Class and Labs
Interdisciplinary Courses
When Movement Creates Environment Studio
@NuVu Innovation School
Dance + Architecture + Student interest
In this studio, students will have an immersive experience, exploring how dance and architecture influence one another, and how all have the capacity to become dancers in the way we engage with our built environment. Through a series of studies students will investigate the harmony between the body and the built form, using movement as a means of studying body and space relationship and utilizing choreography as a vehicle for design investigation.
Dance on Film
Course Description: This class explores the intersections of dance and film, which both use elements of time and motion to express ideas and emotion. It is a collaborative course that allows dancers and filmmakers to learn and create work together. Activities include screenings, filming techniques, experimentation time, rehearsal shoots, and editing techniques. Projects are student driven and collaboratively created.
@NuVu Innovation School
Dance + Architecture + Student interest
In this studio, students will have an immersive experience, exploring how dance and architecture influence one another, and how all have the capacity to become dancers in the way we engage with our built environment. Through a series of studies students will investigate the harmony between the body and the built form, using movement as a means of studying body and space relationship and utilizing choreography as a vehicle for design investigation.
Dance on Film
Course Description: This class explores the intersections of dance and film, which both use elements of time and motion to express ideas and emotion. It is a collaborative course that allows dancers and filmmakers to learn and create work together. Activities include screenings, filming techniques, experimentation time, rehearsal shoots, and editing techniques. Projects are student driven and collaboratively created.
Moving off the page: Running with story from text
In this course, students will explore the power of movement to carry meaning in film. Students will develop several silent film projects over the course of the semester. The primary activity will be learning to direct non-verbal action. We will approach the conversion of dialogue and text into motion using traditional and experimental tactics. Students will have experience directing performers in body language including facial expressions, posture, gesture, stance, full-bodied motion and more.
In this course, students will explore the power of movement to carry meaning in film. Students will develop several silent film projects over the course of the semester. The primary activity will be learning to direct non-verbal action. We will approach the conversion of dialogue and text into motion using traditional and experimental tactics. Students will have experience directing performers in body language including facial expressions, posture, gesture, stance, full-bodied motion and more.
Performing Technology
Course Description:This independent study course will embody a workshop or laboratory format, exploring relationships between performance and technology. We will investigate the approaches of practitioners situated at this intersection, through readings, screenings, physical experiments, and discussions. Through a series of performed studies, students can expand their own understanding of what constitutes performance and technology
Course Description:This independent study course will embody a workshop or laboratory format, exploring relationships between performance and technology. We will investigate the approaches of practitioners situated at this intersection, through readings, screenings, physical experiments, and discussions. Through a series of performed studies, students can expand their own understanding of what constitutes performance and technology
Special Topics: Dance and Media
Course Description:
This course is built on a series of small and diverse experiments with dance and technology. Through practice, discussion and writing this course will take place across various stages of an artistic process including research, experimentation, analysis, presentation, reflection and documentation. The course will survey precedents and contemporary innovations in the field of dance and media. It will provide an overview of the technical skills required to operate sensors, cameras, social media platforms, and software.
Course Description:
This course is built on a series of small and diverse experiments with dance and technology. Through practice, discussion and writing this course will take place across various stages of an artistic process including research, experimentation, analysis, presentation, reflection and documentation. The course will survey precedents and contemporary innovations in the field of dance and media. It will provide an overview of the technical skills required to operate sensors, cameras, social media platforms, and software.
Movement Classes
Contemporary Technique
Course Description: Each week, we will introduce, explore, and harness a different principle of release technique to expand our experience of contemporary dance. Departing from a focus on functional anatomy, the organizing principles that we will examine will be moving from bone weight, sourcing dynamic support from deep core muscles, a distal release of the limbs, alignment with energetic trajectories, fluidity of sequencing, and the multilevel practice of sensing movement. Every class provides a warm up, sequences training for stability, improvisation, and phrase work.
Course Description: Each week, we will introduce, explore, and harness a different principle of release technique to expand our experience of contemporary dance. Departing from a focus on functional anatomy, the organizing principles that we will examine will be moving from bone weight, sourcing dynamic support from deep core muscles, a distal release of the limbs, alignment with energetic trajectories, fluidity of sequencing, and the multilevel practice of sensing movement. Every class provides a warm up, sequences training for stability, improvisation, and phrase work.
Modern Dance Styles
Course Description: Through the study of several modern dance techniques, this studio course fosters strong technique, expanded range of motion and efficiency of movement. Warm-ups and center movement phrases include elements of release techniques in contemporary dance to develop coordination, strength and flexibility. Somatic practices, such as yoga and developmental movement patterns, promote body awareness and alignment. Theoretical underpinnings of the techniques and the biographies of the choreographers working with this language are discussed.
