Dance Intensive: Embodiment through Improvisation and Performance
Course Description
Summary
This course is designed for students with a serious interest in dance, as well as those curious about exploring embodied cognition and movement practice, whether or not they have previous dance experience. Together we will investigate multiple aspects of embodiment, dance-making and performance, cultivating tools for attentive observation, creative inquiry, and physical exploration.
Through studio practice and discussion, students will work toward developing the capacity to become their own teacher—learning to recognize patterns, heighten perceptual awareness, and discover more efficient, responsive, and expressive movement possibilities. Improvisational structures will guide our exploration and inform our creative process through screening, reading, composing, and movement research.
We will examine the tools necessary for developing and performing original work, while building confidence and comfort within our physical practices. Student experiments will be regularly drafted, shared, discussed, and revised, opening conversations around technique, composition, structure, and productive forms of reorganization as part of creative inquiry.
To expand the process, students will engage in complementary practices such as writing, drawing, and storytelling, allowing movement research to intersect with other modes of thinking and expression.
Throughout the term, students will develop both collaborative and solo projects, culminating in a presentation in Dance Workshop or the end-of-term Studio Concert.
Learning Outcomes
- To develop heightened perceptual awareness through movement practices that engage kinesthetic, proprioceptive, and interoceptive sensing.
To cultivate the ability to recognize and reflect on habitual movement patterns, expanding one’s capacity for adaptive and efficient physical choices.
To explore improvisation as a tool for movement research, generating material and deepening awareness of embodied decision-making.
To develop foundational skills in dance-making and composition, including structuring, organizing, and refining movement material.
To investigate the relationship between movement, perception, and cognition, supporting students in becoming attentive and self-directed practitioners.
To integrate movement with complementary creative practices such as writing, drawing, and storytelling as tools for reflection and research.
To foster a collaborative studio environment where dialogue, feedback, and collective inquiry support the development of individual and shared artistic practices.
To develop and present original solo and collaborative performance studies within a supportive community context.
Corequisites
Dance or Drama lab assignment if students sign up for 4 or more credits in designated dance courses.