Dance at Hampshire College

Dance
The Hampshire Dance Program prepares students for advanced work in dance and movement studies. Students can concentrate in specific areas such as choreography and performance, dance history and criticism, or somatic studies, or combine dance with other fields such as theater, film, anthropology, psychology, kinesiology, education, or religion. Final projects might involve choreographing and producing a concert of original work, or undertaking in-depth research and writing.

The Hampshire Dance Program and Five College Dance Department have a very active program for students interested in other applications of dance studies or related fields as well, including such areas as dance and technology, somatics and expressive arts, dance education, and community outreach.

Read our latest information about Division II and III in Dance and Movement Studies here:

hampedia.org/w/images/3/39/Divisional_Advising_11.21.11.pdf

Student Project Titles

 * Allow Dance And Movement (A.D.A.M.): Creative Dance and Creative Drama in the Inclusive Special Education Classroom
 * Contemporary Dance Practice: Identity, Multiculturalism, and Fusion
 * Strategic Rebellions from Revelations to Revolutions: A Choreographic Investigation into Social Justice Through

Concert Dance


 * An Education of the Movin’ and Groovin’: Why We Should All Be Dancing
 * A Choreographic Exploration Inspired by Alvin Ailey

Featured Faculty Profiles
Daphne A. Lowell Professor of Dance and Movement Studies

Rebecca Nordstrom Co-coordinator of the Hampshire Dance Program, Professor of Dance and Movement Studies

Constance Valis Hill Visiting Five College Associate Professor of Dance

Sample First-Year Course

 * Centering: Metaphors in Motion

In dance, centering is both a physical and metaphorical quest. It is the Holy Grail we seek in our daily physical and creative work. It is also a concept important in other cultural practices: in other arts, architecture, religion, sports or martial arts. We’ll investigate this suggestive, seemingly abstract idea in movement and image to learn ways of grounding and developing such a concept in and through physical, artistic form. We’ll study somatic theories (Sweigard’s Ideokinesis, Cohen’s BodyMind Centering, Bartenieff’s Fundamentals), complicate our understanding of centering through improvisations (working, for example, with polarity, balance, simultaneity, repetition), and study examples of this concept evident in the work of others artists/engineers. Throughout we’ll consider differing cultural and personal interpretations of the concept. This is not a dance technique course, but it is a studio course for dancers and other artists and anyone interested in exploring the physical and symbolic properties of the center.

Sample Courses at Hampshire

 * Black Traditions in American Dance
 * Contemplative Dance/Authentic Movement
 * Choreography on Film
 * Dance &amp; Culture
 * Dance Composition I, II &amp; III
 * Dancing in Context
 * Dance Repertory
 * Division III Dance Seminar
 * Embodied Imagination
 * Group Improvisation: Exploring Creative Dance
 * Introductory &amp; Intermediate Dance
 * Composition
 * Jazz Modernism
 * Laban Movement Analysis
 * Modern Dance I, II, III, IV &amp; V
 * Somatics: Thinking Body/Moving Mind
 * Sources of Creativity
 * The Body &amp; Film
 * Twentieth Century American Dance: Sixties Vanguard to Nineties Hip Hop

Through the Consortium

 * Ballet I, II, III, IV &amp; V (MHC)
 * Beginning Contact Improv (SC)
 * Contemporary Dance: West African (AC)
 * Cultural Dance: Flamenco (SC)
 * Dance History (UMass)
 * Dance Technique &amp; Repertory (AC)
 * Jazz I, II, III &amp; IV (SC)
 * The Language of Movement (AC)
 * Renaissance Dance (MHC)

Facilities and Resources

 * Resources for Dancers and Choreographers

The Hampshire Dance Program’s facilities include: two sprung-floor dance studios, one of which converts into a fully equipped performance space; state-of-the-art sound and video equipment; and a substantial dance, video, and film collection. Both the small and main dance studios are found in the Music and Dance Building in the Longsworth Art Village, as are the faculty offices.

The Hampshire College library and archives recently acquired the Barbara Mettler dance archive, an extensive collection documenting her career of more than 60 years in creative dance. Mettler’s hallmark was creative improvisation, and her conviction that all people could participate in this creative act led her to work primarily with laypeople rather than professional dancers. She wrote extensively and produced a number of films and videos that document her teaching. The collection includes films and videotapes, correspondence and other paper records, scrapbooks, and photographs. The collection comes to Hampshire as a bequest from Mettler’s estate after her death in 2002.

The Five College Dance Department is one of the few coordinated multi-college departments in the country. This program is an incredible resource. Among the five colleges, a complete and varied schedule of classes is offered, with courses planned and coordinated together as a complete curriculum. A unique benefit of the Five College Dance Department is the ability to work with a wide range of faculty members. Performances, lectures, workshops, and special events are continually happening throughout the Pioneer Valley.

Information Quoted From:http://www.hampshire.edu/admissions/dance.htm