Dance Courses

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		Courses Offered:

	At Sweet Briar College we offer a great variety of courses in dance. In technique, the program is based in modern dance. However, ballet, jazz, and yoga are also offered. Four courses in choreography, two courses in dance history, and several courses in teaching, anatomy, yoga, aesthetics, and dance criticism are all part of the dance curriculum. Special studies in choreography, video dance, history, and other areas can be done. Classes are open to all Sweet Briar students except when prerequisites are required. For a full list of courses, visit the SBC Registrar site.

Dance Technique Courses are available in modern, ballet, jazz, and yoga. These courses are offered on several skill levels and are designed to challenge, strengthen, and encourage students to increase their mastery of dance technique.

Dance Composition Courses develop students' understanding of the choreographic craft using the concepts of time, space, and energy. Developing themes, expanding personal movement vocabulary, and experimenting with different points of view in solo and group dances are explored in these courses.

Dance History Courses cover dance from prehistoric times to the present. Everything from world dance and the Romantic Ballet to Post Modern Dance are represented visually through the dance program's extensive video collection.

Anatomy and Kinesiology are the systematic studies of skeletal and muscular systems of the human body. These courses include an introduction to somatic techniques to help develop a more efficient use of the body.

Methods of Teaching Creative Movement and Dance prepares the student for the field of dance education. Lesson planning, classroom management, historical perspectives, working with the handicapped, and student teaching in the Amherst County Public Schools are all a part of the course.

Aesthetics and Dance Criticism reviews the origin and theories of aesthetics around the world, and concentrates on the different styles of the major dance critics.

In addition to these offered courses, our visiting artist program and our association with the Virginia Center for the Creative Arts (VCCA) is a great benefit for our students. Last fall the department hosted a master class by performers from the Doug Varonne Dance Company. Meredith Monk, Bill T. Jones, Pilobolus, Bebe Miller, Alvin Ailey, and Erick Hawkins have all performed and taught master classes at Sweet Briar College. Clay Taliaferro, who was in Jose Limon's Company, is a frequent guest technique teacher. In the dance composition classes New York City composer Joelle Wallach shared some of her music for dance. The dance program sponsored two VCCA fellows, Dan Froot, a choreographer, and Walter Thompson, a composer, who worked together at the VCCA and then shared their ideas with Sweet Briar dancers. Many other VCCA fellows have shared their art with Sweet Briar dance over the years. Choreographers Sarah Skaggs, an alumnae of Sweet Briar College with her own dance company in New York City, and Victoria Marks, an award winning video dance choreographer from Los Angeles, both VCCA fellows, have spent considerable time with our students. Visit the Virginia Center for the Creative Arts website at www.vcca.com