This course is designed for beginning and intermediate-level dancers. The studio will be our laboratory for a semester-long exploration of contemporary postmodern dance with an emphasis on spherical space, a phrase utilized by Steve Paxton the instigator of Contact Improvisation. Students will engage with this orientation through set choreography and improvisational structures. In motion, we will activate connection between periphery and center, gravity and support, tone and release, self and others. This course is designed to honor the gathering of a group of people for a common purpose.

In this course we'll develop the skills in crafting story as both actors and directors. Through intensive scene work, you'll either be working as an actor within the scene with partner(s) or you'll be serving as the director of the scene, helping to shape and sculpt it. We'll read the work of contemporary directors in which they describe their own directing process and we'll also read about various acting methodologies that can help assist actors in stepping into and embodying characters with care, authenticity, and nuance.