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Alissa joined ºÚÁÏÍø in 2009. Her interdisciplinary research focuses on performance process and gender in contemporary performance and onscreen. She has published in these areas in books and periodicals.

Alissa has been practising Phillip Zarrilli’s Asian martial / meditational arts-based performer training since 2002, and has been involved with Sandra Reeve’s ‘Move into Life’ movement work since 2005.  These forms of performer training provide the foundations for her practice and teaching, as well as shaping some of her writing.

She is currently working on a series of projects focused on the female collaborators of countercultural filmmaker, Peter Whitehead, and is co-producing a documentary about folk icon and activist, Julie Felix.

She co-curates the Cinema and Television History Institute’s Peter Whitehead Archive. In connection with the archive, she has co-produced events at the Royal Albert Hall as part of their Summer of Love Revisited Season (May-June 2017) and co-produced a  Women of the Counterculture event at London’s Regent Street Cinema (April 2018). Her recent practice includes co-direction of the immersive theatre / expanded cinema event, The 1960s Cinema Going Project (Phoenix Cinema, Leicester; Picturehouse Central, Piccadilly, London).

She is currently supervising practice-based and theory-led PhDs in the areas of performance art and gender, female performances in classical Hollywood cinema, gendered processes of performance making, and the positions and possibilities for women in contemporary British theatre. She welcomes applications from PhD candidates in these and other areas of gender and performance, live and onscreen.

For further details about Alissa’s research interests, see: .

Member of the Dance Drama and Performance Research Institute; Drama Research Group; Cinema and Television History Institute (CATHI)

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Clarke, Alissa (2017) The Pleasures of Writing about the Pleasures of the Practice: Documenting Psychophysical Performer Trainings. In: Sant, Toni (ed.), Documenting Performance: The Context and Processes of Digital Curation and Archiving, London: Bloomsbury Methuen Drama, pp. 253-270.

Clarke, Alissa (2015) Laughter and Love: Creative Counter-Discourses within Performer Training. Theatre, Dance and Performance Training, 6 (3), pp. 291-306.

Clarke, Alissa (2013) ‘Orgasms and Oppositions: Dani Ploeger’s ELECTRODE’, ‘Critical Acts’, The Drama Review, 57: 3, 158-163.

Clarke, Alissa (2009)  ‘“Advance Error by Error, with Erring Steps”: Embracing and Exploring Mistakes and Failure Across the Psychophysical Performer Training Space and the Page,’ The Journal of Writing in Creative Practice, 2:2, 193-207. 

Clarke, Alissa (2009)   Family Roles and Paternal / Maternal Genealogies within and between Psychophysical Performer Trainings and their Documentation,’ Platform: Staging Gender(s) [online] 4:1, 25-43.

• Feminist and gender theory and performance practice (live and on film)
• Performance processes, female stars and classical Hollywood cinema;
• Contemporary performance practice
• Psychophysical performance and performer training
• The performer’s body
• Documentation of performance

• Avant-garde twentieth-century and contemporary performance practice
• Critical theory and performance
• Devising
• Practice-based research
• Supervision of undergraduate and postgraduate dissertations

Fellow of The Higher Education Academy

Postgraduate Certificate in Higher Education, ºÚÁÏÍø, Leicester

PhD in Drama, University of Exeter

MA in Theatre Practice, University of Exeter

BA (Hons) in Drama and English & American Literature, University of Kent

Undergraduate Modules:

Drama BA (Hons)

• DRAM 2010: Devised Theatre and Performance (Module Leader)
• DRAM 3000: Drama Research Project
• DRAM 3006: Live Art and Experimental Performance
• DRAM 3008: Engaging with Creative Industries
• DRAM 3010: Performance as Research (Module Leader)

Postgraduate Modules:

• PERF 5002: Perspectives (Module Leader)
• PERF5702 / PERF5704 Faculty Major Projects

2015 Vice-Chancellor’s Distinguished Teaching Award, ºÚÁÏÍø

2014   Awarded a place on The Vice-Chancellor’s Future Research Leaders’ Programme, ºÚÁÏÍø, Leicester.

Conferences and Events Organised at ºÚÁÏÍø

• 2018    Borderlines VI: Performing Across the Frontiers of Fear. Conference committee chair, 21^st June.

