Theatre and Dance Courses

Course Offerings Fall 2013

Course Code	Title/Instructor	Meets
THDA 101-01	Introduction to Theatre Instructor: Todd Wronski Course Description: A course designed to encourage an understanding and appreciation of theatre as an art form. Aesthetic foundations of theatre are explored, as well as the role of various theatre practitioners in the creation of today's theatre. The course surveys the evolution of theatre through major time periods, exposing students in the process to various types of dramatic literature and theatrical practice.	1030:MWF DENNY 317
THDA 111-01	Ballet Instruction I Instructor: Nancie Imler, Sarah Skaggs Course Description: Classes taught by CPYB faculty under the direction of Marcia Dale Weary founder and artistic director of the Central Pennsylvania Youth Ballet CPYB. Instruction will utilize the precise, disciplined and repetitive methods of ballet training developed by Ms. Weary. Careful consideration to alignment, placement and proper execution of steps will be covered in depth. Dickinson students at all levels of experience are welcome but will be required to take the official placement class usually held during the first week of the semester. All classes are taught at the CPYB Warehouse and Barn studio during studio hours on or after 4:30 Monday through Friday and at 9am Saturday with other possible classes until 4pm. When taken for .5 academic credit, these courses do not fulfill a distribution requirement, but will carry 2 PE blocks. In order to qualify for 2 PE blocks, a student must take three hours of ballet weekly throughout the semester. Classes also count for those students enrolled in the CPYB Certificate program. When taken for 1 full academic credit, these courses satisfy the DIV I.c. distribution requirement and 2 PE blocks.	:
THDA 121-01	Modern Dance I Instructor: Dina-Verley Christophe Course Description: Students also earn 1 P.E. Block.	1500:TF 2527WH DANCE STU
THDA 125-01	International Dance Instructor: Janet Peck Course Description: Students also earn 1 P.E. Block.	1800:M 2527WH DANCE STU
THDA 127-01	Contemporary Ballet Instructor: Bruce Thornton Course Description: Permission of Instructor Required. Students also earn 1 P.E. Block.	1130:MWF 2527WH DANCE STU
THDA 200-01	Fundamentals of Dance Instructor: THDA STAFF, Sarah Skaggs Course Description: Students also earn 1 P.E. Block.	1330:MR 2527WH DANCE STU
THDA 203-01	Acting Instructor: Jon Liebetrau Course Description: An introduction to the principles and theories of acting combined with practical exercises and scene performance.	1500:MR CUBICU STUDIO
THDA 204-01	Fundamentals of Choreography Instructor: Sarah Skaggs Course Description: A studio-based course designed to introduce the student to various tools to generate and create original dance compositions. Basic elements such as time, space, energy, dynamics, movement generation, and quality are explored in addition to multiple structuring devices. Using an interdisciplinary lens, this course offers a different approach to art making from related fields such as visual art,literature, and media in order to treat dance composition as a relevant response to the contemporary moment. Prerequisite: 200, or permission of the instructor. One studio course in dance is recommended.	1330:TF 2527WH DANCE STU
THDA 210-01	Costumes and Props Instructor: Sherry Harper-McCombs Course Description: A course of study in dramatic production examining the collaborative relationship between designers and technicians in the major design and technical fields supporting theatre and dance production. Students will learn the work and craft of the designer as a visual artist complemented by experience with the tools and technologies which bring the designers' concepts to the stage. Two topics will be selected each semester from the fields of costuming, lighting, sceneography, stage properties production, and sound production. Basic design skills in drawing, drafting, painting, rendering, and model making will be augmented with experience in the shops and with the tools, techniques, and equipment by which abstract design concepts are brought to dramatic life. Three hours of classroom and a two-hour laboratory per week. Offered every semester with rotating topics to be announced.	0900:TR MONTGM 200 1330:W MONTGM 200
THDA 221-01	Modern Dance II Instructor: Dina-Verley Christophe Course Description: Students also earn 1 P.E. Block.	1030:TR 2527WH DANCE STU
THDA 302-01	Performativity Instructor: Patricia van Leeuwaarde Moonsammy Course Description: Cross-listed with AFST 310-02. Performance in Africa and throughout the Black Diaspora assumes a deep level of interaction between the performer and the audience. In many societies and performance contexts, the boundary between performer and audience is difficult, if not impossible to define. Whereas some performance contexts are structured around a lead performer issuing a call to which the wider audience responds, other spheres of social activity in which performance is a base of communication and expression enable more egalitarian, communal, multidirectional, performative connections between participants. In this course, students will learn the history of the development of the field of performance studies, and explore a range of theories that interrogate the idea of performance and performativity as modes of expressive culture and communication. Using case studies from Africa and other locations with significant populations of African descended people, students will investigate how performance theory has been applied in a range of scholarly and popular genres. In addition to exploring a wide range of call and response performance interactions as expressions of social, political, religious, and emotional engagements and commentaries, this course also seeks to understand the concept of blackness in various temporal and spatial settings, and as a framework for understanding racial, political, cultural, national and historical connections and affinities between groups of people separated by wide expanses of land and sea. A central aim of this course is to challenge the idea that blackness exclusively means Africanness, and rather, to explore the nuances of what blackness signifies.	1330:MR ALTHSE 07
THDA 305-01	Advanced Directing Instructor: Todd Wronski Course Description: An inquiry into the process of translating a play from the printed text to the live stage. Detailed analytical techniques and major directorial theories are examined through readings, class discussion, and written assignments. Each student directs a one-act production under advisement of the instructor. Prerequisite: 205 and 210.	1500:TF MONTGM 100
THDA 321-01	Modern Dance III Instructor: Dina-Verley Christophe Course Description: Students also earn 1 P.E. Block.	1030:TR 2527WH DANCE STU