Develops technical proficiency and creative movement skills across various styles. Examines choreographic principles alongside the historical and cultural origins of diverse global dance forms.
A graduate-level sequence exploring creative movement as a rigorous Practice-as-Research (PaR) methodology. It bridges phenomenological philosophy and somatic practice to investigate academic questions through the body.
This sequence investigates how timing manipulation and spatial relationships influence the visual aesthetics of dance. Students move beyond unison timing to explore concepts like canon, rounds, and cascading movement, analyzing how these timing structures change the viewer's perception. through inquiry and experimentation, learners discover how delaying or anticipating movement relative to peers creates dynamic visual effects.
This sequence explores the generation of movement through improvisation and structured play. Undergraduate students build trust, spatial awareness, and real-time composition skills, moving from internal somatic sensing to complex group scores and ensemble weight sharing.
This undergraduate dance sequence explores the relationship between musical structure and movement. Students move from basic theory and meter to complex polyrhythms, phrasing across measures, and creating independent choreographic counterpoint.
This sequence explores Laban Movement Analysis (LMA) focusing on Space, Time, and Energy. Undergraduate students learn to analyze, manipulate, and synthesize these elements to transform movement intention and choreographic meaning.
This sequence explores the evolution of dance in the 20th and 21st centuries, focusing on how globalization and the African Diaspora have reshaped the concert dance canon. Students analyze Hip Hop, Butoh, and contemporary fusion to understand the shifting boundaries of 'high art'.
A deep dive into the 1960s-70s avant-garde dance movement, exploring how Merce Cunningham, the Judson Dance Theater, and Steve Paxton dismantled traditional virtuosity to redefine dance through chance, pedestrian movement, and physics.
This sequence explores the evolution of Modern Dance as a rebellious philosophical movement. Students track the journey from early expressive freedom to codified techniques and post-modern dismantling of rules, investigating how movement serves as a political and social statement.
This sequence evaluates dance in the late 20th and 21st centuries as a vehicle for social justice, identity politics, and digital media interaction. Students explore historical protest dances, gender deconstruction in performance, the rise of screendance, and the impact of social media on choreography.
A high school sequence exploring the shift from traditional ballet to modern dance through five key movements: Duncan's naturalism, Graham's psychological depth, Cunningham's chance operations, Judson Dance Theater's pedestrianism, and Bausch's Tanztheater. Students engage in both physical workshops and intellectual analysis to understand art as a reaction to its time.
A high-energy exploration of Hip Hop culture's origins in the South Bronx and its evolution into a global phenomenon. Students analyze the socio-economic roots, the social dynamics of the cypher, the physical 'grammar' of breaking, the impact of commercialization, and the cross-cultural fusion seen in modern K-Pop.
A journey through the history of modern dance, exploring how pioneers like Isadora Duncan, Martha Graham, Alvin Ailey, and Merce Cunningham broke traditional rules to express raw emotion, cultural identity, and abstract concepts. Students investigate the 'why' behind artistic rebellion and create their own choreographic manifesto.
This sequence explores the anthropological roots of dance, focusing on how indigenous cultures use movement for ritual, storytelling, and community. Students analyze traditions from Maori, Hawaiian, and West African cultures to understand the sacred and social functions of dance.
A journey through the history of classical dance, exploring how power, fashion, and social hierarchy shaped the movement styles of the Renaissance and Baroque eras into the formalized art of ballet. Students will move from court etiquette to the technical rigor of King Louis XIV's court, analyze Romantic era narratives, and create their own codified dance systems.
Students investigate how footwork technique defines and differentiates dance genres, specifically comparing Ballet and Jazz. They analyze the mechanics of the foot, experiment with stylistic qualities, and conclude with a comparative performance task.
A comprehensive undergraduate sequence exploring the theoretical and practical foundations of dance through the analysis of body, space, time, and energy. Students develop somatic awareness and choreographic skills to transform movement into expressive communication.
A comprehensive undergraduate dance sequence that bridges internal somatic awareness with choreographic principles. Students progress from floor-based somatic explorations to creating and critiquing original movement phrases using professional choreographic devices.
A comprehensive sequence for undergraduate students exploring the theoretical and practical frameworks of Laban Movement Analysis (LMA) focusing on Space, Time, and Energy. Students will develop the ability to deconstruct, embody, and analyze movement through structured improvisation and choreographic synthesis.
