Course Descriptions

3 credits

This course is primarily designed to structure, train, and prepare the entire body for the complex demands of dance and performance. Movement principles and technical skills will be utilized from a fundamental functional and anatomical perspective. Students will develop more confidence, competence and control of their physical range of movement and will reinforce and develop their technical skills.  

The line between the dancer as a creative artist and the dancer as a performer remains an open field. This course aims to motivate and activate a deep self confidence in young dancers, promoting the ability to make decisions and understand the movement process.

Classes

• Contemporary and Modern Technique 
• Vaganova Ballet Technique 

3 credits

In this course, students are introduced to specific dance styles which have contributed to the relationship between dance and society both as performative topics as well as cultural heritage.

Our faculty proposes three forms of dance deeply rooted in a specific cultural context. Students will gain a comprehensive knowledge of the single elements that form a dance act and its relationship to the audience. Students will acquire new skills and are encouraged to broaden their perspective inciting a more compelling performance and grounded confidence on the stage.

Classes

• EurAfrica 
• Tarantella 
• Ausdruckstanz (Expressionist dance) and Tanztheatre (German Dance Theatre)

3 credits

This course focuses on the process and quality of stage composition and choreographic creation. Through Body Mind Centering, somatic exercises, and various perspectives in Dance Performance and creation, the course aims to deepen corporal specificity and internal movement research.

Students will use movement scores in order to prepare the body and mind to efficiently employ elements of improvisation, expand range of motion, and focus their creative power for compositional and choreographic purposes.

Students are encouraged to incorporate a spectrum of disciplines, including voice and spoken text, into their choreographies. They will also be exposed to an array of material to expand their artistic expression. This course is a challenging “Playground” where students make use of their own physical intelligence through “osmotic stimulation” and build upon their work in collaboration with other students from both the dance and theatre program in order to create their choreographies and performances.

Classes

• Dance Performance 
• Body Mind Centering and Somatics in Performance and Composition 

3 credits
This course is an interdisciplinary survey that looks at the Avant-Garde art movements and the way they challenged not only aesthetic values but, more broadly, the philosophical and cultural implications. Movements include Futurism, Dada, and Surrealism, which were responding to the most significant scientific, social, and political events on the world scene. Avant-Garde artistic expression blossomed in a wide variety of media, from painting to literature and even live performance. Students will gain an understanding of the intersection between accelerated change in social forms of the 19th and 20th century and the perception of those changes as expressed through contemporary Avant-Garde counterparts (such as mechanized speed and Futurism or Industrialized Warfare and Dada).

3 credits

The Beginner course introduces students to basic grammatical structures of the Italian language. Students acquire a basic vocabulary and speaking practice as well as an understanding of various aspects of Italian culture and society. The course focus is on building conversational skill in Italian, using readings in the text as a point of departure.

The intermediate course moves students toward fluency in Italian by focusing on communication and the exposure to a non-stereotypical, more complex and up-to-date picture of modern Italy and Italians. Grammar from the first semester course is reviewed, and new grammar points are presented, always with the intention of developing and strengthening students’ abilities to communicate. A wide range of cultural topics and aspects of Italian life will be explored while improving grammar, vocabulary, listening comprehension and writing in Italian.