DANCE

2009-2010

Associate Professors: Pedro Alejandro, Katja Kolcio, Nicole Stanton, Chair

Adjunct Professor: Susan Lourie

Artists-in-Residence: Patricia Beaman, Ballet; Hari Krishnan, Bharata Natyam-South Indian Classical; Urip Sri Maeny, Javanese, Iddrisu Saaka, West African

Departmental Advising Experts 2009-2010: Pedro Alejandro, Katja Kolcio, Hari Krishnan, Susan Lourie, Nicole Stanton

Department/Program Home Page

Major Description. The Dance Department at Wesleyan is a contemporary program with a global perspective. The curriculum, faculty research, and pedagogy all center on the relationships between theory and practice, embodied learning, and the potential dance making has to be a catalyst for social change.  Within that rigorous context, students encounter a diversity of approaches to making, practicing, and analyzing dance in an intimate learning atmosphere.  The program embraces classical forms from ballet, Bharata Natyam, Javanese and Ghanaian, to experimental practices that fuse tradition and experimentation into new, contemporary forms.

The Dance Department at Wesleyan is a contemporary program with a global perspective. The curriculum, faculty research and pedagogy all center on the relationships between theory and practice, embodied learning, and the potential dance making has to be a catalyst for social change.  Within that rigorous context, students encounter a diversity of approaches to making, practicing and analyzing dance in an intimate learning atmosphere.  The program embraces classical forms from Ballet, Bharata Natyam, Javanese and Ghanaian, to experimental practices that fuse tradition and experimentation into new, contemporary forms.

The emphasis of the major is on creating original scholarship, be it choreographic or written, that views dance within a specific cultural context, interrogates cultural assumptions, and is informed by a critical and reflective perspective.

Course Work for the Major. Course work for the major includes composition, dance techniques, dance histories, research methods, pedagogy, ethnography, improvisation, anatomy, repertory, and dance and technology.  All majors complete a capstone experience either a one semester senior project or a two-semester senior thesis. 

Required Courses.

DANC249/250 Dance Composition  (Gateway course series for the major, taken fall and spring semesters of sophomore year)

2.00 Credits

DANC371 Choreography Workshop  (Taken fall or spring of junior year)

1.00 Credit

DANC105 Dance Production Techniques

0.50 Credit

Dance Techniques (6 classes total @ 0.50 credits each)

3.00 Credits

Dance Technique Course Options

(Students must take classes in at least 2 traditions and achieve a level of Modern II)

  • DANC211 Modern dance I, DANC215 Modern dance II, DANC309 Modern dance III

  • DANC202 Ballet I, DANC302 Ballet II

  • DANC203 Jazz dance I, DANC213 Jazz dance II, DANC308 Jazz dance III

  • DANC260 West African dance I, DANC360 West African dance II, DANC365 West African dance III

  • DANC251 Javanese dance I

  • DANC261 Bharata Natyam I: Introduction of South Indian Classical dance, DANC362 Bharata Natyam II: Embracing the Traditional and the Modern, DANC365 Bharata Natyam III

 
Advanced Dance Practice (2 classes @. 25 credits each) 0.50 Credit
One methodology course above the 200 level 1.00 Credit

Methodology Course Options

  • DANC375 American Dance History: Modernism/Postmodernism

  • *Perspectives on Dance as Culture: Research Methods in Dance

  • *Perspectives on Dance as Culture: Auto-Ethnography

  • *Perspectives on Dance as Culture: Bollywood: An Ethnography of Dance and Film

  • *Perspectives on Dance as Culture: Dance and Sexuality
Two Electives 2.00 Credits

Elective Course Options

  • DANC341 Dance Teaching workshop: Theory and Practice

  • DANC301 Anatomy and Kinesiology

  • *Experiential Anatomy

  • DANC378 Repertory and Performance

  • DANC354 Improvisational Forms

  • DANC380 Dance and Technology

  • *Composition in the Arts

  • *Art as Activism

  • DANC103 Dancing Bodies
Senior project or thesis in dance  1.00 or 2.00 Credits

Total Credits:

 11.00 or 12.00 Credits

                                                            

Preregistration is possible for many dance courses. All students interested in registering for dance classes should access WesMaps concerning procedures for acceptance into courses. Students majoring in dance or indicating strong curricular commitment to dance will be given enrollment preference in all permission-of-instructor courses.

Procedures for honors in dance. Dance majors who wish to be candidates for departmental honors must complete senior research in the form of a thesis. Projects are not eligible for the award of honors. The student's proposed research design will be revised and finalized in consultation with the student's prospective tutor and should reflect the special interests and talents of the individual student. The award of honors or high honors is based on the scope and excellence of the thesis and on the student's creative work.

To receive the award of honors, a thesis must follow these guidelines:

  • The honors thesis typically consists of approximately 20 minutes of group choreography (usually two 10-minute dances) and an 80- to 100-page research paper situating the choreography within an aesthetic and historical context.
  • It must involve enough work to warrant two credits.

Each honors candidate is required to make a commitment to candidacy in advance. The student must file a written statement of his or her intention to stand for departmental honors with both the department and the Honors College. The department will nominate candidates for departmental honors to the Honors College. Nominations will occur only if it appears reasonably certain that the candidate's work will be completed on time and in the desired form. The department in cooperation with the Honors College will arrange suitable mid-April deadlines for performances and the submission of theses.

Each honors thesis will have two readers. One of these must be chosen from outside the Dance Department. The department will base its recommendation for departmental honors upon the readers' written evaluations and joint recommendations.

Last updated: July 14, 2009.

Contact wesmaps@wesleyan.edu to submit comments or suggestions. 

Copyright Wesleyan University, Middletown, Connecticut, 06459