This sequence explores rhythm as a primary tool for choreography, moving from literal synchronization to complex counterpoint, silence, and temporal manipulation. Undergraduate students will develop the ability to justify rhythmic choices through composition and performance.
An intensive graduate-level exploration of major aesthetic ruptures in 20th and 21st-century Western dance, tracking the evolution from modern expressionism to contemporary conceptualism.
A graduate-level exploration of how dance serves as a tool for state power, national identity formation, and revolutionary resistance, spanning from absolutist courts to contemporary protest movements.
This sequence explores the early 20th-century rebellion that led to Modern Dance. Students learn about pioneers who rejected ballet's constraints to explore natural movement, psychological intensity, and social activism, ultimately understanding dance as a vehicle for personal and collective expression.
A graduate-level comparative analysis of ballet and contemporary dance techniques, focusing on biomechanical roots, gravity management, and spinal mechanics to develop a hybrid movement vocabulary.
An advanced undergraduate sequence exploring the intersection of music theory and somatic practice. Students deconstruct complex meters, master syncopation and polyrhythmic dissociation, and manipulate timing as a choreographic tool.
A comprehensive exploration of the African Diaspora's influence on global vernacular dance, tracing movement traditions from West Africa through the plantation era to the birth of Jazz, Tap, and Hip Hop. Students analyze how rhythmic innovation served as a tool for cultural preservation and resistance.
A comprehensive 10th-grade dance history unit tracing ballet from its origins in Renaissance courts to its 20th-century neoclassical evolution. Students analyze how political power, social structures, and technological innovations shaped technique and aesthetics.
This sequence explores the radical shift from classical ballet to modern dance in the early 20th century. Students will analyze the philosophical, psychological, and sociopolitical drivers behind the movement theories of pioneers like Isadora Duncan, Martha Graham, and Doris Humphrey.
A comprehensive investigation into how political power and statecraft shaped the technique, hierarchy, and aesthetics of classical ballet from the French court to the Russian Imperial stage. Students analyze the evolution of the 'ideal body' as a reflection of political absolutism, gender dynamics, and modernist rupture.
This sequence explores how the African Diaspora shaped American vernacular and theatrical dance, from West African polyrhythms to Jazz, Tap, and Hip Hop. Students analyze the impact of minstrelsy, the Harlem Renaissance, and the codification of jazz while tracing the lineage of modern pop culture moves back to their historical roots.
A comprehensive exploration of ballet's evolution from the 17th-century French court to 20th-century American neoclassicism, focusing on the intersection of political power, social values, and aesthetic form.
A graduate-level sequence exploring how migration, diaspora, and globalization reconfigure the somatic and semantic meanings of dance across geopolitical borders. Students analyze theories of syncretism, the Black Atlantic, Orientalism, transnational trauma in Butoh, and the ethics of digital globalization.
This 12th-grade sequence explores dance through an anthropological lens, analyzing the transition of movement from sacred ritual to secular performance. Students investigate global traditions, the impact of colonialism, and the ethics of cultural preservation in a globalized world.
A deep dive into the intersection of dance and political authority, examining how court traditions from Baroque France to Imperial Russia and beyond have used the human body to enforce social hierarchy. Students analyze movement as a tool of statecraft, tracing the evolution of ballet and comparing it with global court dances.
Students trace the lineage of ballet from the royal courts of France to the grand stages of Russia and beyond, exploring how political power shaped dance technique.
A comprehensive 5-lesson sequence tracing ballet's journey from 17th-century French courts to modern American stages, focusing on the intersection of politics, technology, and artistic expression.
A somatic foundation for undergraduate dance students focusing on skeletal alignment, breath support, and kinetic efficiency. The sequence moves from static anatomical understanding to dynamic movement phrases, emphasizing injury prevention and longevity.
A journey through 400 years of ballet history, from the royal courts of France to the modern stage. Students explore how political power, fashion, and technology transformed a social duty into a professional athletic art form.
An advanced undergraduate dance sequence focused on integrating somatic practices with technical training to optimize alignment, reduce injury, and enhance movement efficiency. Students progress from foundational pelvic neutrality to complex kinetic chaining in allegro.
