Making the body speak

Making the body speak

Actor, director, choreographer and playwright Jaime Dorner will bring a new dimension to UCOL’s Performing Arts programme.

Chilean-born Jaime believes in making the body talk: He has established a reputation in both Chile and New Zealand as a talented physical performer and professional actor.

As new Programme Leader for the Performing Arts programme, he will encourage students to try “physical performing,” where the primary focus is on the physical work of actors, expressed through the use of their bodies. He says “PHYSICALITY” in capital letters is the key component in his work as an actor and teacher. “”We must encourage our bodies to speak,” he says.

His appointment as Programme Leader brings him back to the Manawatu, after two years in Wellington, completing a Masters in Theatre Arts in Directing at Toi Whakaari Drama School.

In Chile, Jaime earned a Bachelor of Scenic Arts and studied Law before becoming a drama tutor in Valdivia, with a special interest in contemporary and experimental theatre.

He came to the Manawatu in 2006, joining Massey University as Arts Officer. He directed two productions in Palmerston North, including Project Exiles: The Return of a man Called Ulysses, which he also wrote, and tutored courses in creative processes and creating plays for theatre.

In his new role at UCOL he plans to continue to grow and extend the programme and to encourage Performing Arts to collaborate with other UCOL programmes, such as the Bachelor of Applied Visual Imaging. “My big dream is to create a dialogue in which these disciplines learn from and support each other and create a sense of artistic community,” he says.

He expects his diverse experience as actor, director, choreographer and writer to be an advantage. “I see theatre as a craft which there is a dialogue with other arts and disciplines. Dance, poetry, and design are all tools that I use when creating or teaching drama. “I also think also that there is no better way of teaching than doing it – and reflecting on the process of doing it.”

There are 21 students on the first Performing Arts intake for 2010. The students will collaborate on a production, open to the Manawatu public, as part of their study programmer.

ENDS

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