• 2018    REF Impact Showcase. Event coordinator, 18^th June.

• 2017    ‘Meet the New Heroic Figure: neo-fascist warriors in digital culture’. Delivered by Dani Ploeger (RCSSD). Drama Research Group Seminar Coordinator, 1^st November.

• 2017    Borderlines V: Falling, Standing, Performing. Conference committee chair, 22^nd June.

• 2017    Tonite Let’s All Make Love in Leicester: Peter Whitehead and the Long 1960s Conference. Conference co-organiser, 3^rd – 4^th March.

• 2016    Performance and Violence: A Symposium. Symposium Coordinator, 26^th October.

• 2016    Borderlines IV: Resisting, Persisting, Performing Conference. Conference committee chair, 22^nd June.

• 2016    Beyond the Borders of Dissonance: Launching the Peter Whitehead Archive. Event organiser, 21^st June.

• 2015    Boundaries: Transgression, Authority, Performance Conference. Conference committee chair, 22^nd June.

• 2015    ‘“Walking the Tightrope”: The Role of the Academic-Producer in Contemporary Performance Practice’. Impact-focused talk delivered by Vanessa Toulmin (Sheffield). Performance Research Group seminar coordinator, 5^th May.
• 2014   Borderlines: Performances, Disciplines, Dialogues, ºÚÁÏÍø, Leicester.
• 2013   Borderlines:The Body in Twentieth- and Twenty-First Century Performance, ºÚÁÏÍø, Leicester.

Invited Talks

• 2016    ‘“The Habit of Holding Out One’s Hand”: Potent Pleasure, Kindness, and Care in the Intercultural Performer Training Space’, invited talk and participation as part of the European Theatre Perspectives Conference: Exploring Channels for Cross-Cultural Engagement in Performance, co-organized by Culture Hub (London, UK) and the Grotowski Institute (Wrocław, Poland), within the Theatre Olympics and European Capital of Culture Wrocław 2016 programmes.
• 2016    ‘A Psychophysical Journey Through and Towards Generosity and Pleasure’, invited talk as part of Works in Progress: The Legacy of Phillip Zarrilli’s Time at Exeter, University of Exeter.
• 2014    ‘Laughter and Love: Creative Counter-Discourses within Performer Training,’ invited talk as part of the Performance and Cultural Industries Seminar Series, University of Leeds.
• 2013    ‘Discourses and Power: Gender and Psychophysical Performer Trainings,’ invited talk as part of Phillip Zarrilli’s Intermediate and Advanced Intensive Performer Training. Tyn-y-Parc Studio, Llanarth, Wales.

