DANC102F Perspectives: Dance as Cultural Knowledge (FYS)

This FYS course--a writing intensive and introduction to Wesleyan's culture--investigates the various social, political, and historical contexts that have contributed to the explosive evolution of dance since the nineteenth century, and conversely, explores the ways that performers and choreographers have utilized the medium of dance to reflect their personal concerns back to society in powerful ways. Dynamic artistic movements, choreographers, and dancers examined will include Imperial Russian Ballet, Gesamtkunstwerk of Diaghilev's Les Ballets Russes, gender manipulation in the roles of Nijinsky; WWI and II and its aftermath in the German Ausdruckstanz of Mary Wigman and Kurt Jooss; Modernism's effect on seminal choreographers in America such as Martha Graham; politics, race, class, and the Harlem Renaissance; the anthropological research in dance of Black choreographers Katherine Dunham and Pearl Primus; experimentations of Merce Cunningham; exploration of Postmodern rebellion of the Judson Dance Theater; and the response of choreographers and performance artists to Civil Rights and the AIDS crisis. Students will view performance videos and documentaries, pursue extended research, and be expected to speak and write about dance in a way that will prepare them for academic writing at Wesleyan.
Offering: Host
Grading: OPT
Credits: 1.00
Gen Ed Area: HA-DANC
Prereq: None

DANC103 Dancing Bodies

This course introduces students to basic dance literacy by viewing dances on film and video, making movement studies, and practicing writing in different modes about bodies in motion. The utopian ideal of "the natural" dancing body will guide our investigation of dance as art and culture, from Isadora Duncan to the postmoderns. We seek answers to such questions as, What do performance codes about the natural body feel and look like? How do dance traditions preserve, transmit, and reconfigure eco-utopian desires? No dance experience is necessary. The desire and confidence to create and move collaboratively with others is expected.
Offering: Host
Grading: A-F
Credits: 1.00
Gen Ed Area: HA-DANC
Prereq: None

DANC104F Introduction to Contemporary Dance from Global Perspectives (FYS)

This interdisciplinary course aims to understand contemporary dance and the moving body from global perspectives. It draws from a range of approaches to aesthetics and choreography, politics, and understandings of culture-at-large. It examines an eclectic array of movement and choreographic styles from North America to Europe to Asia. The course is divided into 6 units: 1. Old and New Definitions of Contemporary Dance 2. "East Meets West" -- Global-Cultural Flows in Contemporary Dance 3. Social Justice and Contemporary Dance 4. Queering Contemporary Dance 5. Special Topics -- Stillness and Silence 6. Traditional Dance/Contemporary Dance -- Deconstruction and Reconstruction
Offering: Host
Grading: OPT
Credits: 1.00
Gen Ed Area: HA-DANC
Identical With: GSAS108
Prereq: None

DANC105 Dance Tech Lab: Lights, Screen, Projection

This class includes the practicum and experimentation of lighting design and production with use of projection, video-screen technology, stage management, costume and scene design, and set construction.

The practical experience in the Dance Department's production season is emphasized in the course.
Offering: Host
Grading: A-F
Credits: 0.50
Gen Ed Area: HA-DANC
Prereq: None

DANC107 Writing Is Dancing, Dancing Is Writing

We watch dance and then we write about it. Dance needs writing to be understood and to endure. Or maybe not. Maybe dance needs no help. Then, what do we write? Writing as dance, in dance, of, from, alongside... As readers, writers, and performers, we will explore established and experimental modes of writing and choreography and look for ways that each form can stretch and challenge the other.
Offering: Host
Grading: A-F
Credits: 1.00
Gen Ed Area: HA-DANC
Prereq: None

DANC111 Introduction to Dance

This is an introduction to dance as an educational, technical, and creative discipline for students with no previous formal dance training. Classes will introduce the basic components of dance technique--stretching, strengthening, aligning the body, and developing coordination in the execution of rhythmic movement patterns. Through improvisation, composition, and performing, students will develop a solid framework applicable to all forms of dance.
Offering: Host
Grading: A-F
Credits: 1.00
Gen Ed Area: HA-DANC
Prereq: None

DANC202 Ballet I: Practice and Theory

This elementary level ballet course is a mix of practice and theory. Ballet terminology and stylistic concepts will be introduced with emphasis on correct alignment, musicality, and movement flow. In addition to learning the basics of ballet technique, various ways that ballet choreographers have addressed issues of politics, race, and class are examined through films, readings, and discussions. Traditional ballets will be juxtaposed with iterations from contemporary choreographers who have created unique and powerful works addressing issues from the eighteenth century to today.
Offering: Host
Grading: OPT
Credits: 0.50
Gen Ed Area: HA-DANC
Prereq: None

DANC203 Body and Earth: Emergent Strategies for Reimagining the Human-Environment Relationship

We live in a world in which humans are inextricably connected to nature, humanity's life support system. Yet at the same time we live on a planet in peril, in which environmentalists across the globe are working to catalyze societal transformation for sustainable living on Earth. This course explores these themes by 1) analyzing how social and ecological systems are intertwined, 2) exploring diverse ways of knowing nature through movement and mindfulness exercises, and 3) investigating and communicating mechanisms of sustainable environmental practice. The course will introduce conceptual frameworks and methodologies to explore the embeddedness of humans in nature--a task that remains critical for addressing today's environmental challenges. Students will engage with interdisciplinary frameworks engaging in environmental problem solving, as well as movement and place-based approaches for experiential learning. Through case studies and individual storytelling projects, we will examine how embeddedness in nature, interdisciplinary perspectives, and human agency provide sustainable pathways for both people and planet.
Offering: Crosslisting
Grading: A-F
Credits: 1.00
Gen Ed Area: SBS-ENVS
Identical With: ENVS201
Prereq: BIOL182 OR BIOL216 OR ENVS197 OR EES199

DANC205 Afro-Brazilian Dance I

Dance is a nexus between Africa and Brazil. It holds ancestral knowledge, and demonstrates a clear evolution of form, function, and tradition. This course will examine the study of embodied practices of the African diaspora as it relates to Brazilian life and culture. It will introduce various religious, social, and contemporary dance forms through a historical perspective of African identity in Brazil. Students will dive into the vibrant Afro-Brazilian culture and history through rigorous physical explorations, which will be complemented with lectures, readings, discussions, and video. Topics will include, yet are not limited to: the symbolic aspects of the body, historical context of movement behavior, the sociopolitical aspects of the dances, the derivation of the movement techniques, as well as connection of mind, body, and spirit in culture and dance.
Offering: Host
Grading: A-F
Credits: 0.50
Gen Ed Area: HA-DANC
Prereq: None

