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UNCG Home > School of Health & Human Performance > Dance Department

Dance Technique Handbook, UNCG Department Of Dance Spring 2003

Introduction

This Handbook is designed to explain the student learning goals for all dance technique classes at UNCG, the various teaching methods and assignments your teachers will utilize in helping you to achieve these goals, and the ways in which you will be evaluated and graded in technique class. You will also find in these pages an explanation of departmental policies related to placement and advancement in the technique curriculum. We present this information both to make sure that you understand the values and beliefs that inform our studio curriculum, and to initiate what we hope will be an ongoing dialogue with you about your efforts to achieve excellence in dancing. Each faculty member possesses significant professional expertise and stands ready at all times to helping you to grow. We urge you to make good use of your time with us by coming to class each day ready to work, and by seeking us out whenever you have questions or wish to share ideas.

Contents

(Please Click on a Heading to go to your area of interest):
Student Learning Goals
A Few Words On "Talent"
Explanation of the Learning Goals

• Body Preparedness
• Dance as Art
• Effort and Professionalism

Advancement in the Technique Sequences
Dance Technique Feedback Sheet

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Student Learning Goals

To the degree appropriate for each level of training, instruction in dance technique courses at UNCG is directed toward helping students to achieve the following learning goals:

Goals related to body preparedness for dance

1. Develop and maintain proper alignment for dance while standing;
2. Develop and maintain proper alignment for dance while in motion;
3. Develop physical strength and stamina as appropriate for specific dance forms;
4. Develop flexibility/range of joint motion as appropriate for specific dance form

Goals related to dance art

1. Grasp and retain the sequence of exercises and combinations;
2. Grasp and retain the nuances of rhythm/phrasing of exercises and combinations;
3. Grasp and retain the qualitative dimensions of exercises/combinations;
4. Maintain whole-body and body part clarity of spatial orientation in movement;
5. Progress quickly from learning to performing movement;
6. Implement technical/artistic corrections consistently & in all applicable contexts.

Goals related to effort and professionalism

All students are expected to demonstrate an attitude of commitment toward instruction and correction, and to demonstrate a sense of personal responsibility to learning by:

• observing carefully;
• listening actively;
• practicing on the side;
• completing all written assignments on time and with thoroughness and clarity,
• learning and using correct terminology.

The above efforts, along with the learning goals related to body preparedness and dance as art, are the grounds for faculty assessment of students´ achievement in technique, and are the primary basis of grading students in technique classes.

A FEW WORDS ON "TALENT"

A common stumbling block to teaching and learning dance, and other arts, is the notion that when all is said and done success depends on a mysterious factor called "talent," and that "people either have or do not have talent, and there is nothing you can do about it." We believe differently: while we agree that talent may be described in part as the natural ability to do something well, we think it is equally comprised of learned abilities. Accordingly, our training methods, and our student learning goals, are designed specifically to maximize your talent in dance by building on your natural ability both to learn new skills and to apply your current skills in new ways. But this is not the end of the story, it is only the beginning, for we know that the key to talent the thing that makes it visible and useful is one´s willingness to develop and use his or her abilities. Whatever else it requires, talent takes work. This is why we have learning goals directly related to effort and professionalism. You will need to make a strong commitment to the work of maximizing your talent. Let´s see in greater detail how the categories of student learning goals relate to talent.

The goals in the category of BODY PREPAREDNESS are targeted at tapping into and developing the basic physical dimension of dance talent: the ability to recognize and meet the physical demands in and of choreography. Bodies of various shapes and sizes can possess and develop this talent, by the way it is a talent of body intelligence and sensibility, not body type. As your talent in this area grows you will be increasingly able to perform dance movement clearly and efficiently.

The learning goals listed under DANCE AS ART have to do with the ability to "see" and "control" oneself aesthetically in space, time, energy, and motion, and in relation to others with whom one dances. This dimension of your talent is one part conceptual, having to do with your sense of pattern, sequence, and dynamics. But it is also connected with your emotions, psyche, and the sensing, or "somatic" self; it has to do with moving expressively, from the "inside" out.

Finally, the attitudes and behaviors listed under EFFORT AND PROFESSIONALISM describe the volitional (voluntary) dimension of dance talent. This part of talent is often referred to as self-discipline and/or self-motivation, and while it is arguably the most important ingredient in success, it is frequently overlooked. We urge you to focus on this dimension of your talent, because it is the dimension that channels the other dimensions, and permits them to flourish. The fact of the matter is that even those with raw physical and/or refined artistic talent must work hard to develop and maintain it, and the discipline and motivation for that must come from you, not from us. No promise of external reward or threat of penalty at our end will keep you at work for long at your end if you lack the inclination for hard, continuous work. We cannot really teach this dimension of talent other than to talk about it, model it, and point to it in those who possess it.

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EXPLANATION OF THE STUDENT LEARNING GOALS

GOALS RELATED to Body Preparedness: your physical readiness for dance

The goals discussed in this section are of particular importance in the 100-level technique classes where the readiness of your body for the demands of dance is the main focus of instruction.

