Dance: Contemporary: Foundations

Introduction to applied practice in contemporary dance. Open to students with no previous dance training. Emphasis on fundamentals of contemporary dance technique and movement mechanics. Includes overview of modern/contemporary dance history and experiential anatomy. Reading, writing, and attending live performances required. May be repeated for credit.

Open to degree and PACE students

This is a studio course in beginner/intermediate dance technique; it’s the right level for students who are beginners, or who have some dance but no contemporary dance training, and/or are entering technique classes in the Dance Program for the first time. The class will be an introduction to contemporary dance as an art, craft, and a body practice. Contemporary dance – also called “modern dance” - has historically been individualistic and transgressive, first against societal and aesthetic strictures in the early years of the 20th century, and then in successive reactionary waves throughout the 20th and 21st centuries; there are endless varieties of movement and training.