Body and Breath Composition

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.

Somatic Foundations Breath and Core

Introduces students to Bartenieff Fundamentals, focusing on breath support and core-distal connectivity to establish an efficient neutral body alignment.

Guided Improvisation Techniques

Students generate movement based on imagery, sensory input, and emotional states using structured improvisation scores. This lesson focuses on breaking habitual movement patterns.

Motif Development and Repetition

Students select a single movement from their improvisation to serve as a 'motif.' They learn choreographic devices such as repetition, retrograding (reversing), and inversion to manipulate this single seed movement into a longer phrase.

Spatial Relationships and Group Formations

Moving from solo work to group dynamics, students explore how proximity and formation shape meaning. They experiment with facing, mirroring, and shadowing partners to understand how spatial relationships affect the audience's perception of their choreography.

Choreographic Workshop and Feedback

Students present their developed phrases in a 'works-in-progress' showing. The class utilizes a structured feedback method (like the Liz Lerman Critical Response Process) to provide neutral, constructive observations, helping choreographers refine their work.