UMS in the Classroom: Cold Blood

By UMS

Interested in using a UMS performance in your university classroom? For each performance on the season, we provide suggested curricular connections, links to contextual material online, citations for scholarly material, and prompts for classroom discussion. For additional resources and individualized curricular support, please contact Shannon Fitzsimons Moen, UMS Campus Engagement Specialist, at skfitz@umich.edu or (734) 764-3903.

UMS is also committed to making our performances an affordable part of the academic experience. Our Classroom Ticket Program provides $15 tickets to students and faculty for performances that are a course requirement. Please email umsclasstickets@umich.edu to set up a group order.

Connect:

This performance may connect meaningfully with courses in the following schools and disciplines:

Anthropology
American Culture
Comparative Literature
English Language and Literature
History
History of Art
Romance Languages and Literatures
Screen Arts and Cultures
Psychology
Sociology
Composition
Theatre & Drama
Dance
Performing Arts Technology
Education
Medicine
Social Work

Explore:

Watch this extended preview of the performance.
In Cold Blood and other performances, the artists of The Collectif Kiss & Cry utilize their hands much like puppets, or other kinds of performing objects. Familiarize yourself with current scholarship in this field with The Routledge Companion to Puppetry and Material Performance, edited by Dassia Posner, Claudia Orenstein and John Bell (2014, Routledge).

Reflect:

Michele Anne De May, an associate artist of The Collectif Kiss & Cry, describes every part of the body as a “full choreographic object,” which can take on new characters and create new worlds. Why are hands chosen to be the centerpiece of the work? What expressive capabilities do hands have that other parts of the body lack? How do we relate to a hand as a “performer” in a different way than to a whole person?
The artist’s process is often carefully hidden from its audience; the creation of a movie, play or album is done in private, and the final product revised until the artist deems it ready for release. However, in Kiss & Cry and Cold Blood, these production elements take center stage. How does bearing witness to the creation of this “movie” inform your experience as a viewer?