Courses

Courses

Spring 2007 Courses

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Dance

102. Making Dances
Paul Sarvis M 9:30 - 11:25, W 9:30 - 11:25 Memorial Hall-601 (Dance Studio)
Explores ways of choreographing dances and multimedia performance works, primarily solos, duets, trios. A strong video component introduces students—regardless of previous experience in dance—to a wide range of compositional methods that correspond to creative process in other arts: writing, drawing, composing. Includes some reading, writing, and discussion, as well as work with visiting professional dance companies and attendance at live performances.
111. Introductory Dance Technique
Gwyneth Jones T 2:30 - 3:55, TH 2:30 - 3:55 Sargent-Dance Studio
Classes in modern dance technique include basic exercises to develop dance skills such as balance and musicality. More challenging movement combinations and longer dance sequences build on these exercises. While focusing on the craft of dancing, students develop an appreciation of their own styles and an understanding of the role of craft in the creative process. During the semester, a historical overview of twentieth-century American dance on video is presented. Attendance at all classes is required. One-half credit.
112. Introductory Repertory and Performance
Gwyneth Jones T 4:00 - 5:25, TH 4:00 - 5:25 Sargent-Dance Studio
Repertory students are required to take Dance 111 concurrently. Repertory classes provide the chance to learn faculty-choreographed works or reconstructions of historical dances. Class meetings are conducted as rehearsals for performances at the end of the semester: the December Studio Show, the annual Spring Performance in Pickard Theater, or Museum Pieces at the Walker Art Building in May. Additional rehearsals are scheduled before performances. Attendance at all classes and rehearsals is required. One-half credit.
115. Bodywork for Performers
Craig Williamson F 8:30 - 11:25 Sargent-Dance Studio
In a studio environment, applies principles of somatic awareness drawn from the insights and techniques of Mabel Ellsworth Todd, FM Alexander, Moshe Feldenkrais and others. The goal is to increase awareness of habitual patterns of use, deepening understanding of posture, movement, breathing, speaking and singing, and to develop the quality of presence in performance. Actors, dancers, musicians and movers of all kinds will increase the range and depth of kinesthetic, spatial, and dynamic awareness for enhanced vocal and physical expression.
150. Improvisation
Gretchen Berg T 9:30 - 11:25, TH 9:30 - 11:25 Memorial-108
Improvisation is a fundamental tool used by dancers, musicians, actors, writers, and other artists to explore the language of a medium and to develop new work. An interdisciplinary introduction to some of the primary forms of improvisation used in dance and theater. Content includes theater games, narrative exercises, contact improvisation, and choreographic structures.
202. Topics in Dance History: Rebel Dancers, Dancing Revolutions
June Vail T 10:00 - 11:25, TH 10:00 - 11:25 Memorial Hall-601 (Dance Studio)
A studio exploration of American social and theatrical choreography's intersection with cultural and political upheavals in the United States during the past century. Assignments intersperse dancing with reading, writing, and viewing films and live performances, with workshops by visiting dance companies. Explores diverse styles and eras, including the turn-of-the century feminist/political art of Isadora Duncan; performances of racial and class solidarity by workers' groups of the 1930s; avant-garde happenings and subversive choreographic strategies of the 1960s; the embodied politics of early hip-hop; and, the staging of gender identities in the 1990s and beyond.
211. Intermediate Dance Technique
Gwyneth Jones M 2:30 - 3:55, W 2:30 - 3:55 Sargent-Dance Studio
A continuation of the processes introduced in Dance 111. One-half credit.
212. Intermediate Repertory and Performance
Gwyneth Jones M 4:00 - 5:25, W 4:00 - 5:25 Sargent-Dance Studio
Intermediate repertory students are required to take Dance 211 concurrently. A continuation of the principles and requirement introduced in Dance 112. One-half credit.
311. Advanced/Intermediate Dance Technique
Paul Sarvis T 2:30 - 3:55, TH 2:30 - 3:55 Memorial Hall-601 (Dance Studio)
A continuation of the processes introduced in Dance 211. One-half credit.
312. Advanced/Intermediate Repertory and Performance
Paul Sarvis T 4:00 - 5:25, TH 4:00 - 5:25 Memorial Hall-601 (Dance Studio)
Intermediate/advanced repertory students are required to take Dance 311 concurrently. A continuation of the principles and requirement introduced in Dance 212. One-half credit.

