Welcome to Dance Studies THD 310: Embodied Experiences in the Environment

Welcome to Dance Studies THD 310: Embodied Experiences in the Environment, offered Fall 2018.

Embodied Experiences in the Environment is a 300-level seminar course investigating ways in which choreographers use embodied experiences based in movement methodologies such as Butoh, Authentic Movement, Instant Composition, Contact Improvisation and a variety of other movement-based improvisational forms to develop site-based experiences that heighten awareness, build responsibility and respect, for our place in the natural world. We will study the work of site-specific and site-adaptive choreography, read alongside nature writing and ecocriticism theory; as we build our own methodologies of practice. This course is open to students from a range of backgrounds, not limited to those with a “dance” background.  OUr goals for this course are:

• Gain an understanding of how site-specific dance forms – choreography, practice and embodiment- interrogate the relationships of human to environment, specifically that environment considered “nature”.
• Read* site-specific dance practice alongside nature writing, including activist writing, and ecocriticism.
• Explore human understanding and interpretation of nature through multiple cultural lenses.
• Understand the fundamentals of ecocriticism and apply lens to the texts* under study and our own creative practice.
• Strengthen critical thinking, problem solving, teamwork, communication and leadership skills through creative practice.
• Become, overall, more proficient communicators in multi-modalities.

* “texts” include readings, video viewings, experiential practices, visual imagery

In each tab you will find student reflection/documentation of individual assignments.