Dance and Movement Studies
Dance and Movement Studies Minor
Dance and Movement Studies provides an experiential program that explores the relationship of movement to self, culture, and environment. Dance and Movement Studies courses are available to all students.
Dance and Movement Studies at a glance
4
Annual concerts
3
Department-sponsored student organizations
Dance and Movement Studies (DMS) courses are available to all students
Some students choose to include dance in their academic program by becoming DMS minors. Some dance to fulfill distribution requirements. Others dance to enhance prior study, and still others come to explore dance and movement for the first time.
DMS students are encouraged to find their own uniqueness.
It is important to be able to explore, evaluate, and define what one's truth/voice is, and to experience this process in a safe, supportive, and honest environment.
How significant is it to be present in your body?
Students explore the body-mind as a dynamic system. This system is in constant flux through personal choice and environmental influences, including influences from assumptions inherent in simply being.
Students are encouraged to take Principles of Movement and two practice classes. Practice classes include Modern, Tap, Jazz, Ballet, Ballroom, Tang Soo Do, Yoga, and Meditation.
Students are encouraged to take FSDMS — Dance: Ritual of Experience, Creative Process 370, and practice classes.
Students are encouraged to take Creative Process 371, one of the Dance & Movement Studies electives, and practice classes. Elective classes include History of Contemporary Dance, Movement and Meaning, and Neuroscience of Dance and Movement.
Students are encouraged to participate in the Dance Minors Concert and take two practice classes.
What will I Learn in the Dance and Movement Studies Program?
DMS 100 — Principles of Movement
Apply basic anatomical relationships to the felt sense of the body, including the expressiveness inherent in movement.
FS DMS 201 — Dance: Ritual of Experience and DMS 470 History of Contemporary Dance
Gain insights into dance as representative of cultural contexts and values. Develop skills in presenting, both in writing and in speaking, topics from the discipline of Dance and Movement Studies.
DMS 370/371
Learn to identify one's inner voice. Develop a unique movement vocabulary with the understand that the use traditional technical movement is a support not a focus. Discover the power of the reflection. Understand that mistakes are opportunities.
Class of 2018
“ A friend had to drag me to my first dance social, but she eventually helped me to choose my first class, too. Then I chose the path of an apprentice and became a teaching assistant from there. This turned into exploring the world of modern/contemporary dancing and tap, which turned into choreographing my own piece for Orchesis, and then, finally, choosing my career as a professional dancer and dance instructor. Education tends to give students an ultimatum: You either do this or you won’t succeed. In dance, there’s always another option that empowers the student to keep exploring. ”