Standing Ovations: Student Takeaways from ‘Engaging Performance’
U-M students attending Fight Night. Photo by Peter Smith Photography.
TL;DR
A U-M course where students attend live music, theater, and dance shows, meet artists, and explore how performance shapes everyday life — no experience needed!
Students say: it opens your eyes to new art, shows that anything can be a performance, and changes how you see expression, identity, and meaning in the world.
What is Engaging Performance?
Engaging Performance, a class that brings together resources from U-M and UMS, connects undergraduate students directly to the world-class touring artists who perform music, theater, and dance on the U-M campus. Students enrolled in the course attend live performances, talk with artists and arts administrators, and explore how the performing arts are an integral part of our lives and the world. No previous arts experience needed!
From Students
“This class really changed how I see the performing arts and their role in my life. I got to experience performances I probably wouldn’t have gone to on my own, and it showed me how exciting it can be to try something new. I learned that every performance means something different, and it’s up to each viewer to find their own perspective.”
“Engaging Performance has taught me so much about the performing arts and how they surround our lives. Since taking this course, I’ve started noticing performances in everyday life that I never paid attention to before. The biggest lesson I’ve learned is that performing is a natural part of daily life, but it also takes incredible time and effort to do what the artists we saw were able to do. While this class hasn’t raised any major questions for me, I’m excited to keep learning about performance art and see how my understanding continues to grow.”
“Participating in Engaging Performance has significantly reshaped how I understand the role of performance in my life, both inside and outside the classroom. Before this class, I thought of performance mostly in terms of staged art—something done by trained professionals, separate from everyday life. Now, I see performance as a powerful mode of communication, protest, identity formation, and meaning-making that exists all around us. It’s not just about acting on a stage; it’s about how we express who we are, how we show up in social spaces, and how we challenge or reinforce systems of power.”
“I learned that performance, whether individual or group, is a deeply collaborative process. It involves a lot of brainstorming and hidden elements that aren’t always discussed. Every show—and even every moment on stage—requires incredible effort. It was amazing to gain a vocabulary that lets me look at a performance and explore what it might mean—healing, grief, protest, entertainment, and more.”
“Engaging Performance has positively changed how I see the performing arts in my life. After this class, I feel more knowledgeable about different types of performance and have grown to truly appreciate performance as a distinct art form. The biggest lesson I learned is that anything can be a performance. On the second day of class, we discussed the idea that everyone is performing in their everyday lives, which made me see the people around me in a new way—I’m really grateful for that perspective. A major question this class has raised for me is the meaning behind a single performance. Throughout the semester, we constantly discussed and debated the meaning of specific performances, which I think is one of the key points of performance: to make its audience think and wonder about what they are seeing and hearing.”
Winter 2026 Class Information
Term: Winter 2026 // Course Name: Engaging Performance
Course Listing: MUSPERF 200, ALA 260, ENGLISH 290
Instructor: Jason Fitzgerald
Credits: 3 Credits (Humanities Distribution)
Class Schedule: Tuesdays & Thursdays from 11:30 am – 1 pm
Students will attend live performances of:
- Martha Graham Dance Company – Friday, January 16
- Julia Keefe Indigenous Big Band – Thursday, January 29
- Estonian Philharmonic Chamber Choir – Friday, February 13
- Karajan Akademie – Friday, March 13
- GATZ – Friday-Sunday, March 27-29
- Jeremy Nedd – Friday-Saturday, April 3-4
These performances constitute the course’s primary “texts,” and the full package of tickets is available to students enrolled in the course for the reduced rate of $115. Additional funds are available to support students who cannot cover this cost.
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