Conference Papers

• 2018    ‘What Next?: Panel Discussion Respondent’, Women in Hollywood Symposium, Cinema and Television History Institute Event, ºÚÁÏÍø, Leicester.        
• 2018    ‘“Let Me Loose”: Returning to The Julie Felix Story through the Archive and the Documentary’,
• Doing Women's Film and Television History IV: Calling the Shots – Then, Now, and Next, University of Southampton.
• 2017    ‘Not just a dolly girl: Women of the Counterculture’, Arts, Design and Humanities Research Showcase, ºÚÁÏÍø, Leicester.
• 2017    ‘Not just a dolly girl: Female Agency, Artistry and Collaboration in and with Peter Whitehead’s Films’, From Profumo to Performance: New Perspectives on 1960s British Cinema, University of York.
• 2017    ‘“Am I Providing a Good Show for You?”: Performances of Power in Peter Whitehead and Niki de Saint-Phalle’s Daddy (1973)’, Tonite Let’s All Make Love in Leicester: Peter Whitehead and the Long 1960s Conference, ºÚÁÏÍø, Leicester.
• 2016    ‘Shooting, Stripping, Whipping, Cuming: The Resistant Potential of Multiplicit Performance in Peter Whitehead and Niki de Saint-Phalle’s Daddy (1973)’, Sex and the Cinema: A ‘Film Studies Journal Conference, University of Kent.
• 2016    ‘In Bed with Mae West: Movie Magazine Revelations of the Boudoir as Creative, Training and Joyfully Gender Resistant Space’, Borderlines IV: Resisting, Persisting, Performing Conference, ºÚÁÏÍø, Leicester.
• 2016    ‘An Iron Fist in a Velvet Glove:  Celebrating Olivia de Havilland’s Combined Acts of Suing, Skill and Award Winning Dramatic Clout’, Doing Women’s Film and Television Histories III: Structures of Feeling Conference, Phoenix Cinema, ºÚÁÏÍø, Leicester.
• 2015    ‘In Bed with Mae West: Movie Magazine Revelations of the Boudoir as Creative, Training and Central Scenic Space’, Turning the Page: Digitalization, Movie Magazines and Historical Audience Studies, A conference organised by NoRMMA, the University of Kent’s Network of Research: Movies, Magazines and Audiences, CIMS, the Ghent University’s Centre for Cinema and Media Studies, and DICIS, Digital Cinema Studies network, Ghent, Belgium.

• 2015    ‘“She Stole Everything but the Camera”: Mae West’s Powerful Embodied Presence,’ Boundaries: Transgression, Authority, Performance Conference, ºÚÁÏÍø, Leicester.

• 2015    ‘“She Stole Everything but the Camera”: Mae West’s Powerful Embodied Presence,’ “Performing Stardom”: New Methods in Critical Star Studies Conference, University of Kent.
• 2014 ‘Flaying, Killing and Loving: Discourses of Pain and Pleasure in Psychophysical Performer Training,’ Borderlines: Performances, Disciplines, Dialogues, ºÚÁÏÍø, Leicester.
• 2013 ‘Laughter and Love: Creative Counter-Discourses within Psychophysical Performer Training,’ The Body in Twentieth- and Twenty-First Century Performance, ºÚÁÏÍø, Leicester.
• 2012 ‘Drifting, Dreaming, Playing: Transferring Pleasures from the Body to the Page,’ Pleasure: A University-Wide Interdisciplinary Symposium Presented by Fine Art Research, ºÚÁÏÍø, Leicester.
• 2012 ‘Roundtable 3: Critical Performance Technologies: Disowning Geek Culture’ (Panel Respondent to ‘Cabinets of Post-Digital Curiosities’), Artaud Forum 2: Konnecting Gestures, International Conference-Workshop on Performance and Sound Technologies, Brunel University.
• 2011 ‘“Bursting” with Pleasures through the Body and the Text: Documenting Psychophysical Performer Trainings,’ Performance and the Body Working Group, Theatre and Performance Research Association Conference, Kingston University.
• 2011 ‘“Points of View”: Exploring and Reflecting Embodied Gazes in the Performer Training Space,’ Fostering Trans-disciplinary Perspectives on Embodied Process and Performance: Dance and Somatic Practices Conference, Coventry University.
• 2011 ‘The Pleasures of Writing about the Pleasures of the Practice: Documenting Psychophysical Performer Trainings,’ Documenting Performance: Exploring the Problems, Theatre and Performance Research Association Documenting Performance Working Group Interim Symposium, University of Kent.
• 2010 ‘“Living Mirrors”: Reflecting and Recording Multiple Embodied Gazes in the Psychophysical Performer Training Space,' Performance and the Body Working Group, Theatre and Performance Research Association Conference, University of Glamorgan.
• 2010 ‘“The Habit of Holding Out One’s Hand”’: Pedagogies of Kindness and Giving in the Performer Training Space,’ IUTA 8th World Congress – Theatre and Pedagogy, ºÚÁÏÍø, Leicester.
• 2009  ‘The Art of Giving and Loving,’ co-written and presented with Paul Hurley, Performance and the Body Working Group, Theatre and Performance Research Association Conference, University of Plymouth.

