We will explore the foundations of black performance theory, drawing from the fields of performance studies, theater, dance, and black studies. Using methods of ethnography, archival studies, and black theatrical and dance paradigms, we will learn how scholars and artists imagine, complicate, and manifest various forms of blackness across time and space. In particular, we will focus on blackness as both lived experience and as a mode of theoretical inquiry.
A studio course introducing students to American dance aesthetics and practices, with a focus on how its evolution has been influenced by African American choreographers and dancers. An ongoing study of movement practices from traditional African dances and those of the African diaspora, touching on American jazz dance, modern dance, and American ballet.
In a universe filled with movement, how and why and where might we find relative stillness? What are the unique aesthetic, political, and daily life possibilities while school as we know it is on pause? We’ll dance, sit, question, and create practices and projects. We’ll play with movement within stillness, stillness within movement, stillness in performance and in performers' minds. We’ll look at stillness as protest and power. We’ll wonder when stillness might be an abdication of responsibility. We'll read widely within religions, philosophy, performance, disability studies, social justice, visual art, sound (and silence).
This introductory course gives equal weight to scholarly study and embodied practice, using both approaches to explore the flow, power and cultural contexts of Breaking.
This seminar is designed for junior students pursuing the minor in dance to investigate current dance practices and ideas. Part study and discussion of the processes, aesthetics and politics involved in dance making and viewing — part independent creative practice and critique — this course invites students to a deeper understanding of their own art making perspectives and to those of their classmates.
Dance is an under-recognized political force, used to project national identity and advance soft power on the global stage. It can help us understand state initiatives for control and mobilization for protest. This course investigates dance as both a state and a resistant practice using dance studies theory.
A vortex is known as the rotating, whirling or circular motion of fluid around a common centerline. Through history, humans have drawn on the principles of the vortex to induce a trance state, an altered form of consciousness, and psychospiritual embodiment. This course will explore our ancestry in understanding sacred trance dance practices in the tradition of western theatrical dance and its connection to identity, creativity, and community. Students will work with the original cast of Núñez's choreography The Circle or The Prophetic Dream, to reimagine the choreographic material that they will perform as a final project in an open studio.
Whether referred to as site-specific, site-responsive, or site-engaged, site is understood in interlocking and distinct ways in visual art, dance and across performance. Through the bisecting lenses of dance and visual art, this course will examine site-based work in land art, environmental and ecological art, urban intervention, community engaged practices, and public art.
An exploration of ritual and ceremony as creative, interdisciplinary spaces imbued with intention and connected to personal and cultural histories. A broadening and deepening of knowledge around historical and contemporary ritual, ceremonial, and community-building practices of queer and trans artist communities from around the world, with a deeper focus on the extraordinary history of the queer trans shamans of early 20th century Korea.
In this studio course we will explore light and movement to better understand how these elements inform each other in the creation of interdisciplinary and collaborative work. Students will take on the roles of both designer and choreographer, they will develop communications skills across disciplines and question traditional power structures in their making process. This is a hands-on course with an emphasis on creating, revision, communication and collaboration across disciplines and cultures.
This course offers a dynamic exploration of the intersection between dance theater and popular culture. Bridging the realms of artistic expression and societal influence, students will embark on a multidisciplinary journey that spans historical, cultural, and performative landscapes. Through a fusion of theory, practice, and critical analysis, participants will gain a profound understanding of how dance theatre has both shaped and been shaped by popular culture, from the early 20th century to the present day.
This advanced studio course compares practices and performance methods of diverse approaches to the body and community in contemporary dance. Through a comparative embodied approach, students will train intensively with a rotating faculty to develop physical research built on a synthesis of experiences. The course exposes students to leading developments in improvisation and choreography and examines their philosophical, cultural and physiological underpinnings.
This advanced studio course explores the technique, aesthetics, cultural contexts and histories of Hip-Hop dance forms.
A studio course in Classical and Contemporary Ballet technique for advanced dancers, with explorations into neoclassical and contemporary choreography through readings, viewings, and the learning of and creation of repertory.