DANC210 Afro-Brazilian Dance II

This level II course will bring deeper experience of embodied practices of the African diaspora as it relates to Brazilian life and culture. Level II will continue to explore various religious, social, and contemporary dance forms through a historical perspective of African identity in Brazil. Students will learn a greater perspective into the vibrant Afro-Brazilian culture and history through rigorous physical explorations, which will be complemented with lectures, readings, discussions, and video. Topics will include, yet are not limited to: the symbolic aspects of the body, historical context of movement behavior, the sociopolitical aspects of the dances, the derivation of the movement techniques, as well as connection of mind, body, and spirit in culture and dance.
Offering: Host
Grading: A-F
Credits: 0.50
Gen Ed Area: HA-DANC
Prereq: None

DANC211 Contemporary Dance Technique I

This elementary contemporary dance technique class is above the introductory level with an emphasis on anatomically sound and efficient movement. Studio work, readings, and homework assignments focus on experiential anatomy and the development of strength, endurance, joint mobility, and technical skills necessary for working in dance technique, improvisation, and choreography.
Offering: Host
Grading: A-F
Credits: 0.50
Gen Ed Area: HA-DANC
Prereq: None

DANC212 Composition Across the Arts: Theory And Practice of Interdisciplinary Curating

Wesleyan's Center for the Arts (CFA) opened in 1972 with an understanding that throughout the 20th century, the arts have continued to move away from "tightly bound categories" once defined by medium or genre--and with the goal of providing "[a] complex in which the exploration of the role of the arts in society, their interrelationships and new forms may ... stimulate the student and provide a vital cultural force in the community." In short, the CFA's mission was (and remains) to foster interdisciplinarity both within and beyond the field of artistic practice. This course will explore both the theory and practice of interdisciplinary art curating and making. We will read texts that situate our keyword ("interdisciplinary") within the context of social, political, and pedagogical struggles from the 1950s to the present. Simultaneously, we'll look at how different artists, critics, and scholars have attempted to frame definitions of contemporary art in which the older discipline-specific criteria no longer apply. Throughout the course, we'll consider how the turn towards interdisciplinarity places pressure not only on artists but curators, while we work to envision what a liberatory, contemporary institution might be both aesthetically and politically.



Course readings relate to contemporary curating within the global arts ecosystem. Course work, however, will be derive directly from the skill sets most often sought in entry-level job postings for arts organizations--research, writing, project development, and management. Through this process, we will rethink the underlying assumptions and values reproduced by these skills and field-wide practices. Ultimately, students will be invited to experiment with day-to-day operations of the CFA and given a chance to have a direct impact on future programming for the CFA. One way we will do this is to invite enrolled students to help assemble and participate in a director's council that will impact the future of the Center for the Arts. If a director's council is traditionally populated with executive leaders, this student-led director's council will convene representatives from the largest and most impactful population of the Wesleyan community: the students.
Offering: Host
Grading: A-F
Credits: 1.00
Gen Ed Area: HA-DANC
Prereq: None

DANC213 Jazz Technique

This course is an introduction to the African American jazz dance vernacular through the embodied practice of Simonson jazz. It will cover basic principles of alignment, centering, and technique through the context of jazz's African roots. Class sessions will principally consist of movement exploration including a comprehensive warm-up and will be supplemented by online discussions and media to better understand the place of jazz dance in society and culture at large.
Offering: Host
Grading: A-F
Credits: 0.50
Gen Ed Area: HA-DANC
Identical With: AFAM262
Prereq: None

DANC214 Hip Hop

This studio practice course introduces students to urban dance practices, aiming to broaden students' understanding of hip hop culture beyond the commercialized representations prevalent in the media today. This class will explore the history and practice of different forms of hip hop: b-boying/b-girling (breaking/breakdancing), uprocking, popping, waving, and locking. We will also look at hip hop's connection to other club forms such as house dance and house-ballroom forms, waacking, and voguing. Students will view video performances of cultural practice (battles and "cyphers"), as well as media- and theatrically-influenced forms of hip hop, to identify significant commonalities and differences within hip hop practices.



Our classes will be conducted to hip hop, house, and dance music from the past four decades, and will begin with a set warm-up and follow with stretching and conditioning exercises. Class will always conclude with a combination that incorporates that week's dance form, and it will be compared to other hip hop dance forms we will be studying.



Required readings will explore these forms through the lens of historical context and critical theory perspectives on urban dance, supporting an immersive studio practice.
Offering: Host
Grading: A-F
Credits: 0.50
Gen Ed Area: HA-DANC
Prereq: None

DANC215 Hip Hop Dance II

This intermediate hip hop studio practice course further develops urban dance practices, and broadens the hip hop culture beyond the commercialized representations prevalent in the media today. This class will further explore the history and practice of different forms of hip hop: b-boying/b-girling (breaking/breakdancing), uprocking, popping, waving, and locking. We will also look at hip hop's connection to other club forms such as house dance and house-ballroom forms, waacking, and voguing. Students will view video performances of cultural practice (battles and "cyphers"), as well as media- and theatrically-influenced forms of hip hop, to identify significant commonalities and differences within hip hop practices.



Our classes will be conducted to hip hop, house, and dance music from the past four decades, and will begin with a set warm-up and follow with stretching and conditioning exercises. Class will always conclude with a combination that incorporates that week's dance form, and it will be compared to other hip hop dance forms we will be studying.



Required readings will explore these forms through the lens of historical context and critical theory perspectives on urban dance, supporting an immersive studio practice.
Offering: Host
Grading: OPT
Credits: 0.50
Gen Ed Area: HA-DANC
Prereq: None

DANC216 Contemporary Dance Technique: Dancing During Pandemic

This combined-level dance class draws on multiple approaches to dance technique and the moving body in an outdoor, site-specific, pandemic-specific context. We will focus on large group ensemble movement as well as on individual movement specificity, and developing awareness of space, time, energy, technical precision, and dynamic variation. Course content will draw on modern dance techniques, contemporary/release techniques, and improvisational forms, as well as somatic practices.



