This course offers an in-depth exploration of aesthetic and interpretive issues in dance performance. Through experiments with improvisation, musical phrasing, partnering, personal imagery and other modes of developing and embodying movement material, dancers explore ways in which a choreographer's vision is formed, altered, adapted and finally presented in performance. May be taken three times for credit.

Paleontological art brings ancient organisms back to life. In this course we will consider the role that art itself plays as a mode of scientific discovery. We will examine how artists can uncover key information about prehistoric life well in advance of its recognition by the scientific community. Coursework will track the evolution of paleoart from 1830s representations of Mary Anning's fossil discoveries to the emergence of digital art and CGI.

Life forms have inhabited the surface of our planet for most of its history. Earth, as a result, has a strange geology unlike that of any other known planet. In this course we will examine the interrelations between life processes and Earth's crust and atmosphere, and how these relationships interact to generate the geology of the planet. By means of hands-on analysis of rocks and fossils, we will study the origin and evolution of life, the diversification of complex life forms, the appearance of large predators, and the causes and consequences of oxygenation of the atmosphere.

This studio introduces the formal and typological orders of architecture, emphasizing the comprehension of spatial delineators as abstract entities and the theoretical development of design concepts. Students will develop a critical understanding of architecture's motivating factors and evaluate the physical forms of buildings and their spatial configurations. A sequence of design exercises challenge students to analyze building precedents and transform them as a credible stage for future architectures.