Technique | Performance and Concert Video link | Choreography | Lecture/Seminar | The Major and the Minor | Summer Internships | More
Many students come to Bryn Mawr with studio and performance experience and we are committed and prepared to fully support their continued growth in dance as an art and an area of creative impulse, but we are equally interested in providing a solid and engaging introduction to dance for those who have had less or no experience.
Each year we offer three levels of ballet and modern and two levels of jazz as well as African dance forms, Ballet workshop, Movement Improvisation, entry level tap, a vernacular form such as salsa or hip-hop, and some form of support technique, typically Pilates mat work. We do not offer a pointe course but we have added a pointe barre to some of our advanced ballet courses and students with prior training can discuss with their instructor the possibility of taking barre/centre en pointe. We also offer, on a rotating basis, courses in Classical Indian Dance (at present, Kathak) and Flamenco (Sevillanas).Students at Bryn Mawr and Haverford can also take advantage of classes at our consortium colleague, Swarthmore, and there is some support for dancers at the advanced level to take additional classes in nearby studios or in Philadelphia.
Introductory courses can have an enrollment ranging from 10 to 30 depending on the studio location and the nature of the course. Intermediate and Advanced levels generally enroll 6-15 students per course. Ensembles enroll by audition and, according to the needs of the choreographer, have ranged from 4-15 dancers. Advanced and intermediate classes are generally offered twice a week for an hour and a half. Students can select classes from the slate of courses to create a schedule that meets their needs and accommodates their academic studies. Please click “courses” in the top menu bar for the most recent or for a typical semester schedule.
All technique and ensemble courses can be taken for PE credit but some intermediate and advanced technique courses and some ensembles can be taken for academic credit instead. Students can elect to document their participation in dance in a number of ways. Some students will take dance courses to fulfill their PE requirement and a course to fulfill one of their humanities divisional requirements and audit courses for the remainder of their study at Bryn Mawr or Haverford. Some will choose to minor (6 courses: 3 required, 3 electives), a popular option in general here, and a few will choose to major in dance or performance or to double major. Our double majors have included: Dance/Psychology; Dance/Anthropology, Dance/Mathematics, and others. The important thing is that we work to encourage and support your participation at the level and intensity that is most appropriate for your experience and interest during any given semester.
-Performance Courses and Opportunities
You can gain experience in performance through the Modern, Ballet, Jazz, and African ensembles. These ensemble courses, which are open to students by audition, perform works created by dance faculty and by visiting choreographers. This year, our choreographers included Myra Bazell, an independent choreographer and co-director of SCRAP Performance Group; Heidi Cruz, an independent choreographer and dancer with the Pennsylvania Ballet; Kun-Yang Lin, Artistic Director of Kun-Yang Lin/Dancers; and Jeannine Osayande, director of DUNYA!. We also worked with the Repertory Etudes Project, setting etudes by noted choreographers, David Parsons and Danny Buracewski on our dancers. We have brought in choreographers from NYC to set works on our students and have commissioned reconstructions from the Dance Notation Bureau, the Jose Limon Foundation, and Trisha Brown Dance Company. All of the danceworks are performed in the annual Spring Dance Concert in conjunction with works produced by our advanced choreography students. These student choreographic projects also provide another opportunity for student dancers to perform.
Additional performance experiences are available through participation in the Dance Outreach Program, a community based project, under the guidance of associate director, Mady Cantor, that visits schools in the Philadelphia area, reaching 1500 to 2000 children each year and introducing them to dance through a program of original choreography which is supported by original music and costuming as well.
We also showcase student choreography in two yearly concerts. Tabitha is a student group organized a few years ago to provide more performance experience for serious-minded dancers. It is given by students as a May Day gift each year to a rising senior who shows promise as a choreographer. The Tabitha concert generally takes place in early Spring and is supported in a studio performance by the Dance Program. In addition, we are into our second decade of the student produced Fall Student Concert. This concert is supported by the program but is entirely managed by students, from selecting pieces to overseeing tech and performance needs, and runs for two performances at Haverford. The program includes a range of work including experienced and new choreographers from the program as well as other campus or bi-college dance groups.
