Graduate Student, School of Creative Arts, Film & Media
Thesis Title: The Opera Singer's Body in Performance
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Dr. George Burrows
Dr. Dominic Symonds |
About
Jorge Balça trained as a counter-tenor and actor in Portugal, and performed extensively in Portugal, Spain and France before moving to the UK in 1998, when he started focusing on directing during his BA Performing Arts – Drama at Middlesex University.
Since then, Jorge leads workshops and research projects in the areas of opera, physical theatre, interdisciplinary performance and cross-culturalism.
Back at Middlesex University, Jorge finished his MA Theatre Directing in 2007, which took him to GITIS (Moscow) to study Meyerhold and Biomechanics.
As a Director, Jorge has studied with names such as John Russell Brown, Leon Rubin, David Peacock, Signy Henderson, Derek Proctor, Lydia Ziemke, Joe Hill-Gibbins, William Harris and Paola Cavallin among others. In Moscow, he studied with Nicholai Karpov, Oleg Kudrishov, Anna Trifonova and Oleg Glushkov.
Jorge works and teaches regularly in the UK and The Netherlands as a stage director, movement director, drama teacher and performance coach with both actors and opera performers. As a workshop leader, he led the LIMOP (Leeds International Masterclass of Opera Performance) in July 2010 at the University of Leeds and has recently taught MA Opera students at the Dutch National Opera Academy (Conservatorium van Amsterdam and Koninklijk Conservatorium - Den Haag).
Directing credits include 'Mea Culpa' inspired in P. Handke's 'Self-Accusation' (University of Leeds), the critically acclaimed 'The Bald Soprano' by E. Ionesco (Oval House Youth Theatre Company), 'Don Giovanni …a fashion opera' by W.A. Mozart (Goodenough), 'The Magic Flute' by W.A. Mozart (Goodenough / Bloomsbury Festival), 'Tango Finale' by M. Corbett (+logo), 'The Tunnel of Rats' by A.N. Rosa (Stonecrabs), 'Blood on the Cat’s Neck' by R.W. Fassbinder (Simmonds Theatre) and 'The Medium' by G.C. Menotti (The Orangery).
Jorge’s academic research is generously supported by the Fundação para a Ciência e Tecnologia (Portugal).
Future Projects:
- Collaboration with composer Philip Venables on 'Unleashed', a new opera
- 'Of Love and Cake' - a double-bill of 'Bon Appétit!' by L. Hoiby and 'Le Bel Indifférent' by J. Cocteau with actor/contralto Gráinne Gillis
Contact Information
| Address: | London |
| Telephone: |
+44 7901 976684 |
