Global Experiences with SMTD

Expand your learning to places around the world.

International travel provides transformative life experiences. From performance tours, to collaborations with teachers, artists, and other students, to semester-long study abroad, students advance professional and life skills while also jump-starting their burgeoning careers.

World Performance Studies

SMTD’s Center for World Performance Studies advocates for performance as a mode of research and as a means of public engagement, centering on underrepresented, non-Western, and diasporic voices, bodies, and acts. We connect – both locally and globally – students, faculty, artists, thinkers, and scholars in order to educate each other about Performance Studies and to promote interdisciplinary and intersectional insights and research methodologies.

A dancer and drummers perform on stage in the finale of a West African Drum & Dance course sponsored by the Center for World Performance Studies.

Study Abroad

In the past, SMTD students have spent a semester or an academic year abroad in international study exchange programs at partner institutions, such as the Conservatoire de Paris in France, Zurich University of the Arts in Switzerland, Hannover University of Music, and Hochschule für Musik in Germany. Students are not limited to SMTD partners, however.

U-M students may choose to enroll at an institution abroad for a semester, a summer, or an academic year, with the possibility of earning academic and/or performance credits toward an SMTD degree program. Any SMTD undergraduate (non-first year) or graduate student in good academic standing (3.0 minimum GPA) who wishes to pursue relevant studies offered by another institution and desires an outstanding opportunity for cultural immersion and intensive language study is encouraged to apply.

Before applying for any study abroad program, students should consult with their studio instructor/advisor and an SMTD academic advisor to determine if an international education program fits their educational and professional goals and does not interfere with recital plans or ensemble obligations. For those pursuing a dual degree, it is necessary to consult with advisors of both programs to ensure degree requirements remain on track. The studio instructor/advisor can help determine the best time to go abroad as well as help identify coursework and potential performance teachers (for performance majors).

Trinity Laban CoLab in London

 
An annual, short-term intensive where conservatoire students execute innovative multidisciplinary performance projects.

Mysore, India

Students spend four weeks engaging with artists and musicians, attending lectures on culture, history, religion, and aesthetics; receiving in-home one-on-one instruction in flute, drums, violin, voice, or dance; taking field trips to ancient sites, temples, and significant monuments of Mysore; and attending performances.

Cuba

Students in the Jazz Percussion Studio spent a week in Cuba for an intensive music immersion including masterclasses, performances, and a focus on the political and social history of Cuba.

Seville, Spain

Department of Dance collaboration with Marcat Dance to create an unforgettable education abroad experience in the historical, charming Seville, Spain.

Johannesburg, South Africa

The Department of Theatre & Drama sponsored a faculty-led student exchange cultural immersion with The Market Theatre in Johannesburg.

Connect With Us

Study Abroad

  • Christi-Anne Castro, Associate Dean for Faculty Development and Global Engagement
  • Naira Tumanyan, Administrative Specialist & Assistant to Associate Dean for Faculty Development and Global Engagement
    734-936-1915
  • Contact the office of Global Engagement: [email protected]

World Performance Studies