Beyond all of this, individual students and student groups that are danced-based or that have an interest in dance are also active on campus. These presently range from Irish Dance to the Mayuri Dance team, to a Bangra Dance group at Haverford. Sometimes, these performances are supported by the program in studio performances and, at other times, they take place under the directorship of a student organization such as South Asian Women, Mujeres, or The Sisterhood. See the SGA activities page and check under the 'cultural' and the 'performing arts' headings although these lists are sometimes incomplete.
Click here for excerpts from Spring 2006 Concert
-Classes in Composition and Choreography
You can explore the creative aspect of dance in three levels of Dance Composition courses, which are considered academic classes and receive credit as such. Level I introduces students to basic elements of dance design and focuses on solo and group 'studies' that explore each of these elements in more depth. This intro level is open to students regardless of their level of dance training. Level II focuses on more advanced choreographic concepts and helps students to develop more extended solo work and group work. Both courses also help students to learn to constructively evaluate their own work and the work of others. Advanced choreography is a semester long tutorial in which a student, under the guidance of a faculty mentor, develops a work of more significant length and one of consequence to her artistic sensibility. In addition, independent student choreography is both supported and encouraged.
As a complement to applied dance, a selection of courses, focusing on the creative, critical, and conceptual processes of dance, serves as an introduction to fields of scholarly inquiry that emanate from dance as art or ritual. These include Dance History I and II; Approaches to Dance: Themes and Perspectives; and Anthropology of Dance. Bryn Mawr has also engaged visiting professors who have taught lecture courses within a specialized topic or that explore dance forms and cultures beyond traditional Western theatre dance. In addition, students may utilize an independent study option in dance and those who have elected to do so have produced a variety of final projects ranging from self-produced dance concerts to scholarly papers.
In addition to our usual core of academic courses we were, over the last few years, able to take advantage of a two year post-doctoral Mellon position shared between Dance and Feminist and Gender studies to provide challenging courses to our students. Dr. Yutian Wong, who received her Ph.D in Dance from UC Riverside and who is presently on faculty in both Dance and Asian-American Studies at University of Illinois, taught: Dance, Race, and Gender; Asian American Cultural Studies and Performance; Performing the Political Body; and Performing Feminist Theories. Dr. Brenda Dixon Gottschild, a noted dance/cultural scholar and critic who is located in Philadelphia, has taught both Contemporary Dance History as well as Africanisms in American Culture: Dance and other contexts, which was cross-listed with Africana Studies. Dr. Pallabi Chakravorty has taught courses for both Dance and Anthropology including Anthropology of Dance; Classical Indian Dance: from Nationalism to Globalization, Continuities in African Dance, and Asian-Pacific American Identities and will teach a course this Fall on Dancing Desire in bollywood Films. In 2002-03, Mady Cantor introduced a course that joins a select but growing number of ‘Praxis’ courses that the college is presently offering. Arts Teaching in Community and Educational Settings, which will become part of our regular schedule of offerings, is intended for students who have substantial experience in an art form and are interested in extending that experience into teaching and learning in educational and community settings.
Students at Bryn Mawr can choose to minor in dance. Requirements for the dance minor are six units of course work: three required courses, one each in the areas of academic research and study, dance composition, and movement or performance techniques, and three elective courses. In their elective courses, students may choose to continue a general study of dance or to emphasize one aspect of the field, but must first consult with the dance faculty regarding the course of study. In some cases, it is possible that students interested in the minor will not have had sufficient training in technique or performance to qualify for the required technique/performance course. In those instances, students must still enroll for a full year of technical study in an elected technique for PE credit and would fulfill what in this case would be their four elective credits through the selection of one additional approved dance or dance related course.