Course Description: Through the study of several modern dance techniques, this studio course fosters strong technique, expanded range of motion and efficiency of movement. Warm-ups and center movement phrases include elements of release techniques in contemporary dance to develop coordination, strength and flexibility. Somatic practices, such as yoga and developmental movement patterns, promote body awareness and alignment. Theoretical underpinnings of the techniques and the biographies of the choreographers working with this language are discussed.
Introduction to Dance for the Beginner
Course Description: This course is designed for the student with no previous dance experience. The course will introduce the novice student to basic dance technique while examining the creative process of dance making, and exposing the student to performance skills both through viewing and executing dances. Students will engage in movement classes with an emphasis on physical, social, and emotional wellness, view dance works though a cultural lens, and create choreographic compositions in response to ethical issues.
Course Description: This course is designed for the student with no previous dance experience. The course will introduce the novice student to basic dance technique while examining the creative process of dance making, and exposing the student to performance skills both through viewing and executing dances. Students will engage in movement classes with an emphasis on physical, social, and emotional wellness, view dance works though a cultural lens, and create choreographic compositions in response to ethical issues.
Movement Awareness and Analysis | Experiential Anatomy
Course Description: A course covering the fundamentals of movement, linking theory and techniques from the disciplines of dance and theatre. Using anatomical principles to understand effective use of the skeletal and muscular systems, students are guided, through an interplay of theory and practical work, toward efficient posture and movement habits and test the presence, action, and performance necessary for effective communication and the development of a physical language.
Course Description: A course covering the fundamentals of movement, linking theory and techniques from the disciplines of dance and theatre. Using anatomical principles to understand effective use of the skeletal and muscular systems, students are guided, through an interplay of theory and practical work, toward efficient posture and movement habits and test the presence, action, and performance necessary for effective communication and the development of a physical language.
Theory
Introduction to Dance Studies
Course Description: This course foregrounds the development of a critical awareness about choreography and the dancing body. We will approach dance-making as the articulation of a particular point of view—an exercise in which social ideas are embedded and expressed through the body. Rather than viewing dance as an individual, context-free practice, we will engage the larger implications of our aesthetic choices, examining their underlying principles through a variety of means: familiarizing ourselves with key concepts in critical dance studies; viewing and analyzing a range of dance pieces; learning about the choreographic processes of diverse artists; and creating dance pieces. The readings, visual materials, and discussions with choreographers will act as a springboard for our thinking about how and why we make dances.
Course Description: This course foregrounds the development of a critical awareness about choreography and the dancing body. We will approach dance-making as the articulation of a particular point of view—an exercise in which social ideas are embedded and expressed through the body. Rather than viewing dance as an individual, context-free practice, we will engage the larger implications of our aesthetic choices, examining their underlying principles through a variety of means: familiarizing ourselves with key concepts in critical dance studies; viewing and analyzing a range of dance pieces; learning about the choreographic processes of diverse artists; and creating dance pieces. The readings, visual materials, and discussions with choreographers will act as a springboard for our thinking about how and why we make dances.
Dance History
This course examines the history of dance, with an emphasis on Western theatrical dance including ballet, modern, and jazz/musical theater. From examples of ritualistic dance to concert dance this course studies artists and the cultural phenomena important to the development of contemporary dance in the United States. Students will also look at dance as an expression of human culture and analyze the key developments in dance as they relate to social, political and historical change. Considerations of race, gender, age, and physical ability are included.
This course examines the history of dance, with an emphasis on Western theatrical dance including ballet, modern, and jazz/musical theater. From examples of ritualistic dance to concert dance this course studies artists and the cultural phenomena important to the development of contemporary dance in the United States. Students will also look at dance as an expression of human culture and analyze the key developments in dance as they relate to social, political and historical change. Considerations of race, gender, age, and physical ability are included.
Labs & Workshops
NuVu Studio
I consulted on the Shifting Center Studio in April 2018. I brought my dance practice and problem solving skills together in this course with these students. We completed a dance class, studied physics, and experimented with protoypes of objects that shift the way that you move and shift your center.
I consulted on the Shifting Center Studio in April 2018. I brought my dance practice and problem solving skills together in this course with these students. We completed a dance class, studied physics, and experimented with protoypes of objects that shift the way that you move and shift your center.
Harvard Student Center
Modern Lovers
I taught a short dance class for graduate students at Harvard. We ended in phrase work and an grande improvisation experiment.
Modern Lovers
I taught a short dance class for graduate students at Harvard. We ended in phrase work and an grande improvisation experiment.