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. In its four-credit version, this course also requires additional readings and research into broader issues of historical context, genre and technical style.

Course work emphasizes dance making, improvisation, and performance through generating and designing movement based studies and one fully realized performance project. Various devices and approaches are employed including motif and development, text and spoken language, collage and structured improvisation. Enrollment limited to 10. Instructor permission required.

Course work emphasizes dance making, improvisation, and performance through generating and designing movement based studies and one fully realized performance project. Various devices and approaches are employed including motif and development, text and spoken language, collage and structured improvisation. Enrollment limited to 10. Instructor permission required.

This course journeys through time and allows students to experience in their own bodies the evolution of Hip hop from its social dance roots to the contemporary phenomenon of commercial choreography that Hip hop has become. Using film and text in addition to studio work, this class creates a framework from which to understand and participate in the global culture of Hip hop dance. May be taken twice for a total of four credits. Enrollment limited to 30.

An introduction to selected scientific aspects of dance, including anatomical identification and terminology, physiological principles, and conditioning/strengthening methodology. These concepts are discussed and explored experientially in relationship to the movement vocabularies of various dance styles. Enrollment limited to 30.

A duet form of movement improvisation. The technique focuses on work with gravity, weight support, balance, inner sensation, outer awareness, and touch, to develop spontaneous fluidity of movement in relation to a partner. Prerequisite: at least one previous dance technique course or equivalent. Enrollment limited to 25. Instructor permission required.

A laboratory course based on the preparation and performance of department productions. Students may elect to fulfill course requirements from a wide array of production related responsibilities, including stage crew. It may not be used for performance or choreography. Students who wish to register for two credits in the same semester should register for two separate sections of DAN 200. Restrictions: May be taken four times for credit, with a maximum of two credits per semester.

A laboratory course based on the preparation and performance of department productions. Students may elect to fulfill course requirements from a wide array of production related responsibilities, including stage crew. It may not be used for performance or choreography. Students who wish to register for two credits in the same semester should register for two separate sections of DAN 200. Restrictions: May be taken four times for credit, with a maximum of two credits per semester.

This course excavates the artistic, social and cultural trends that have driven the histories of ballet, jazz dance, modern dance and postmodern dance throughout the 20th & 21st centuries. The course looks critically at artists such as Isadora Duncan, Rudolf Laban, George Balanchine, Martha Graham, Katherine Dunham, Alvin Ailey, Anna Halprin, Pina Bausch and Bill T. Jones.