During any major social transformation or crisis, like this pandemic, movement practice is essential. Our world and our rules of engagement are changing before our eyes. Creative physical movement is integral to our physical and psycho-social well-being, and through it we learn how to navigate the new context. On a basic level, we move our bodies to stimulate circulation of blood, breath, and digestive tract. But, equally important, and more central to higher education, we also need to move in ways that help us adjust to and make sense of our new circumstances--to orient ourselves to this new environment. This is the overarching purpose of this course: to collectively find new ways of being, understanding, moving, and creating our new world.



Classes will be held outside, and students will be expected to dress for the weather, and with freedom of movement in mind--in other words, wear safe footwear and clothing that does not constrict range of motion. Classes will only be canceled in the case of severe weather (i.e., hurricane). In those cases, hybrid practice-based assignments will be given to supplement in-class material.



This course is intended as an alternative to our regular Contemporary Technique course DANC300, which is being taught in an online format. Students are invited to choose the format that they feel most comfortable with. Both courses count toward major and minor requirements.
Offering: Host
Grading: Cr/U
Credits: 0.50
Gen Ed Area: HA-DANC
Prereq: None

DANC220 Performing Indonesia

This course will examine the theater, dance, and puppetry of Indonesia in the context of its cultural significance in Indonesia and in the West. Students will read a variety of texts related to Indonesian history, myth, and religion. Students will also read books and essays by anthropologists Hildred Geertz, Clifford Geertz, and Margaret Mead to understand how the arts are integrated into the overall life of the island archipelago. Artifacts of physical culture will also be examined, including the palm-leaf manuscripts that are quoted in many performances; the paintings that depict the relationship between humans, nature, and the spirit world that are the subject of many plays; and the masks and puppets that often serve as a medium for contacting the invisible world of the gods and ancestors. Translations of Indonesian texts will be analyzed and adapted for performance. The direct and indirect influence of Indonesian performance and history on the West will be discussed by examining the work of theater artists such as Robert Wilson, Arianne Mnouchkine, Lee Breur, and Julie Taymour, who have all collaborated with Balinese performers.
Offering: Crosslisting
Grading: OPT
Credits: 1.00
Gen Ed Area: HA-THEA
Identical With: THEA220, CEAS229
Prereq: None

DANC231 Performing Arts Videography

This course provides an introduction to shooting and editing video and sound with a particular focus on the documentation of dance, music, and theater performance. Additional consideration will be given to the integration of videographic elements into such performances. Students will work in teams to document on-campus performances occurring concurrently. Related issues in ethnographic and documentary film will be explored through viewing and discussion of works such as Wim Wenders's Pina, Elliot Caplan's Cage/Cunningham, John Cohen's The High Lonesome Sound, and Peter Greenaway's Four American Composers.
Offering: Crosslisting
Grading: A-F
Credits: 1.00
Gen Ed Area: HA-MUSC
Identical With: MUSC231, THEA213
Prereq: None

DANC237 Performance Art

This course can be understood as an ephemeral, time-based art, typically centered on an action or artistic gesture that has a beginning and an end, carried out or created by an artist. It also contains the elements of space, time, and body. This hands-on course explores the history and aesthetics of performance art and how it relates to the performing arts (dance and theater). In a project-based format, students conduct performance assignments and conceptual research within the gaps that exist between performative art forms. The course focuses on analyzing and studying artists who used the concepts of chance, failure, or appropriation in their work.
Offering: Crosslisting
Grading: OPT
Credits: 1.00
Gen Ed Area: HA-THEA
Identical With: THEA237
Prereq: None

DANC244 Delicious Movement: Time Is Not Even, Space Is Not Empty

This course contemplates massive violence and bodily experiences of time and space through interdisciplinary discourse. Taught by NYC-based movement artist Eiko Otake, students will examine how being or becoming a mover reflects and alters each person's relationships with the environment, history, and other beings. Topics of study and discussion include war, atomic bomb literature, postwar Japan, and environmental violence such as the Fukushima nuclear explosions. A key concept of study will be metaphorical nakedness and how distance is malleable. Please note that homework load is heavy with weekly assignments and journals. Seeking collective learning, the course will culminate with a final project sharing. The class is fiercely non-competitive and non-technical. No previous dance training is necessary, but willingness to move with and in front of others is important. Please visit eikootake.org to learn about this instructor. Write to eikootake@gmail.com with questions.
Offering: Host
Grading: A-F
Credits: 1.00
Gen Ed Area: HA-CEAS
Identical With: CEAS244
Prereq: None

DANC249 Making Dances I: Solo Work

This course is a practical lab in body-based performance making with a focus on the solo form. Students will work towards developing and honing their personal artistic interests and goals, and supporting those of their peers. We will experiment with various modes of composition, viewing and researching a broad range of artistic work and ideas, expanding our notions of what constitutes a dance. Students will explore performance in public space, collaboration, and work across artistic disciplines, engagement with technology, awareness of cultural context and appropriation, and social practice/participatory/community engaged art. Finally, we will develop methods for peer critique, working towards finding a challenging and supportive approach that pushes each artist forward.

NOTE: This is a laboratory course for students interested in diving deeply into body-based artistic practice. It is appropriate to students with a background in any artistic discipline. An interest in rigorous (and playful) experimentation and research is key.
Offering: Host
Grading: A-F
Credits: 1.00
Gen Ed Area: HA-DANC
Prereq: None

DANC250 Dance Composition: Choreography Workshop

This course in creating and performing choreography emphasizes the diversity of techniques, methods, and aesthetic approaches available to the choreographer. Assignments will revolve around inventing, organizing, and evaluating movement styles and on solving composition tasks that are drawn from various art mediums.