Theater

115. Bodywork for Performers
Craig Williamson F 8:30 - 11:25 Sargent-Dance Studio
In a studio environment, applies principles of somatic awareness drawn from the insights and techniques of Mabel Ellsworth Todd, FM Alexander, Moshe Feldenkrais and others. The goal is to increase awareness of habitual patterns of use, deepening understanding of posture, movement, breathing, speaking and singing, and to develop the quality of presence in performance. Actors, dancers, musicians and movers of all kinds will increase the range and depth of kinesthetic, spatial, and dynamic awareness for enhanced vocal and physical expression.
120. Acting I
Davis Robinson M 1:30 - 3:25, W 1:30 - 3:25 Memorial-108
Introduces students to the physical, emotional, and intellectual challenge of the acting process. Voice and movement work, analysis of dramatic texts from an actor's point of view, and improvisational exercises are used to provide students with a variety of methods for acting truthfully on stage.
120. Acting I
Sonja Moser T 1:30 - 3:25, TH 1:30 - 3:25 Memorial-108
Introduces students to the physical, emotional, and intellectual challenge of the acting process. Voice and movement work, analysis of dramatic texts from an actor's point of view, and improvisational exercises are used to provide students with a variety of methods for acting truthfully on stage.
150. Improvisation
Gretchen Berg T 9:30 - 11:25, TH 9:30 - 11:25 Memorial-108
Improvisation is a fundamental tool used by dancers, musicians, actors, writers, and other artists to explore the language of a medium and to develop new work. An interdisciplinary introduction to some of the primary forms of improvisation used in dance and theater. Content includes theater games, narrative exercises, contact improvisation, and choreographic structures.
220. Acting II: Voice and Text
Sonja Moser M 1:30 - 3:25, W 1:30 - 3:25 Memorial Hall-601 (Dance Studio)
An intermediate acting course focused on the link between language, thought, and feeling, with the goal of achieving full-mind-body engagement in the act of communication. Students work with poetry, plays, and other dramatic texts to encourage vocal, physical, and emotional freedom. Breathing exercises attune students to the physiological impulse to speak, while vocal exercises concentrate on developing increased range, strength, and color of expression. Interpretation is explored through close readings of texts.
230. Theater and Theatricality in the Restoration and the Eighteenth Century
Ann Kibbie M 1:00 - 2:25, W 1:00 - 2:25 Sills-109
An overview of the development of the theater from the re-opening of the playhouses in 1660 to the end of the eighteenth century, with special emphasis on the emergence of new dramatic modes such as Restoration comedy, heroic tragedy, “she-tragedy,” sentimental comedy, and opera. Other topics include the legacy of Puritan anxieties about theatricality; the introduction of actresses on the professional stage; adaptations of Shakespeare on the Restoration and eighteenth-century stage; other sites of public performance, such as the masquerade and the scaffold; and the representation of theatricality in the eighteenth-century novel.
320. Advanced Performance: Theater Styles
Davis Robinson M 9:30 - 11:25, W 9:30 - 11:25 Memorial-108
An advanced acting class that explores issues of style. What is Tragedy? Farce? Melodrama? Commedia? Realism? The Absurd? Through research, analysis, and scene work in class, students become familiar with a range of theatrical idioms. Emphasis is placed on understanding the social/cultural needs that give rise to a particular style, and the way in which style is used in contemporary theater to support or subvert a text.

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