Students perform repertory work and new student choreography from the spring semester
The Lewis Center for the Arts’ Program in Dance will present a series of showings of new choreography created by students and repertory work learned during the past semester on April 25 and 27 and May 4 and 5 in the Hagan Dance Studio, 185 Nassau Street’s 3rd Floor Dance Studio, and New South Dance Studio. All performances are free and open to the public.
The schedule for the end-of-semester showings of student work and performances is as follows:
Monday, April 25 at 3:00 p.m. in the New South Dance Studio: a special joint performance by “Introduction to Hip-Hop Dance” and “Special Topics In Urban Dance – Hip Hop Dance Practice and Culture,” both co-taught by Raphael Xavier and Joseph Schloss. The first class is an introductory survey course encompassing scholarly study and embodied practice, hip-hop dance technique, and the cultural and historical contexts from which it emerged. The second class went further in exploring hip-hop dance grounded in a strong historical and theoretical framework, with a special focus on a variety of hip-hop dance styles and forms.
Wednesday, April 27 at 9:30 a.m. in the New South Dance Studio: “Introduction to Movement and Dance,” taught by Aynsley Vandenbroucke, a class designed for people with little or no previous training in dance, in which students studied movement techniques, improvisation, choreography, and also how to see, experience, write, and talk about dance. Throughout the semester, students explored the role of dancer, choreographer, audience member, and critic in relation to such topics as aesthetic questions, politics, identity, religion, and complex views of the human body.
Wednesday, April 27 at 1:30 p.m. in the Hagan Dance Studio: “Introduction to Ballet,” taught by Tina Fehlandt, a course that encompassed both the practice of ballet and its role in history and culture. Students will demonstrate their semester-long study of ballet’s physicality, artistry, and principles of alignment.
Wednesday, April 27 at 3:00 p.m. in the 185 Nassau Street 3rd Floor Studio: “Special Topics in Contemporary Practice: Body and Thought: Performance for Actors and Dancers,” co-taught by Susan Marshall, Director of the Program in Dance, and Tracy Bersley, member of the theater faculty. This course encouraged students to push their limits and range as performers. Exercises supported the practice of clear intention, committed choice-making, embodied character, physical response and the ability to modulate the intensity of action and emotion. Students will perform dance and theater repertory scenes of their own staging that target their specific challenges and utilize their ability to join thought, experience and action.
Wednesday, May 4 at 3:30 p.m. in the Hagan Dance Studio: “The American Dance Experience and Africanist Dance Practices,” taught by Dyane Harvey Salaam. This studio course introduced students to American dance aesthetics and practices with a focus on how their evolution has been influenced by African American choreographers and dancers, including the study of movement practices from traditional African dances, dance of the African diaspora, American jazz dance, modern dance, and American ballet.
Thursday, May 5 at 2:30 p.m. in the Hagan Dance Studio: “Contemporary Technique and Choreography,” co-taught by Rebecca Stenn and Nicole Wolcott. The technique portion of this course focused on strengthening the fundamentals of proper alignment to achieve increased movement efficiency, strength and flexibility and working with aspects of modern, jazz and ballet to explore dancing to different rhythms, tempos, and styles of music. The choreography section focused on students developing their understanding of the ways in which structural elements and movement vocabularies contribute to a dance’s impact and content.