This class will focus on the process of making a dance in a theatrical setting. Skills in organizing and leading rehearsals, creative decision-making, and movement observation will be developed within the context of individual students honing their approach and style as choreographers. Practical and theoretical issues raised by the works in progress will frame in-class discussions and all necessary technical aspects of producing the dances will be addressed.
Offering: Host
Grading: A-F
Credits: 1.00
Gen Ed Area: HA-DANC
Prereq: None

DANC251 Javanese Dance I

Instruction in the court dance of Central Java will begin with the basic movement vocabulary and proceed to the study of dance repertoires. Emphasis will be on the female and refined male court dance of the Kasultanan court of Yogyakarta. At the end of the semester, a recital will be arranged with the accompaniment of live gamelan music and as part of the Worlds of Dance concert.
Offering: Host
Grading: OPT
Credits: 0.50
Gen Ed Area: HA-DANC
Prereq: None

DANC260 West African Dance I

West African dance is a gateway to the cultures and ways of life of its people. It is the medium on which the very existence of the people is reinforced and celebrated. In this introductory course, students will learn the fundamental principles and aesthetics of West African dance through learning to embody basic movement vocabulary and selected traditional dances from Ghana. The physical embodiment of these cultures will be complemented with videos, lectures, readings, and discussions to give students an in-depth perspective on the people and cultures of Ghana. Students will also learn dances from other West Africa countries periodically.
Offering: Host
Grading: A-F
Credits: 0.50
Gen Ed Area: HA-DANC
Prereq: None

DANC261 Bharata Natyam I: Introduction of South Indian Classical Dance

This course is designed to introduce students to the fundamental aesthetic, social, and technical principles underscoring the culture of Bharata Natyam dance in its both indigenous and modern contexts. The course introduces students to Bharata Natyam largely through classroom practice (in the form of rhythmic and interpretive exercises), supplemented by brief lectures outlining the sociohistorical and cultural contexts of the form. Class lectures will also include video presentations. Occasionally, the class could include a guest lecture given by either a visiting scholar, dancer, or choreographer respected in the field of South Asian dance internationally.
Offering: Host
Grading: OPT
Credits: 0.50
Gen Ed Area: HA-DANC
Identical With: GSAS262
Prereq: None

DANC300 Contemporary Dance Technique II/III

Drawing on multiple approaches to dance techniques and the moving body and it's various states and qualities, this course will build on capacities developed in Contemporary Dance 1. Students will be encouraged to cultivate greater awareness of space, time, rhythm, corporeal navigation, different energetic qualities, collective movement existence, as well as a wider range of dynamic variation and a more sophisticated understanding of kinetic alignment.
Offering: Host
Grading: OPT
Credits: 0.50
Gen Ed Area: HA-DANC
Prereq: None

DANC301 Anatomy and Kinesiology

This course is designed to develop understandings of anatomy and biomechanical principles of movement from both scientific and experiential perspectives. Studies include musculoskeletal and nervous systems, concepts for re-patterning and realigning the body, and prevention and care for common dance/sports injuries. Daily practice is based in embodied movement explorations and exercises in dialogue with scientific study and discussion of the mechanical/functional, poetic, and social context of our bodies.
Offering: Host
Grading: A-F
Credits: 1.00
Gen Ed Area: HA-DANC
Prereq: None

DANC302 Ballet II

This is an intermediate-level course. Strong emphasis on correct alignment and the development of dynamics and stylistic qualities will be prominent while students learn combinations.
Offering: Host
Grading: OPT
Credits: 0.50
Gen Ed Area: HA-DANC
Prereq: None

DANC307 Mobilizing Dance: Cinema, the Body, and Culture in South Asia

This course focuses on questions of "mobility"--cultural, social, and political--as embodied in two major cultural forms of South Asia, namely "classical" dance and cinema. Using Tamil cinema and Bharatanatyam dance as case studies, the course focuses on issues of colonialism and history, class, sexuality and morality, and globalization. The course places the notion of "flows of culture" at its center and examines historical, social, and aesthetic shifts in these art forms over the past 150 years.



The course is both studio- and lecture-based. It includes learning rudimentary Bharatanatyam technique, watching and analyzing film dance sequences, and participating in guest master classes in ancillary forms such as Bollywood dance and Kathak (North Indian classical dance). The studio portion of this course is for beginners, and no previous dance experience is necessary.
Offering: Host
Grading: A-F
Credits: 1.00
Gen Ed Area: HA-DANC
Identical With: FGSS307, ANTH306, GSAS307
Prereq: None

DANC309 Modern Dance III

This advanced-level class draws on multiple approaches to dance technique and the moving body. Some of these include modern dance techniques, contemporary/release techniques, contact and other improvisational forms, as well as somatic practices. Modern III focuses on the exploration of complex dance movement sequences, cultivating a specific and personal engagement with movement material, along with heightened attention to the subtleties of phrasing, initiation, and musicality. The course's primary aim is each individual's continued development as a strong, well-rounded, creative, and thoughtful dancer.
Offering: Host
Grading: OPT
Credits: 0.50
Gen Ed Area: HA-DANC
Prereq: DANC215

DANC311 Immersive Theater: Experimental Design, Material Culture and Audience-Centered Performance

This course offers a comprehensive exploration of Third Rail Projects' approach to crafting and performing in immersive performance formats. Students will work closely alongside Co-Artistic Director Tom Pearson to explore Third Rail's toolbox of techniques, including:



- Developing presence and clarity around audience engagement

- Remaining spontaneous and responsive to the changing landscape of an active audience

- Generating game play for crafting immersive scenes

- Understanding ritual, narrative, and audience initiation through the study of a scene from one of our immersive productions
Offering: Crosslisting
Grading: A-F
Credits: 1.00
Gen Ed Area: HA-THEA
Identical With: THEA301
Prereq: None

DANC320 Theatre for Social Change - Taught from Ecuador with Local Participants

This course is taught in Spanish. Students should have Spanish proficiency equivalent to SPAN 112 or higher. This course is designed to lead Wesleyan students and Ecuadorian community counterparts through the process of creating social change by practicing social change. Using exercises and activities that pull from the areas of Theatre of the Oppressed and Performance Activism, as well as traditional theatre tools such as movement and mask-making, we engage challenging concepts and conflicts by dialoguing via our performative work. Our exploration stretches from the theoretical foundations of structural and symbolic oppression to ongoing real-life events related to themes that are selected by the course participants (examples include cultural identity, systemic racism, privilege, power, environmental justice, and gender equality/equity). Each course participant chooses a thematic area and joins a small group with which they will apply learned methods to exploring their theme. Together, Wesleyan students with local counterparts create short virtual theatrical projects to be presented to the whole cohort. Readings cover theory and methods in Applied Theatre, community-based case studies, and articles related to the chosen themes. The readings are contextualized to the diverse lived realities of the course's participants as well as to our globalized society.
Offering: Crosslisting
Grading: OPT
Credits: 1.00
Gen Ed Area: SBS-CGST
Identical With: CGST321
Prereq: None

DANC322 Storying and Re-Storying (Storytelling for Social Change) - Taught from Ecuador w Local Participants

