The Art of Education: Interdisciplinarity and Historical Performance

Historical performance (HP) is typically seen as a music-centered area of research; however, drama, dance, crafts, and art practices all have historical ‘recreation’ research strands that have developed independently of music. Though these subject areas have, in the past come together in performance projects, discipline-specific professionals tend to work independently, only coming together for the final rehearsal and performance, where any issues as a result of the collaborative process are pragmatically solved without addressing the tension between disciplines. As a result, HP collaborative projects lack methodological consistency leading to questions about its legitimacy and rigor. However, the Royal Society of Edinburgh funded Eighteenth-century Arts Education Research Network (EAERN), since 2016 has put interdisciplinary collaborative methods at the heart of the project. Practitioners and researchers from across arts subjects come together to collaborate on practice-based workshops, where no single discipline dominates the discussion. This project highlights the need for consistent practical demonstration and interdisciplinary discussion from the beginning of the collaborative process allowing performer-researchers to address tensions across the disciplines. The project develops a new methodology that incorporates interdisciplinary collaboration into the HP research process, maximizing its potential to enable a deeper insight into historical materials.