Contemporary Dance

DANC 201/A (Fall/Winter, 2023/2024): CREATIVE PROCESS I

DANC 250/A (Winter 2024): ASPECTS OF PROD. FOR DANCE

DANC 398/D (Winter 2024): SPECIAL TOPICS IN DANCE

DANC 398/F (Winter 2024): SPECIAL TOPICS IN DANCE

DANC 398/GA (Summer 2024): SPECIAL TOPICS IN DANCE

This intensive summer course (15 days) is organized around the programming of the Festival

TransAmériques which takes place in Montreal from May 22–June 5, 2023. The course will expose students to national and international contemporary choreographic and theatrical creations and will provoke encounters between the students, the performing arts and its practitioners. The course seeks to provide students with an intimate experience of the festival and its programming. Engaging with theoretical and practical notions pertinent to contemporary creation including performativity, dramaturgy, decolonization, indigenous perspectives, market economy and participation students will explore various theatrical and choreographic perspectives that shed light on the concerns of contemporary creators and that will allow students to hone their visions as both makers and audience-members.

DANC 398/D (Fall 2024): SPECIAL TOPICS IN DANCE

This course explores improvisation as a critical practice of inclusion and resistance. Class elements are warm-up, theory (reading and discussion), practice, presentation (performance and discussion), a public performance and two assignments. We will build improvisation sets that encompass the aesthetics, values, and needs of those present while acknowledging those who are not present. We will explore several choreographic practices from the 1960s to today. Acknowledging the political environment in which practices have emerged, we will read and discuss texts that activate improvisation as a possible decolonial form. Open to music and theatre students, the course fosters interdisciplinary collaboration with input from both departments and guest teachers.