This course is taught in Spanish. Students must have proficiency in Spanish equivalent to SPAN 112. When we consciously appropriate the power of stories to collectively reimagine our world, we turn the word story into a verb. We "story" our world. When our "storying" seeks to transform a system founded on unjust stories, we are "restorying" our world. This course begins with our human ability, and need, to tell stories, examining how we use them for communication, as well as how we become empowered or disenfranchised by them. Based on the realities present in our communities (our local community of place, college campuses, cities, neighborhoods, spiritual communities, etc.), students work with their counterparts, combining theory with practice, to create and tell stories with the goal of identifying shared conflicts and inspiring change. Since stories are told in many ways, the course engages the "telling" through various methods: writing stories and poems, Spoken Word, coloring/drawing, mapmaking, and moving our bodies. In each project, we implement the elements of storytelling, balancing distinct narrative traditions, such as myth and legend, with influences of the modern world. Readings look at a wide array of narrative theory and methods, focusing on storytelling as a form of creating and expressing knowledge. The course concludes with the interweaving of local and international stories into "our stories."
Offering: Crosslisting
Grading: OPT
Credits: 1.00
Gen Ed Area: SBS-CGST
Identical With: CGST322
Prereq: None

DANC341 Dance Teaching Workshop

Leap, spin, fall, and reach! Dance Teaching Workshop familiarizes students with methods and practices for teaching dance and movement to children and adults. Combining theoretical perspectives on education, dance, embodiment, and creativity together with hands-on practice teaching dance, students will gain practical skill in syllabus design and methods of teaching while developing a "teaching statement" reflecting on the role of dance/movement in education.



Prior dance training is not required; however, students should have an interest and some experience in either dance, arts, or education.



As part of this course, students will design and teach a dance class of their choice in the community (concurrent enrollment in Dance Teaching Practicum DANC447, 0.5 credit, required).
Offering: Host
Grading: A-F
Credits: 1.00
Gen Ed Area: HA-DANC
Prereq: None

DANC354 Improvisation: Diasporic Modalities

Freestyle, groove, jam: Improvisation has always been a key tool in the creation and evolution of dances of the African Diaspora. This movement-based course will deepen the inquiry of the Africanist aesthetic in dance through an improvisatory experiential framework. What movement conversations are created through a deep listening to self and our impulses to engage with sound/music, the environment, and our community? How do we honor the self in collective experiences? Students will embody explorations of the improvisatory concepts, sequences, and modalities that are rooted in the dances of: West African, Afro-Beats, Afro-Brazilian, Jamaican Dancehall, Capoeira, Jazz, African American Social Dances, House, and Bomba. We will use the foundational improvisational principles of these dance forms through a balance of play, investigation, and rigor. Studio work will be supplemented with readings, video, and homework assignments geared toward creating new improvisational scores. The course will also include visits from guest artists.
Offering: Host
Grading: A-F
Credits: 1.00
Gen Ed Area: HA-DANC
Identical With: THEA354
Prereq: None

DANC357Z Space and Materiality: Performing Place

Scenography explores and shapes the material world in and through the performative event. In site-specific performances, it transforms place and time to create an alternative reality in which the materiality of the artistic design and the performer's body intervene in the architecture of a place and the spectator's reception of meaning. In this course, we will study site interventions through the lens of street performance, immersive theater, and the theatrical apparatus to build a theoretical and direct understanding of the material potential and limitations of the four key elements involved in the scenographic project -- artistic design, the actor's body, local architecture, and time.



This course is divided into three units: (1) site-specific; (2) street performance; and (3) immersive theater. Each unit includes scholarly readings, assignments in performance and scenography, and specific showings. There will be two written responses for the course (5-to-7-page papers) on two of the works experienced at the festival that demonstrate the student's cumulative grasp of site specificity, scenography, and materiality. There will also be a final media journal showing.
Offering: Host
Grading: OPT
Credits: 1.00
Gen Ed Area: HA-DANC
Identical With: THEA357Z
Prereq: None

DANC359 Space Design for Performance

In this course, students will study, construct, and deconstruct the performative space, whether in the theater or site-based, by analyzing the space as a context to be activated by the body of the performer and witnessed by an audience. Through practical assignments, the class will learn the aesthetic history of the theatrical event (considering plays, rituals, street parades, and digital performances, among others), while developing and discovering the student's own creative process (visual, kinetic, textual, etc.). Students will be guided through each step of the design process, including close reading, concept development, visual research, renderings or drawings, model making and drafting.



In this course, special emphasis is given to contemporary performance as a mode of understanding cultural processes as a relational system of engagement within our ecosystem, while looking at environmental and sustainable design, materials, and the environmental impacts of processing. Students will create and design performance spaces, while realizing scale models and drawings and integrating the notions of design and environmental principles and elements.



Students will have the opportunity to develop skills using 3D-drafting and 3D-modeling software.



This course counts towards the Theater Arts category for the THEA major.
Offering: Crosslisting
Grading: OPT
Credits: 1.00
Gen Ed Area: HA-THEA
Identical With: THEA359, ENVS359, IDEA359
Prereq: THEA105 OR THEA150 OR THEA185 OR ARST131 OR ARST190

DANC360 West African Dance II

This intermediate-level course is intended for students who have had some previous training in West African dance. In this course students will learn more complex and physically challenging dances drawn from several cultures in Ghana. In addition, students will be presented with a rich pallet of general West African movement vocabulary and will continue to engage in the discussion of the cultural context in which the dances occur, through reading, writing, video, and lecture.
Offering: Host
Grading: A-F
Credits: 0.50
Gen Ed Area: HA-DANC
Prereq: None

DANC362 Bharata Natyam II: Embracing the Traditional and the Modern

This advanced course is designed to further students' understanding of the technique, history, and changing nature of Bharata Natyam dance and of Indian classical dance in general. The primary aim of the course is to foster an understanding of the role, function, and imaging of Bharata Natyam dance vis-à-vis ideas about tradition and modernity. Although the course assumes no prior knowledge of Bharata Natyam, we will move rapidly through the material. We will focus mainly on more complex studio work, extensive readings, and video presentations. In preparation for this course, students should have movement experience in other dance tradition(s). Occasionally, the class could include a guest lecture given by either a visiting scholar, dancer, or choreographer respected in the field of South Asian dance internationally.
Offering: Host
Grading: A-F
Credits: 0.50
Gen Ed Area: HA-DANC
Identical With: GSAS362
Prereq: None

