Dance Theater

Catalog description

This course introduces students to the creative foundations of dance theater, a hybrid performance form that integrates movement, voice, and text as equal modes of expression. Through studio practice, students will develop the skills to integrate physical awareness, language, and sound as compositional elements to create dramatic tension and create meaning. Class sessions will include physical training, vocal exploration, improvisation, and composition to develop a student’s expressive range. Together, we will ask what kinds of performances are possible beyond spoken text and, vice versa, what is required to be spoken when gesture alone cannot express creative and social inquiry. The course culminates in an end-of-semester showing in which students will present original performance material. No prior dance or theater experience is required.