Required courses:
Dance 140 Approaches to Dance: Themes and Perspectives (1 credit)
Dance 142 Dance Composition I (1 credit)
Dance 230/231 Intermediate Techniques;Dance 330/331 Advanced Techniques or 345(section 01,02,03 or 04)Performance Ensembles (each of these is .5 credit per semester and you will need a total of 1 credit)
Students wishing to MINOR or MAJOR in Dance or to CHOREOGRAPH for the Spring Concert should consider completing DANCE COMPOSITION I by Spring of their second year. Dance Comp I is required for the major and minor and student choreography for the Spring Concert is selected from work produced in the Advanced Choreography course which has Comp I and II as prerequisites. If you are taking Dance Comp I or II, you are required to take at least one technique class per week, preferably
two.
Students can also petition to apply for an independent major in dance. Students work with a faculty sponsor to assist them in the design and completion of their programs which typically include
1)
eleven (11) courses (drawn primarily from courses offered at Bryn Mawr, Haverford, or Swarthmore) in the selected area(s) of study. The program design must reflect a coherent and structured plan of study moving from introductory through advanced levels of work and engagement. All majors must complete the three courses required by the Minor and work with their faculty advisors to select their remaining courses.
2) regular attendance at technique classes
3) a capstone experience: e.g. significant choreographic project, research project culminating in a significant essay or report, etc.
4) if the student elects not to do a senior project with a significant writing component, s/he must submit, in the first semester of her/his senior year, a portfolio of writing that consists of a minimum of 10 pages of writing that that has been done during the course of the major, distributed, over at least 2 assignments. One paper, essay, journal entry, or critique must be at least three-four pages in length. You may keep papers and hand in the portfolio in toto, or you can hand in papers to us whenever you want indicating that they should go into your portfolio file. The purpose is only to ensure that our students have achieved a basic level of competency in expressing themselves in writing. If we feel that the work shows serious deficiencies, we'll require a .5 independent writing project during the senior year around a topic of your choice that is dance-related.
Past Majors have included a strong focus on choreography and performance and several students have elected to do double majors in Dance/Anthropology, Dance/Psychology, Dance/Philosophy, Dance/English or Comparative Literature, and Dance/Mathematics.
-Summer Study Internships and Grants
There are several summer internships and research possibilities that are open to proposals in the arts. In addition, there is a specific Summer Arts Internship sponsoring work with an arts-related organization and a Summer Dance Study Grant (click for info and photos) desisgned to support a student enrolled in a recognized summer dance technique program. For more information contact the Dean's Office or the Dance Office.
Additional contact with and experience in dance is provided during the academic year through the sponsorship of master classes, lectures, residencies, and performances by distinguished companies and guest artists. Visiting companies through the Performing Arts Series have included the Liz Lerman Dance Exchange, Gus Giordano Company, Tango Kinesis, Blondell Cummings, David Dorfman, Alvin Ailey Repertory Company, Rennie Harris PureMovement, New York Baroque Dance Company, Dance Brazil, Trisha Brown Dance Company, Garth Fagan Dance Theatre, Jane Comfort Dance, Chuck Davis African American Dance Ensemble, Sean Curran, Ballet Hispanico, and others. Other recent events have included a workshop with the great pioneer of interdisciplinary performance, Meredith Monk, and technique workshops ranging from Graham technique with former Graham dancer, Jeanne Ruddy, to a Dunham class with 'Bessie' winner, Kim Bears-Baily, to an introduction to Capoeira with Ron Wood aka Zen One; a studio performance of Tongue Smell Color:a movement theater discourse in eighteen episodes, created and performed by dance critic/writer/performer, Brenda Dixon Gottschild and master choreograper, Hellmut Gottschild; a studio performance of choreographer Merián Soto's dynamic new piece with dancers and musicians, La Máquina del Tiempo; concerts of student work; and writer, critic, scholar, Dr. Tim Scholl, lecturing on "Waking Sleeping Beauty: Reviving a Pre-Revolutionary Ballet in Post-Soviet St. Petersburg." Bryn Mawr is also in easy reach of the Philadelphia dance community with access to excellent performance events featuring both local and touring companies. We run at least two field trips a year into the city to see dance and encourage our students to take advantage of the city as often as possible