DANC363 Dancing Bodies, Cultures and Environments

This course will look at the intersections and common spaces between body/self, community/culture, and environment/place. To do this we will employ several research methods. Students will be asked to complete readings, participate in discussions, view relevant media, and participate in movement master classes. We will also create solo and group performance works that explore our individual and communal experiences of body/community/environment. Students will be asked to complete readings, participate in discussions, participate in improvisational movement sessions, and work in a collaborative context. Each student will develop a final project that contains both a written and a performative component.
Offering: Host
Grading: A-F
Credits: 1.00
Gen Ed Area: HA-DANC
Prereq: None

DANC364 Media for Performance

This course examines the use of media and technology as it relates to dramaturgy and design for performance. Class time will be used for lecture, discussion, and experimentation, during which we will explore new technologies used in the industry, including projections, motion tracking, and software such as After Effects and Isadora. Throughout the semester, students will use the skills learned to create their own digital performances.
Offering: Crosslisting
Grading: OPT
Credits: 1.00
Gen Ed Area: HA-THEA
Identical With: THEA360, IDEA360
Prereq: None

DANC365 West African Dance III

Building on the knowledge gained in West African Dance I and II (DANC260 and DANC360), this course is intended for the very advanced student who has a lot of experience in West African dance. Students will learn rhythmically and physically complex traditional dances from selected ethnic groups in Ghana and will continue to hone in on the general movement vocabulary and discourse of West African dance in general. Students will also learn original contemporary West African dance phrases choreographed by the instructor and be guided through a creative process through improvisation to create their own phrases.



Important Info: Students who take this Course-Embedded Experiential Learning (CEEL) course will be charged a program fee for the required travel during Spring Break. Students receiving full financial aid (with Expected Family Contribution [EFC] up to 25% of the cost of attendance) will have their program fee fully waived, students receiving no financial aid (EFC of 100%) will be charged $3,000, and charges for students whose EFC is between 25% and 100% will be based on a sliding scale from $1,000 to $2,000. Details are available from the Office of Study Abroad.
Offering: Host
Grading: A-F
Credits: 0.50
Gen Ed Area: HA-DANC
Prereq: None

DANC366 Queering the Dancing Body: Critical Perspectives on LGBTQ Representation

This course focuses on questions of "queering" dance as a historical, cultural, social, and political enterprise. Focusing on both historical and postmodern dance contexts, the course explores key issues around gender and identity, with special reference to the concepts of performativity, impersonation, sexuality, and transformation. The course places the notion of "flows of gender and transformation" at its center, and examines historical, social, and aesthetic shifts in these ideas over the past 50 years. It draws on case studies ranging from female/male dance traditions of impersonation in India, China, Japan, and Indonesia, to postmodern shifts of "classical" dance (such as the all-male cast of Matthew Bourne's "Swan Lake") and more popular forms such as voguing and "RuPaul's Drag Race."
Offering: Host
Grading: A-F
Credits: 1.00
Gen Ed Area: HA-DANC
Identical With: FGSS366, GSAS366
Prereq: None

DANC370 Choreography Workshop/Proscenium

This class will focus on the process of making a dance. Skills in organizing and leading rehearsals, creative decision making, and movement observation will be developed within the context of individual students' honing their approach and style as choreographers. Practical and theoretical issues raised by the works in progress will frame in-class discussions, and all necessary technical aspects of producing the dances will be addressed. Students will prepare to present for proscenium theater/audience.
Offering: Host
Grading: A-F
Credits: 2.00
Gen Ed Area: HA-DANC
Prereq: None

DANC371 Site-Specific Choreography

This course addresses the construction of contemporary performance in alternative, nontheatrical spaces. Students will create, design, and structure movement and image metaphors; design and realize scenic objects; and integrate technologies that enhance performance at large. Daily practice will focus on developing compositional tools to trigger events, to set off the performance space, and to create optimal conditions for audience and performer participation. Skills in movement observation, critical reading, and video analysis will inform the course's practical and historical frameworks.
Offering: Host
Grading: A-F
Credits: 1.00
Gen Ed Area: HA-DANC
Identical With: THEA372
Prereq: None

DANC372 Choreography and Performance Art Perspectives

This course considers theories and methods of dance scholarship and takes a comparative approach to dance as research, research as choreography. This is a research methods course in which we will consider ways that knowledge is constructed and legitimated, focusing on the role of physical/somatic engagement, creativity, and performance in research. Problems and issues central to research pertaining representation, authority, validity, rigor, reliability, and ethics will be addressed in the context of dance studies and critical qualitative research studies. A final research project will be required.
Offering: Host
Grading: A-F
Credits: 1.00
Gen Ed Area: HA-DANC
Prereq: None

DANC374 Perspectives in Dance as Culture: Black Praxis

In this project-based course we are shedding light on the magic of praxis. Our focus will be rooted in the work of Black artists and dance makers, tuning into the choreographic seeds of their processes. Most Black artists go unrecognized for their contributions and tools they have shared in the field of dance--how they do what they do. Together we will uplift the rigor, complex methodologies, embodied research practices, tools, devices, recipes, and alchemy that is present in crafting works. We will engage in the art of archive through research, witnessing, writing, interviews, multimedia, and embodied practice, disrupting a Eurocentric lens on documented compositional methods.
Offering: Host
Grading: A-F
Credits: 1.00
Gen Ed Area: HA-DANC
Prereq: None

DANC375 Dance History: Why Dance Matters

Dance History: Why Dance Matters investigates myriad social, political, and historical events that have impelled performers and choreographers to create dances that broadcast their personal concerns to society in powerful ways. Artistic movements, choreographers, and dancers examined will include the aristocratic Imperial Russian Ballet; gender fluidity in Nijinsky's roles in Diaghilev's Les Ballets Russes; the microcosm of immigrant and black performers in vaudeville; dance and the Harlem Renaissance; the rejection of ballet by Löie Fuller, Isadora Duncan, and Ruth St. Denis; the political work of early modern dancers Martha Graham, Doris Humphrey, and Charles Weidman; war's aftermath in the German Ausdruckstanz of Mary Wigman and Kurt Jooss and Japanese butoh; the anthropological research of black choreographers Katherine Dunham and Pearl Primus; the psychological dance-theater of Antony Tudor and Pina Bausch; democracy within the postmodern rebellion of the Judson Dance Theater; Civil Rights-era social activist choreographers; and the response of choreographers and performance artists to the culture wars of the 1990s and the AIDS crisis. Students will pursue extended research, view performance videos and documentaries, and be expected to write and talk about dance.
Offering: Host
Grading: A-F
Credits: 1.00
Gen Ed Area: HA-DANC
Prereq: None

DANC376 The Artist in the Community: Civic Engagement and Collaborative Dancemaking

Through both theoretical analysis and practical application, students will grow their understanding of community-based performance and collaborative art-making. Grounded in readings and seminar discussions about the practice and process of community-based art, students will apply their learning through community-engaged research. Through direct practice, students in the course will explore how collaborative performance can address local issues, spark community dialogue, and encourage civic participation--whether on a college campus, in a neighborhood, or across a city.