Workshop attendance

• 2018    Summer Intensive Performer Training Course with Phillip Zarrilli and Kaite O’Reilly. Tyn-y-Parc Studio, Llanarth, Wales.
• 2018     Space between: Co-creation in Communication with Sandra Reeve. Wootton Fitzpaine, West Dorset.
• 2017     Summer Intensive Performer Training Course with Phillip Zarrilli and Kaite O’Reilly. Tyn-y-Parc Studio, Llanarth, Wales.
• 2017    Me, You, Us, Them: Patterns of Life with Sandra Reeve. Wootton Fitzpaine, West Dorset.
• 2016    Michael Chekhov in the 21^st Century: New Pathways. Goldsmiths University of London.
• 2016     Summer Intensive Performer Training Course with Phillip Zarrilli. Tyn-y-Parc Studio, Llanarth, Wales.
• 2016   Mindsets in Movement with Sandra Reeve. Wootton Fitzpaine, West Dorset.
• 2015   Summer Intensive Performer Training Course with Phillip Zarrilli. Tyn-y-Parc Studio, Llanarth, Wales.
• 2015   Movement and Communication – Present in Presence and Being Seen with Sandra Reeve. Wootton Fitzpaine, West Dorset.
• 2015          Movement and Communication – Borders, Boundaries, Frameworks, Thresholds with Sandra Reeve. Wootton Fitzpaine, West Dorset.
• 2014   The Ecological Body Workshop with Sandra Reeve. Wootton Fitzpaine and Stonebarrow, Charmouth, West Dorset.
• 2014   Intermediate and Advanced Intensive Performer Training Course with Phillip Zarrilli. Tyn-y-Parc Studio, Llanarth, Wales.
• 2013   Intermediate and Advanced Intensive Performer Training Course with Phillip Zarrilli. Tyn-y-Parc Studio, Llanarth, Wales.
• 2013   The Ecological Body Workshop with Sandra Reeve. Wootton Fitzpaine and Westhay, West Dorset.
• 2012   Body in Movement Workshop with Sandra Reeve. Wootton Fitzpaine, West Dorset.
• 2012    Space-Site-Environment-Place Workshop with Sandra Reeve. Greta

• Berlin’s Sculpture Garden, Charmouth Forest, Nr.Wootton Fitzpaine, West Dorset.
• 2012   Intermediate and Advanced Intensive Performer Training Course with Phillip Zarrilli. Tyn-y-Parc Studio, Llanarth, Wales.
• 2012   Sea Moves Workshop with Sandra Reeve. Charmouth, West Dorset.
• 2011   Strata: Autobiographical Movement Workshop with Sandra Reeve. Charmouth, West Dorset.
• 2010   Strata: Autobiographical Movement Workshop with Sandra Reeve. Charmouth, West Dorset.

Rosie Garton, PhD in Performance Studies, The Political Performance of Cycling: The Female, the Bicycle and the Gendered Urban Space. 1^st Supervisor.

Lucy Ovenall, PhD in Drama (awarded ºÚÁÏÍø High Flyers Scholarship), Can we play now?: Reapplying historical feminist discourse to the hierarchical and patriarchal structures of contemporary British theatre practices. 1^stSupervisor.

Elizabeth Short, PhD in Performance Art Practice. The Big Reckoning: Performing against sexual violence within the Western 21st Century Arts Industry. 1^st Supervisor.

Sophie Swoffer, PhD in Performance Art and Film (awarded AHRC-funded Midlands3Cities Doctoral Training Partnership). In Her Prime, or Past It?: Reconsidering the Gaze and Feminine Monstrosity in Feminist Performance Art and Film Studies. 1^st Supervisor.

