DANC 301
Creative Process in Dance Spring 2023
Division I
This is not the current course catalog

Class Details

This course gives the experienced mover the opportunity to develop a personal creative voice by examining and practicing methods used to make dances. Creating and collaborating will allow us to study dance making as it is being practiced in the current moment. We will focus on theory, methods, and the history of composing dance in various traditions. Students will be asked to identify their own methods and engage in research and regular presentations of their compositions for critical feedback. We will practice giving and receiving feedback designed to support artistic growth by using Liz Lerman’s Critical Response Process (CRP). Projects may include solo and group work, site-specific dance making, and creating in collaboration. The class will view works by innovative professional choreographers in various dance genres, both contemporary and historic, such as LaTasha Barnes, Michelle Dorrance, Heddy Malem, Shen Wei, Jawole Willa Jo Zollar, Pina Bausch, Akram Khan, George Balanchine, Eiko and Koma, Martha Graham, Camille A. Brown, and Trisha Brown. We will engage with guest artists in order to examine contemporary choreographic processes and repertoire. To more fully understand the context in which works were created, we will read work by dance scholars such as John O. Perpener, Brenda Dixon Gottschild, Liz Lerman, Deborah Jowitt, Sally Banes, and Susan Leigh Foster. One or two virtual or in person field trips to Jacob’s Pillow, MassMoCA, or other locations in the Berkshires will be included.
The Class: Format: studio
Limit: 10
Expected: 10
Class#: 3784
Grading: yes pass/fail option, yes fifth course option
Requirements/Evaluation: Weekly showings of projects, active engagement in feedback sessions and discussion of readings and viewing assignments, written reflections, and final project presentation
Prerequisites: Experience with dance/movement practices and by permission of the instructors
Enrollment Preferences: Students who have an active dance practice, defined as study of technique(s) and the habit of composing dances in a specific genre such as Modern dance, Hip Hop, Ballet, African dance forms, social dance and including a hybrid use of dance vocabularies
Distributions: Divison I

Class Grid

Course Catalog Archive Search

TERM/YEAR
TEACHING MODE
SUBJECT
DIVISION



DISTRIBUTION



ENROLLMENT LIMIT
COURSE TYPE
Start Time
End Time
Day(s)