Advanced Movement Practice: Phrasework
Course Description
Summary
This technique class is designed for advanced dance students with previous experience who wish to be challenged by learning complicated set material and improvisational structures from various contemporary dance choreographies.
Class will begin with exercises culled from various somatic practices as a means of cultivating attention to sensation and bodily awareness. From there we will practice various technical forms from a postmodern dance lineage designed to increase strength, articulation, connection to gravity, ability to move through space with momentum and clarity, and physical nuance and rigor. Classes will culminate in the learning and performing of choreographic material from the instructor’s own movement repertoire.
This is a practice-based course in which students are expected to participate fully in class sessions. A final creative project employing course tools and principles will be presented at the end of the course.
Learning Outcomes
- Explore various physical practices to gain a better understanding of your individual body’s movement potential.
- Cultivate the ability to pay attention to your internal sensory experience.
- Learn technically challenging movement material.
- Explore creative choice making in your dancing.
- Build strength, stamina, and familiarity with technical exercises from a US postmodern dance tradition.
Prerequisites
Approval of instructor. Please write a letter of interest to levigonzalez@bennington.edu. Preference given to students with prior dance experience.
Corequisites
Dance or Drama Lab Assignment if students are registered for 4 or more credits in designated dance courses.