Matteson: An investigation of off-balanced yet precise multi-focused movement and partnering. Classes begin with mindful walking, rolling, and flow pattern practices followed by “yes dance” improvisations to gather our attention and set a tone of tender touch. From there, we progress through a series of spiraling sequences that establish a buoyant relationship with the floor, harness forces of momentum, and demand intricate expressions of the limbs. Interplay with music offers an exchange of texture, rhythmic challenge, and nuance. For several “making days,” you will often be asked to work in collaboration with classmates to develop dances that both honor and challenge your personal voices. Sequences from class eventually combine into dynamic phrases. We take time to perform for each other in solos, duets, and small groups.
Jenkins: This class aims to maximize each student’s movement possibilities in a safe, yet rigorous container. We will hone our kinesthetic awareness particularly focusing on the perception of weight and gravity in movement. Class begins with floor work, drawing from meditation, yoga, somatic practices, and Laban/Bartenieff developmental movement principles. We will set a tone of comfort and wakeful sensitivity as we find ‘floors’ of support in the body, space, and sonic environment. Using set and improvised center and traveling exercises, class will progress into movement ideas that attend to weight and momentum shifts, dynamic stability, specific body part initiations, resiliency, rebound, and sequential thinking. We will further these investigations in detailed phrase work that will build throughout the semester.
Module dates: September 26 – October 17, 2024
Paul: Mon-Tues: 9/30, 10/1, 10/7, 10/8, 10/14, 10/15
Shayla: Thurs-Fri: 9/26, 9/27, 10/3, 10/4, 10/10, 10/11, 10/17
Learning Outcomes:
Students will be able to:
-Foster critical thinking about the dancing body and ways of moving
-Combine and organize a body practice that reflects on and supports the physical demands of the expanding fields of dance research and performance
-Integrate movement through the frames of time, space and poetics
-Demonstrate readiness to assume the working life of a professional dancer, whether in academia, world stages or within one’s community
Delivery Method: Fully in-person
Prerequisites:
Previous dance experience required.
Course Level: 4000-level
Credits: 3
M/Th 10:00AM-11:50AM & 1:40PM-3:30PM, T 10:30AM-12:20PM & 7:00PM-8:50PM, F 10:30AM-12:20PM (2nd module block)
Maximum Enrollment: 20
Course Frequency: One time only
Categories: 2nd Module Block , 4000 , All courses , Dance (BFA) , Fully In-Person , Three Credit
Tags: Open to BA students