This seminar will interweave the history of New York City with the history of dance across the twentieth century. It will use the work of dancers, choreographers, and critics to illuminate social, political, and cultural trends in New York's urban life. Topics include dance in working-class leisure, dance as cultural activism during the Popular Front and Black Arts eras, immigration and assimilation in NYC, and the impact of urban renewal on communities and the performing arts.

From grand plié to grand jeté, Introduction to Ballet is for students with a curiosity for the study of classical ballet. No prior dance experience necessary and beginners are welcome. In this studio course students will learn the fundamentals of ballet, gaining an understanding of its physicality, artistry, and principles of alignment. Students will examine the historical origins of ballet and its absorption of cultural influences. Live music will be featured in this class and key in exploring the inextricable link between music and dance.

In this studio course open to all, we will dive into experiences in which body and language meet. We'll think about these from aesthetic, cultural, political, medical, personal, and philosophical perspectives. We'll explore language from, in, around, and about (our) bodies. We'll question hierarchies between body and language, use embodied approaches to examine pressing issues of our time. We'll play with the physicality of voice and the material qualities of words and sentences. We'll find literary structures in movement. We'll move and create together with tools from dance, theater, visual art, improvisation, writing, and somatic practices.

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.

Bharatanatyam, butoh, hip hop, and salsa are some of the dances that will have us travel from temples and courtyards to clubs, streets, and stages around the world. Through studio sessions, readings and viewings, field research, and discussions, this seminar will introduce students to dance across cultures with special attention to issues of migration, cultural appropriation, gender and sexuality, and spiritual and religious expression. Students will also learn basic elements of participant observation research. Guest artists will teach different dance forms. No prior dance experience is necessary.

This course introduces students to human anatomy using movement, drawing, and dance practices. We will study the structure and function of the body from an interdisciplinary perspective, with a focus on relationships between cognition, the nervous system and movement. Class time will be shared between anatomy/kinesiology lectures and exploring the material through experiential and creative activities. We will discuss common problems encountered in fitness and every day life, while looking at the human structure in depth to evaluate possible solutions. Creative and research projects explore multiple ways the arts and sciences intersect.

Princeton Dance Festival is a studio course that culminates in two performances: the Princeton Dance Festival at the Berlind Theatre and a choreographic showing in the Hearst Theater. Students learn and perform dances either through collaboration with faculty or by learning significant dances from contemporary choreographers. In the choreography precepts, students engage in creative practices to gain fluency with a range of choreographic approaches. Readings and viewings support students' growth as performers, choreographers, viewers, readers and writers of dance.

A studio course in Contemporary Ballet technique for advanced dancers, with explorations into neoclassical and contemporary choreography through readings, viewings, and the learning of and creation of repertory. Through visits with prominent guest artists, students will examine the shifts that "Ballet" is making to stay relevant and meaningful as a "21st" century art form.

An intensive immersive exploration of experimental, documentary-style music theater that investigates the history, form, and performance of the choreopoem. Navigate intricate narratives of liberation, expression, and oppression through multi-vocalism, poetic discourse, and a collaborative rigorous investigation of movement, acting, music and writing. Intensive archival research informs critical inquiries into theories of contemporary social and political power dynamics. The course will culminate in the creation of an original choreopoem.

Students in VIS 300/DAN 301 will create sculptures that relate directly to the body and compel performance, interaction, and movement. Students will also create dances that are informed by garments, objects, props and structures. Works will be created for unconventional spaces and designed to challenge viewer/performer/object relationships, augment and constrain the body, and trace the body's actions and form. The class will consider how context informs perceptions of the borders between performance, bodies and objects. This studio course is open enrollment.

This studio class will explore a broad range of approaches to art-based performance: from instruction pieces and happenings, to the body as language and gesture, to performance as a form of archiving. We move through the history of performance to investigate techniques of narrative, site, the audience, duration, voice, movement, installation, with a particular emphasis on documentation and how performance has engaged virtual spaces. Readings and critiques expand vocabulary in assessing performance art. Exercises explore different forms of performance building a foundation of techniques and positions for developing art-based performance work.