Class meetings will take place virtually during the semester. Student research and project development will be conducted in person. Note: This course includes required Spring Break travel to work on a Forklift Danceworks project. Travel expenses for the trip are paid by the University.
Offering: Crosslisting
Grading: A-F
Credits: 1.00
Gen Ed Area: HA-ENVS
Identical With: ENVS376, THEA376
Prereq: None

DANC377 Perspectives in Arts as Culture: Ukrainian Arts and Language as Resistance

Throughout history, arts and language have been central to Ukrainian resilience. This course will introduce students to basic elements of the Ukrainian language as well as the rich tradition of Ukrainian arts--dance, theater, poetry, literature, visual arts and crafts--and the way they have survived and thrived despite 400 years of censorship and persecution. Each week, one class will focus on the basics of the Ukrainian language, its history as a vital element of the Ukrainian culture, as well as current national language policy and practice. The second class will explore the ways that arts in Ukraine foster psychosocial, physical, and political resilience in the face of crisis. Students will engage with traditional arts and crafts, learn about leading experimental artists (1700s-present) and their role in major art movements in history, hear from an array of guest artists from Ukraine, and complete a final creative project that explores the current political moment and conflict in Ukraine.
Offering: Host
Grading: OPT
Credits: 1.00
Gen Ed Area: HA-DANC
Identical With: CSPL367, ENVS377, REES377
Prereq: None

DANC378 Repertory and Performance: The Jewel Thief: A Ballet of the Mind

In this permission of instructor repertory course, we will weave the past with the present in order to create a Neo-Baroque drama based on Alfred Hitchcock's thriller, To Catch a Thief that is studded with heiresses, thugs, and other underworld characters. Students will have the opportunity to learn 18th century French Baroque dance, the aristocratic entertainment that evolved at the court of Louis XIV. Once this foundation is laid, we will incorporate period dances and more contemporary movement into a lavish spectacle that draws inspiration from Madame Sevigny's reminiscences of the fêtes of Louis XIV's court, the 1920s modernist costume parties of the Bauhaus, and Truman Capote's infamous Black and White Ball of 1966. The course will culminate in a performance in the CFA theater December 6th and 7th, 2024, and is a collaboration with Wesleyan Music Professor Neely Bruce, composer of the score. Attendance is absolutely required. Three short reflections on your progression will be submitted over the span of the course. During performance week from Monday through Wednesday, students are required to be at all technical rehearsals in the CFA theater from 7:00 p.m. until 10:00 p.m. Dress rehearsal is Thursday, December 5th at 7:00, and the performances are on December 6th and 7th. This class is Permission of Instructor (POI). Students should have at least reached the level of Ballet II or Modern II at Wesleyan, however, movement ability of athletes and actors who have not taken those courses may all request permission of the instructor, and will be taken into consideration. Note: This narrative requires not only dancing, but the development of a character--students must be willing to abandon their comfort zone and go out on a limb! Sensational masks will be fashioned by students, and worn in performance. Please contact Professor (pbeaman@wesleyan.edu) if you have questions about the course.
Offering: Host
Grading: A-F
Credits: 1.00
Gen Ed Area: HA-DANC
Prereq: None

DANC378A Repertory and Performance: Storied Places

Grounded in the experiences of the multiple African American migrations of the late-19th and early-20th centuries, this course will explore the ideas of migration, displacement, home, and place writ large. As a community, we will collaboratively develop a performance that will utilize movement, text, and objects as research tools and creative processes as our methodology to engage these themes.



Our process in creating this work will include improvisation, development of set materials, readings, discussion, and writing. Students will have the opportunity to work alongside professional dancers as well as Wesleyan faculty and their peers in preparation for an interdisciplinary performance in the spring.
Offering: Host
Grading: A-F
Credits: 1.00
Gen Ed Area: HA-DANC
Prereq: None

DANC379 Dance as Activism

How does art effect change? Why does the phrase "social movements," include the action word - movement? In what ways does dance instigate action as a means of resistance? This course is an investigation into these questions through both lecture/discussion and embodied practices. It will look at various choreographers whose work is rooted in grappling social justice issues, choreographic and community engagement tools, as well as protests as choreographed performance art. All course work and inquiry will lead up to a final project wherein students create their own choreographic sketch/community engagement using the language of dance/performance art, as the foundation for addressing a particular historical or present social issue of their choice.
Offering: Host
Grading: A-F
Credits: 1.00
Gen Ed Area: HA-DANC
Prereq: None

DANC380 Transforming Bodies: Movement and Agency in West Africa

Dancers in West Africa embody human agency and transform historical worlds. As one elder farmer proclaimed: "Our ciwara have power[!]" Masked ciwara dancers on the Mande Pleateau call upon the collective labor of farmers to produce rural life, and more recently, have responded to transformations of the agricultural landscape. They emphasize the power of the human body over agricultural machines. Elsewhere in West Africa, the Atsiagbekor dance energized and celebrated Ewe male soldiers by acting out scenes from the battlefield. The dance movements were also secret codes used during battle to give instructions. How and when to fight, defend, or retreat depended on this embodied communication. The accompanying loud drum music served an added purpose of instilling fear in enemy ranks because it created the impression of a mighty army on the march. Still performed, the dance now symbolizes Ghanaian cultural heritage and helps to shape local historical memory.



