Dance (DNC)

This workshop is designed for students to study at an advanced level with an artist who will teach a specific style of technique and choreography.

Introduction to the varied roles dance, dancers, and audiences play in society. While considering a broad range of concert and social dance practices, students will examine aesthetic ideologies in their historical and cultural contexts. Through watching, reading, and discussion, students will investigate how dance functions in relationship to and with gender, class, age, ability, and sexuality. This is a lecture class and requires attendance at an on-campus performance.

The emphasis of this class will be directed toward learning and developing both technical skills and aesthetic sensibilities at a foundational level. The fundamentals of modern and/or contemporary dance technique will be stressed along with rhythmic proficiency, breath, performance, and artistry. Movement quality, energy and rhythm will be explored while working toward increased strength and flexibility.

Students will develop a foundation in ballet technique and knowledge of classical movement vocabulary. Each class will emphasize anatomically sound technique in relationship to each individual's physical facility. Dancers in this class will practice the fundamental exercises that comprise ballet barre and center floor combinations with attention to musicality, expressive phrasing and movement efficiency.

Tap dance is simultaneously music and movement. This technique course draws on a diversity of approaches to integrate these two elements. The emphasis will be on establishing a strong technical foundation of vocabulary, execution, clarity, and musicality in order to work creatively and freely within the form. Consequently, we will work to create tools to improve ourselves as capable, versatile, complete dancers and people. Individual expression amidst an environment of collective participation is the heart and history of tap dance. This course aims to foster development as strong, well-rounded, creative, and thoughtful tap dancers by dancing in relationship to others. Tap shoes are required.

This course is designed to introduce the student to a variety of musical theatre styles and techniques, from classic to contemporary. The foundation of the class will be jazz dance technique with an emphasis on style and expression. Workshops on auditioning and basic tap technique will be taught.

Introduction to the history and practice of hip hop, street dance, and other related social dance styles while examining the historical and cultural contexts of the form.

This course offers holistic approaches for physical health through the use of somatic methods that relate to dance technique and dancers' bodies. Strength, flexibility, and endurance will be emphasized while practicing physical conditioning. Principals of alignment, nutrition and cross training will be integrated into each class. Dance experience is not a requirement for this class.

Introduces a variety of social and vernacular dance steps in their cultural contexts. Incorporates lead and follow skills, musicality, basic patterns and variations on timing, technique and style. Beginners welcome. No partner necessary.

This course is designed for students to explore theatrical jazz dance styles. Specific attention will be given to the embodiment of Africanist aesthetics including individuality, improvisation, polyrhythms, groundedness and syncopation while recognizing the codified shapes and lines that are distinctive to classical jazz styles. Jazz energy will be explored through improvisation and choreography in relationship with music. Readings and self-reflection are required in addition to full participation in the studio.

Jazz dance, rooted in African American people, community, and culture, has evolved as a reflection of American society and popular culture. Through movement, video viewing readings, and discussion, students will trace the vernacular jazz continuum from its roots in West Africa to today while identifying the impacts of White privilege and power on a Black American form. By prioritizing rhythm, groove, and community as core to the jazz aesthetic, students will develop a heightened sense of rhythm, musicality, and individuality within the community. Historical, social, and cultural contexts will provide the foundation for understanding the ways Africanist aesthetics and African American culture shape American culture, including jazz, but are often invisible.

The emphasis of this class will be directed toward learning and developing both technical skills and aesthetic sensibilities at a moderately sophisticated level. The fundamentals of contemporary dance technique will be stressed along with rhythmic proficiency, performance, and artistry. Movement quality, energy and rhythm will be explored while working toward increased strength and flexibility.

This course is designed for students to learn and develop both ballet technique and aesthetic sensibilities at an intermediate level. Each class will emphasize anatomically sound technique in relationship to each individual's physical facility. Dancers in this class will practice barre work and center work with an emphasis on musicality, expressive phrasing and movement efficiency.

Explore contemporary and traditional styles, rhythms and techniques from West African cultures and the African diaspora. Introduces students to the fundamental movements and aesthetics in relation to their specific cultural context. Readings and video viewing will supplement studio exploration.

Investigates jazz styles that begin with a grounded body and generate movement and rhythm from the inside-out. Students will develop an understanding of the social and kinetic elements of West African dance, African-American vernacular dance and jazz dance. Complex rhythmic work, energy, groove and personal style will be emphasized in relationship to jazz and jazz-influenced music. Studio work will be supplemented with readings, video viewing and discussion.

Students will study dancers, dance works and dance literature to uncover the histories of a variety of dance styles: dances of the African diaspora, jazz, modern, ballet and social dance. Content decentralizes dominant Eurocentric perspectives to take a nuanced look at the multiple histories present in the American narrative, and the confluence of styles emergent in American dancing bodies.

This course is designed to create innovative opportunities through dance and other artistic modalities for community, civic, and social engagement. Students will sharpen their artistic voice for social change alongside the long-term goal of incubating the next generation of socially engaged dance artists. Each cohort will look at taking dance beyond the concert dance stage to foster community dialogue, bring awareness to issues of global significance, and demand visibility for communities who have historically been overlooked.

This course is designed for students to explore contemporary jazz styles that blend elements across genres and cultures while rooted in Africanist aesthetics. Styles will be taught in relationship to a variety of music styles. Jazz energy will be emphasized along with individuality within the community, personal style, groundedness and polyrhythms. Readings and self-reflection are required in addition to full participation in the studio.

Students in Extensions Dance Company enroll in this course to supplement their training with an advanced level technique class. The style is to be determined by the instructor. By audition only.

This course will focus on a specific style or topic not already included in the course catalog.

Students will examine and practice creative approaches for communicating through dance as a language. Readings, journaling and movement explorations will encourage students to identify sources of inspiration and to develop and revise original choreographic phrases by exploring elements of time, space and energy. Peer feedback will be central to the class experience, allowing students to engage in and interpret the work of their classmates while simultaneously developing the tools to more effectively communicate through dance. Permission of instructor is required.

This course is designed for students who have completed DNC-400 to further investigate their choreographic voice and continue on their artistic journey. Students enrolled in this course will create an original concert dance piece for the Student Choreography Showcase. You will have the creative freedom to choreograph in any style through a process of regular rehearsals with a chosen cast of dancers, collaboration with peer choreographers, and mentorship from a faculty member, culminating in a shared concert on campus. Permission of instructor is required.

Senior dance majors work independently and within their cohort to develop a culminating project that balances artistic and written scholarship. Students will position jazz dance performance, choreography, and/or pedagogy in historical, social and aesthetic contexts with an original point of view that demonstrates a nuanced understanding of jazz in relationship to one's own identity and culture.