This course is designed for students who have dance experience or equivalent physical training in any movement form. We welcome anyone who would like to recultivate, reactivate, improve, deepen, expand, develop or disrupt their relationship to their own knowledge and experience of physical movements and commit to consistent physical learning.
In order to have our minds and bodies relaxed as a default modality, the class offers somatic practice and warm-ups drawn from Water Body Movement (or Noguchi-taiso) and release techniques. Students are also introduced to various movement forms, practices and sequences fluidly, by moving from one to another without categorization and distinction, on the premise that a body is an ever-evolving organism, absorbing and internalizing everything while constantly forming and renewing its own logic.
By exposing students to various movement languages, rhythms and flows, we will cultivate motor skills, coordination, spatial recognition, phrase learning ability and physical logic–making while diving deeply into the process of embodied learning.
Learning Outcomes:
-Expand a range of physical language
-Expand perspectives on dance
-Improve motor skills and establish an active and healthy relationship to one’s own body
-Learn movement phrases of different styles
-Be able to cultivate and move upon a sense of freedom and uniqueness while engaging in the technical aspect of movement practice
-Find one’s own physical coordination and phrasing manner
Delivery Method: Fully in-person
Prerequisites: Previous ballet, modern dance or equivalent physical training is required in order to register for the class. For inquiry and permission, please contact the instructor Kota Yamazaki (kyamazaki@bennington.edu) and TA Mina Nishimura (mnishimura@bennington.edu) with a description about your prior physical training and experience.
Corequisites: Dance or Drama lab assignment if students sign up for 4 or more credits in designated dance courses.
Course Level: 4000-level
Credits: 2
M/Th 10:00AM - 11:50AM (Full-term)
Maximum Enrollment: 20
Course Frequency: One time only
Categories: 2000 , All courses , Dance , Fully In-Person , Two Credit , Updates
Tags: Ballet , contemporary dance , dance technique , movement practice