Dance Making 1

Course Content:

This module is designed to improve students? critical appreciation and creative skills. In
these sessions students will learn new choreographic techniques from a variety of
performance disciplines.

Topics covered include:
? Physical ?listening? and response
? Practical explorations of physical and kinetic interrelationships, eg,
mirroring, following, developing, opposing
? Using visual, physical, spatial, emotional and sensory imagery as
improvisational stimulus
? Extensions of contact improvisation techniques, eg, point, roll, slide,
exchange of weight, lifts, balances
? Exploring aspects of their own identity through personal movement
language and style (starting points might include images, words or
objects expressive of the student?s sense of her/his identity, situations
provoking particular physical responses, memories etc)
? Creating ?dialogues? between their own choreographies and those of
others
? Responding to ideas, themes, images and objects from beyond the self
(suggested by the tutor, might include movement-based ideas such as
freedom and constriction; abstract ideas such as ?the colour blue?;
concrete items such as a prop or piece of furniture)

They extend and shape their choreographies through:
? Employing choreographic tools such as the manipulation of time, space
and force; theme and variation; the dynamic arc
? Converting a solo to a duet (hence employing further tools such as
unison, canon, opposition, contradiction, exchange of weight)
? Critical reflection upon their own and each others? choreographies
? Discussion of the similar and differing criteria for success for popular
(including commercial) and contemporary dance.
? Further understanding of choreographic principles is gained through
watching and discussing relevant examples of professional
choreographies (eg. Nilima Devi, Russell Maliphant, Wayne MacGregor,
Jonzi D, George Balanchine, Darren Dewitt Henson, Wade Robson, JaQuel
Knight, Arlene Philips, Laurieann Gibson, Brian Friedman).

Teaching: Workshops and Seminars

Assessment:
STUDY OPTION 1:
? Students will select up to 6 minutes of material from their "works-in-progress"
(may include solos or a duet from the material they have created)
STUDY OPTION 2 OR 3:
As for option 1.

Study Option 1 = Whole Year
Study Option 2 = Autumn
Study Option 3 = Spring/summer