

But how do these other disciplines affect and enhance each other? This is what I will attempt to find out during the course of my research journey.

Defining "Interdisciplinary Performing"

‘Performing arts’ in dictionaries is defined as:

Arts, such as dance, drama, and music, that are performed before an audience.

The arts that are primarily performed before an audience, such as dance and drama

Arts or skills that require public performance, as acting, singing, and dancing.

There are other performing arts forms: Primary and secondary but for the sake of this research I will be focusing on Theatre and Dance.

Interdisciplinary has been defined in dictionaries as:

1. adj. of or relating to more than one branch of knowledge

2. involving two or more academic disciplines

3. involving two or more academic, scientific, or artistic areas of knowledge : involving two or more disciplines

Therefore, we could say that Interdisciplinary performing arts is relating to, or the involving of more than one of the performing arts such as dance, music, and drama. However, it is not that simple and this definition is rather general and doesn’t delve into the kind or relationship that the disciplines will have with each other.

INTRODUCTION

 To keep me on track, I needed some definite research goals. The goal behind this research is to:

1. Bring all my previous training in performance arts into jazz performance in a conscious and cohesive manner.
2. I would like to figure out how my previous training in dance and theatre can be used to enhance jazz performance.
3. To possibly explore the boundaries between musical theatre and jazz; develop a stage presence and
4. Ultimately find and/or develop my own performing style/ signature.

These goals led me to the following initial questions:

• How can I use the properties/ elements of theatre and dance within a jazz performance without it turning into another art form e.g., Musical theatre?

• How does training in these other disciplines help me as a singer, a performer, and musician?

• Is this relevant only to vocalists or can knowledge of dance and theatre be relevant also to instrumentalists?

The following chapters will show the process of how I tried to answer these questions. Of course, more questions arose whilst I was searching for the answers.

Allen R. Repko wrote a text book “Interdisciplinary Research: Process and Theory” in which the first chapter deals very nicely with the question ‘what is interdisciplinary studies?’ He writes:

“The chapter (1) explains the meaning of interdisciplinary studies, (2) presents a definition of interdisciplinary studies, (3) explains what interdisciplinary studies is not, (4) discusses how the term interdisciplinarity is variably used today, and (5) identifies metaphors commonly associated with interdisciplinary work.”

Although the whole chapter proved interesting, my main focus was on the definitions and misconceptions of the word “interdisciplinary”, and the consequent relationships of the disciplines or studies involved.

He describes two conceptions of an interdisciplinary approach: the “Generalist “ concept takes the word interdisciplinary to mean any form of dialogue between two or more disciplines. They do not take the role of intergration into consideration. The “Integrationist” concept, however, believe that integration should be the goal of interdisciplinary work.

Without knowing it, I had been wanting to create an intergrationary interdisciplinary performance! Reading this chapter helped me to make my performance goals more concrete. Knowing what kind of relationship I wanted for the disciplines to have with each other was very important in the creative process. With a clear definition I could now discern whether I was creating something from a generalist or integrationist approach.