A studio course introducing students to African dance practices and aesthetics, with a focus on how its evolution has influenced American and African American culture, 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. Studio work will be complemented by readings, video viewings, guest speakers, and dance studies.

In a universe filled with movement, how and why and where might we find relative stillness? What are the aesthetic, political, and daily life possibilities within stillness? In this studio course open to all, we'll dance, sit, question, and create substantial final 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 course will focus on developing a clear foundational Breaking technique in order to build a strong basis for exploring other Hip-Hop forms. By critically exploring this form physically and historically, individuals will adapt and apply their own philosophies to dance in order to eventually develop a personalized style.

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. Guest artists will visit classes and share some of the directorial, collaborative and interpersonal challenges involved in leading a significant creative enterprise. Serious creators (non-juniors/minors) may apply to enroll.

Dance is an underrecognized 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. Case studies include American and Soviet ballet during the Cold War, Mexican dance forms, US modern dance, and more. Activities include readings, discussions, performance exercises, and viewing performances. Guest artists conduct studio sessions in dance logics. No prior dance or performance experience is necessary.

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. Art-making and performance practices that take site into account are inherently collaborative in their negotiation between place and person. Students will engage in movement practices and material explorations as a form of research into sites on and off campus.

What is the shared vocabulary of Movement and Light? How do we think about quality, timing, scale and form in both choreography and design? 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 theatre 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. Select readings and viewings provide a lens to examine how dance and movement training fuels individual development, choreographic process and aesthetic research.

This advanced studio course explores the technique, aesthetics, cultural contexts and histories of Hip-Hop dance forms. We'll not only study the physical movements associated with each form, but also the deeper Afro-Diasporic aesthetic principles that guide those movements as well as their connection to other art forms of Hip-Hop culture. We'll study the relationship between movement and embodied knowledge by encouraging students to critically engage with their own experience of these dance forms. Goals will be facilitated through regular interaction with course professors as well as classes with recognized expert practitioners of the dance.

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. Students will also examine ballet's response to recent social movements.

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.

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.