Jennifer Voss, PhD in Drama and Film Studies (awarded AHRC-funded Midlands3Cities Doctoral Training Partnership), Performing Emotion: Women’s screen acting and the transition from silent to sound cinema, 1926 – 1934. 1^st Supervisor. 

Jason Benson, PhD in Contemporary Performance Practices, PhD in Volcano’s Theatre of Shudder: An Aesthetic Analysis, 1^st Supervisor.

Robert Chilcott, PhD in Film History (awarded the ‘Behind the Eye on the 1960s: an exploration of the Peter Whitehead Archive’ Scholarship). Peter Whitehead: Behind the Eye of the 1960s. 2^nd Supervisor.

Ben Hunt, PhD in Performance Practice (awarded ºÚÁÏÍø Graduate Full Bursary), Performing Trauma in the Vegan and Animal Rights Movement. 2^nd Supervisor.

Alexander Millington, PhD in Drama, An Examination of the Representation of Physical Acts of Intimacy and Sexual Behaviour in Contemporary British Theatre from 2001 to 2019. 2^nd Supervisor.

Fernanda Prata, PhD in Performance Practice (awarded ºÚÁÏÍø Graduate Full Bursary), The Dancer Training Within an Integrative Approach: A Transpractice Methodology Towards the UK Dance Conservatoire. 2^nd Supervisor. 

Alice Tuppen-Corps, PhD in Contemporary Performance Studies (awarded Performance Research Group PhD scholarship). Digital Performance and the Feminine: Towards Transformational Encounters. 2^nd Supervisor.

2004 – 2008   AHRC-funded PhD in Drama at the University of Exeter.

Awarded funding by the Doctoral College’s PGR Research Training Fund in September 2016 to produce a cross-faculty joint Cinema and Television History Institute (CATHI) and Drama Research Group 12-day intensive residential archival training experience in LA for PhD students, in partnership with the Margaret Herrick Library (June-July 2017).  This trip was also supported by #ºÚÁÏÍøGlobal.

Higher Education Innovation Fund awarded (as CI) for ‘Imaginative Impact: Creating an impact case study from the Peter Whitehead Archive and accompanying research’ (31/10/16 – 7/7/17).

University Research Leave between October – December 2012 to work on essays focused on the gendered analysis of psychophysical performer training.

Reviews

Clarke, Alissa and Ploeger, Daniël (2013)   ‘Drama and Performance,’ in Tucker, David (ed.), The Year’s Work in Critical and Cultural Theory, 21, Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Clarke, Alissa (2012)  ‘Exzess, Präzision und Anwesenheit: Dani Ploeger’s ELECTRODE. Eine Psychophysische Perspektive’, trans. by Antje Dudek, CYNETART 2012 Catalogue, Dresden: Transmedia Akademie Hellerau.

Clarke, Alissa (2012)  ‘Fantasy and Fetish: Dani Ploeger’s biotope,’ biotope Programme. Available from: http://www.daniploeger.org/#!clarke/c23vf .

Clarke, Alissa (2012)  ‘Review of An Actress Prepares’, New Theatre Quarterly, 28:3. 301-302.

• 2014   Invited by The Conversation, a not for profit news and analysis site containing articles written by academics for the general public, to write a response to the number of female directors nominated for an Olivier award in contrast to positioning of women in the film industry: ‘What the Film Industry could Learn about Women from Chimerica’s Success,’ The Conversation [online], 14 April. Available from: . Republished on Ted Hughes Award-winning playwright, Kaite O’Reilly’s blog. Available from:
• 2013   The Dresden based non-profit art platform, CYNAL.de, requested the rights to republish, ‘Exzess, Präzision und Anwesenheit: Dani Ploegers ELECTRODE. Eine Psychophysische Perspektive.’ Available from: http://www.cynal.de/text/exzess-praezision-und-a