THDA 341, Dance Composition: This course is the study and discipline of dance-making. Students in THDA341, Dance Composition work with those in THDA 255, Lighting Design and THDA80, Performance Practice in a collaborative dance project that will culminate in public dance performances in the Theater and Dance Department Huber-Seikaly Theater. Students learn the tools of the choreographer – time, space, energy – and how they can be shaped to give the body expressive power. The course focuses on the relationships between form, content, and technique. Students choreograph short studies, improvise, discuss, and view dance on film and in live performance. The course values risk-taking and collaboration in a supportive, shared space. May be repeated for credit.
Frequency: Every Spring.
Prerequisite(s): THDA 31 or coursework in a dance technique or permission of the instructor. Students with dance experience prior to Macalester are encouraged to contact the instructor for permission to enroll.
Course Objectives
- To discover an expressive movement vocabulary based on the investigation of time, space, and energy.
- To understand the relationship between content and structure in the creative process.
- To appreciate choreography as a discipline and language.
- To write and speak articulately about dance and the process of dance-making.
- To deepen one’s self-knowledge, and to connect one’s experience of dance to one’s broader concerns.
Methodology
The creation and performance of dance studies, improvisation, discussion, feedback, readings, writing, and the viewing of dance concerts and videos. Students create solo choreography and collaborate on group pieces.
Evaluation
- Participation: 10%
- includes attendance, timeliness, commitment, effort, preparedness, energetic engagement in activities and class discussion, and “quick studies”
- 2 Response Projects: 20% (10% each)
- Performance Review: 10%
- Journal and written responses to articles: 10% (5% midterm, 5% final)
- Dance Studies: 20%
- Oral Presentation: 10%
- Midterm Collaborative Dance and Assessment Paper: 10%
- Final Dance and Assessment Paper: 10%