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Course Criteria
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2.00 Credits
This course will explore Traditional Folkloric roots of Middle Eastern Dance, focusing on specific Bedouin dance styles of North Africa (Raks Shaabi). These dance forms will consist of Moroccan, Tunisian, Algerian, and Egyptian Folkloric styles. Rhythms from within these regions will be identified through music and drumming. Traditional costuming will be addressed and shown in class and history, art, and culture from these countries will be explored and experienced. Discourse and research topics will address issues of gender and body image. Improving strength, flexibility and self-awareness of the body, the class work will include meditative movement, dance technique, choreography and improvisation. No prior dance experience necessary.
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4.00 Credits
Contact improvisation is rooted in dance, the martial arts and studies of body development and awareness. It is a duet form where partners use weight, momentum, and inertia to move each other freely through space, finding support through skeletal structure rather than muscular effort. We will explore solo and duet skills such as rolling, falling, balance, counter-balance, jumping, weight sharing, spirals, and attuning to sensory input. Skill work will be combined with more open dancing in a supportive and focused environment. This course includes studio work, readings and written assignments that use ideas from contact improvisation to explore cultural issues. No previous dance training required.
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2.00 Credits
A study of Taijiquan, (also known as T'ai Chi Ch'uan or Tai Chi), a traditional Chinese martial art, and its intimate relationship to the cosmological, physiological, and philosophical conceptions found in the culture and thought from which it emerged. The course investigates both the traditional Chinese philosophy and movement aspects of Tai Chi in order to better understand the integration of human body, mind, and spirit. The Simplified 24-Step Taijiquan (Ershisi Shi Taijiquan) is learned, along with the foundation skills of the Eight Methods or Energies (Ba Fa), Reeling Silk (Chan Si Gong), Pushing Hands (Tui Shou), and Standing Pole meditation (Zhan Zhuang). Tai Chi is not only a valuable cross training exercise for the dancer, but also provides training for relaxed strength, whole body coordination, balance, centered alignment, timing, weight shifting and moving with fluid grace.
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2.00 Credits
Qi Gong is a traditional Chinese internal art and an early forerunner of Tai Chi Ch'uan consisting of the practice (Gong) of sets of energy (Qi) exercises to build outer and inner strength. It is a self-healing modality designed to balance and harmonize the energy flow of the body, improve breathing and relax the mind for health, fitness, and longevity. This course is a study of both the philosophical and the movement aspects of Qi Gong in order to better understand and to attain the integration of body, mind, and spirit. Topics will include traditional Chinese cultural concepts such as Yin-Yang theory, Five Element theory and Qi theory. Qi Gong provides the dancer with training for better breathing, body awareness, focus and concentration, mental presence, imagery, and cultivating and expressing energy.
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4.00 Credits
Dancers, musicians, actors, painters, philosophers, poets, warriors, healers, and artists of every discipline historically have utilized the Chinese internal arts of Tai Chi and Qi Gong as tools for the mobilization of qi, or energy, in order to achieve health, healing, and mind-body-spirit integration. This course combines movement, meditative, and breathing exercises and traditional forms with readings, video viewings, creative exercises, exploratory projects, and discussions of literature and philosophy to explore how the practice and philosophy of these transformative arts can lead to mental and physical balance, body-mind integration, self-discovery, creative expression, and peak athletic and enhanced artistic performance. (Four Credit Hours)
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2.00 Credits
This class will explore what sacred dance is and how the sacred can be revealed from within through the study and practice of the following topics: a dance history overview, goddess worship and the feminine spirit, the women iconoclasts of American modern dance, spirituality and the body temple and various yoga practice techniques. Students will also learn traditional dance sequences from Namibia, India, Israel, Greece and the Middle East, creative community circle dancing and dances of Universal Peace. Class requirements include journaling, reading assignments from the text book and handouts, viewing videos and attendance at dance events.
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4.00 Credits
This four credit course aims to take a fresh look at the experience of inhabiting a human body, its support, postural alignment and movement. Through active and restorative yoga asanas (poses), experiential and somatic practices, and study we will directly explore our anatomical structures and systems and their relationships within the whole. Students will discover resources for self-awareness, support, ease, stress relief, and embodiment using a variety of learning approaches including movement, discussion, journaling, reading, coloring anatomical drawings and individual and partner hands-on work.
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4.00 Credits
This course will be an in-depth exploration of vernacular jazz movement and its relationship to jazz music through dance appreciation, movement observation and technical practice. Through lecture/discussion, we will investigate the context, history, applications and societal impact of jazz dance. Technique classes will blend the challenges of full-bodied, momentum-driven dancing with subtlety and a sense of one’s own self. Emphasis will be on a working knowledge of the elements of jazz, embodiment of rhythm, disciplining the body to move with clarity, and in accordance with sound anatomical principles. Dance video viewing and attendance at live concerts will hone skills of observation, movement analysis and interpretation of dance as an art form, from a personal perspective as well as within a larger framework.
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2.00 Credits
This class will focus on contemporary dance, a form that is an evolving exploration of expression through movement. It will blend the challenges of full-bodied, momentum-driven dancing with a sense of ones own self-awareness and discovery. Classes will explore efficiency of movement, breath, gravity and weight, musicality, performance and somatic practices. Through rigorous dancing, students will be challenged to move beyond not only their physical, but also their artistic boundaries and dimensions.
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2.00 Credits
This intermediate level course will focus on the practice and performance of classical and contemporary ballet with a contemporary approach in order to serve the dancer of any style of movement. Within the ballet form, classes will explore efficiency of movement, breath, anatomical mechanics, strength, alignment and through-line, gravity and weight, rhythmic accuracy, clarity of space, shape and effort, and somatic practices to develop and improve technical skills. The course will also concentrate on body awareness and a sense of whole body connectivity. Students will be challenged to move beyond not only their physical, but also their expressive and artistic boundaries and dimensions. Prerequisites: Intro to Contemporary Ballet I or permission of the instructor. Some previous ballet experience is necessary.
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