In this course we will examine the body as an active agent in West African social and political life. We will study the historical and contemporary meanings of laboring bodies through dance and everyday movement, such as women's pounding of fufu or stirring of toh daily meals. We will also reflect on the ritual enactment of enslavement or colonial rule as a means to subvert old power structures. The body in these cases was a tool for resistance. We will also unpack multiple interpretations for specific women's embodied protests such as "sitting on a man." Collective body movement was powerful, but individual bodies might also enact healing or express religious devotion. Spirit possession, for example, marked the body as a site for human interaction with the supernatural. In this and other examples, the body is an archive in motion and subject to social renewal. By taking the body and movement as a lens, we will explore shifting histories of labor, performance, gender, politics, aesthetics, and religion from the pre-colonial era to the contemporary moment. We will also learn new ways to creatively move and narrate the African past and present.
Offering: Crosslisting
Grading: A-F
Credits: 1.00
Gen Ed Area: HA-HIST, SBS-HIST
Identical With: HIST380
Prereq: None

DANC382 Bharata Natyam III

This is an advanced technique-based Bharatanatyam course. Students are required to have taken both Bharata Natyam I (DANC261) and Bharata Natyam II (DANC362). This is to ensure that students have a foundation in both the practical and theoretical study of Bharata Natyam prior to enrolling in this course. Evaluation for the course will be based on class participation, a full-length studio performance of Bharatanatyam compositions and a short journal due at the end of semester. We will focus mainly on advanced studio work. Students will also perform one repertory piece at the Worlds of Dance concert. This advanced course is designed to further students understanding of the technique, history and changing nature of Bharatanatyam dance. The primary aim of the course is to foster an understanding of the role, function, and imaging of Bharatanatyam dance vis-à-vis ideas about tradition and modernity. The course will be moving rapidly through the material.
Offering: Host
Grading: A-F
Credits: 0.50
Gen Ed Area: HA-DANC
Identical With: GSAS383
Prereq: DANC261 OR DANC362

DANC398 Senior Colloquium in Dance Research

This course focuses on workshopping senior capstone research projects/theses, critically analyzing and situating their work within the larger fields of dance and dance research. In addition to sharing senior capstone research in progress, the course incorporates opportunities to interact and study with successful dance artists/scholars, including but not limited to, CFA visiting artists and current faculty, and to thereby encounter the most current shifts happening in the field of dance and dance research. Issues concerning dance/research that will be addressed include the following: relevance, validity, rigor, diversity and globalization, interdisciplinarity, citizenship, and social justice as they pertain to dance and dance research and to the senior capstone projects/theses specifically. This is an opportunity for our students to delve deeper into their own research while expanding their focus to better understand and frame their work in a larger context.
Offering: Host
Grading: Cr/U
Credits: 0.25
Gen Ed Area: HA-DANC
Prereq: None

DANC401 Individual Tutorial, Undergraduate

Topic to be arranged in consultation with the tutor.
Offering: Host
Grading: OPT

DANC402 Individual Tutorial, Undergraduate

Topic to be arranged in consultation with the tutor.
Offering: Host
Grading: OPT

DANC403 Department/Program Project or Essay

Project to be arranged in consultation with the tutor.
Offering: Host
Grading: A-F

DANC404 Department/Program Project or Essay

Project to be arranged in consultation with the tutor.
Offering: Host
Grading: A-F

DANC407 Senior Tutorial (downgraded thesis)

Downgraded Senior Thesis Tutorial - Project to be arranged in consultation with the tutor. Only enrolled in through the Honors Coordinator.
Offering: Host
Grading: A-F

DANC408 Senior Tutorial (downgraded thesis)

Downgraded Senior Thesis Tutorial - Project to be arranged in consultation with the tutor. Only enrolled in through the Honors Coordinator.
Offering: Host
Grading: A-F

DANC409 Senior Thesis Tutorial

Topic to be arranged in consultation with the tutor.
Offering: Host
Grading: OPT

DANC410 Senior Thesis Tutorial

Topic to be arranged in consultation with the tutor.
Offering: Host
Grading: OPT

DANC411 Group Tutorial, Undergraduate

Topic to be arranged in consultation with the tutor.
Offering: Host
Grading: OPT

DANC412 Group Tutorial, Undergraduate

Topic to be arranged in consultation with the tutor.
Offering: Host
Grading: OPT

DANC419 Student Forum

Student-run group tutorial, sponsored by a faculty member and approved by the chair of a department or program.
Offering: Host
Grading: Cr/U

DANC420 Student Forum

Student-run group tutorial, sponsored by a faculty member and approved by the chair of a department or program.
Offering: Host
Grading: Cr/U

DANC420A Student Forum

Student-run group tutorial, sponsored by a faculty member and approved by the chair of a department or program.
Offering: Crosslisting
Grading: Cr/U

DANC435 Advanced Dance Practice A

Participation as a dancer in faculty- or student-choreographed dance concerts. Course entails 30 hours of rehearsal and performance time.
Offering: Host
Grading: Cr/U
Credits: 0.25
Gen Ed Area: HA-DANC
Prereq: None

DANC444 Applied Tech Practice

Students have been required to practice technical crew work as long as we have had a major. In other departments, this work is acknowledged through the allocation of credit. Offering credit for this curricular experience brings us in line with practice in the Theater Department, and acknowledges the value we attribute to learning about production aspects of dance. Students will work under the guidance of faculty member Chelsie McPhilimy.
Offering: Host
Grading: Cr/U
Credits: 0.25
Gen Ed Area: HA-DANC
Prereq: None

DANC445 Advanced Dance Practice B

Identical with DANC435. Entails 60 hours of rehearsal and performance time.
Offering: Host
Grading: Cr/U
Credits: 0.50
Gen Ed Area: HA-DANC
Prereq: None

DANC447 Dance Teaching Practicum

This course is an exploration and practice of creating programs/projects that are relevant and inspiring for specific communities. The practicum will involve engaging with a community beyond the Wesleyan campus through dance/movement.
Offering: Host
Grading: A-F
Credits: 0.50
Gen Ed Area: None
Prereq: None

DANC491 Teaching Apprentice Tutorial

The teaching apprentice program offers undergraduate students the opportunity to assist in teaching a faculty member's course for academic credit.
Offering: Host
Grading: OPT

DANC492 Teaching Apprentice Tutorial

The teaching apprentice program offers undergraduate students the opportunity to assist in teaching a faculty member's course for academic credit.
Offering: Host
Grading: OPT

DANC501 Individual Tutorial, Graduate

Offering: Host
Grading: OPT