While everybody might enjoy dancing, and get better at it through practice, not every body is genetically structured equally well to meet the rigorous demands of the specialized techniques on which dance performance as a profession is based. The same is true in the case of all specialized physical activities; some body structures lend themselves more readily than others to meeting the challenges of such activities as, say, basketball, figure skating, cross-country skiing, and wrestling, to name just a few. And many other activities make specialized physical demands that some bodies are better designed and/or trained to accomplish than others. Firefighters, construction workers, and lumberjacks, for example whether they are men or women must develop and maintain their bodies in ways that those in most other professions do not need to do. There simply is no occupational need for a surgeon or a watchmaker to be able to move in the ways a construction worker must constantly move. The specialized body preparedness required of surgeons and watchmakers (and many others) has to do specifically with the hands and fingers; those professions demand a highly refined delicacy of touch to accomplish the hundreds of tiny movements of the work.

The physical demands in dance are complex and varied the dancer must be able to move as fluently as those in every other profession combined. After all, dance is the art of movement. Dancers move in every direction, at every speed, with full and modulated strength, with delicacy, with balance, and with a range of subtle qualities no other activity demands. For these reasons, you must work diligently to achieve the following goals.

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GOAL: Proper alignment for Dance while standing and in motion

All dancers (and athletes, too) need to develop the ability to maintain proper skeletal alignment during performance. Proper alignment is that which enables you to move with safety, efficiency, balance, and strength by allowing the bones to carry the weight of the body as they are designed to do. Meanwhile, the muscles move the bones, which is their proper job. When you are improperly aligned, your weight is not carried through the bones, and your muscles are forced to hold the body in place, thereby creating excessive stress and work. The poorly aligned body, then, forces some muscles to work overtime to hold the body up while others become underutilized, thereby increasing the risk of injury.

The biggest challenge faced by most dancers in developing appropriate alignment for dance is to overcome poor alignment tendencies that have become habitual and comfortable over time. The fact is that certain aspects of your alignment that feel quite natural may actually be detrimental to your growth as a dancer. In making necessary adjustments under the guidance of your teacher you may experience a period of awkwardness. Let your teacher know about these feelings and ask for advice and feedback in handling the challenges of developing the new alignment habits you need.

In technique classes, many of the warm-up exercises and combinations are aimed specifically at strengthening and coordinating the musculature of the body to maintain proper alignment while moving through positions and shapes intrinsic to the particular technique being studied. Contrary to popular belief, proper alignment for dance is not a matter simply of arranging and/or holding the body in a straight vertical line from head to toe. Indeed, to hold the body this way inhibits freedom of movement; the curves of the spine are actually necessary for shock absorption during movement.

It is often the case that certain movements and movement combinations in dance require you to adopt what would otherwise be considered improper or incorrect alignment. A big part of learning to dance, then, is learning to move in and out of alignment in accordance with the artistic demands of the choreography. If you are unclear about the alignment demands of a particular technique, or set of movements, and if you find yourself unable to work with strength or to maintain balance during class, ask your teacher to explain the necessary alignment for the movement material with which you are experiencing these difficulties. Your teacher will also provide suggestions for developing the necessary strength and/or flexibility to permit your body to dance with proper alignment and thus minimize your chance for injury and maximize your potential for artistry.

GOAL: Physical strength and stamina for dance

As a dancer you must be strong in a variety of ways, and must learn to apply your strength in ways that are appropriate for different forms and styles of dance. Sometimes you need the strength to carry, push, or pull weight while moving through a range of motion. At other times you call upon your strength to maintain a stationary position to withstand the pressure to succumb to gravity or some other force. It is of the utmost importance that you learn to use only the kind and degree of strength the movement demands of you; rather than to "muscle your way" through every movement sequence, or to "attack" every movement with great force, you must learn artistically to modulate your strength. Your teacher can explain the kind of strength that different combinations, or different parts of a single combination, are designed to develop and maintain, as well as explain the ways in which strength functions as an aspect of style within different techniques.

Stamina is the ability to continue to work with the necessary strength over long periods of time. Dancers with a high degree of stamina can maintain efficiency and accuracy in movement for an entire class, and during extended rehearsals and performances. In addition, these dancers require less recovery time between active periods of dance than dancers with less stamina. An important element in developing stamina is learning how to breathe properly during dancing, for breath provides muscles with the oxygen they need to continue moving at full strength. A dancer´s degree of stamina is also partly determined by lifestyle: factors helpful to the development of stamina include proper nutritional habits, avoidance of drugs (including nicotine and caffeine) and alcohol, and regularly sufficient sleep. Many dance exercises and combinations are designed to develop and test stamina. Ask your teacher for assistance if you find that you tire more easily than other dancers, or if you are unable to maintain strength and concentration during an entire class or rehearsal.

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GOAL: Flexibility/range of joint motion for dance

Dance activities, like most sports, require the joints in the body to move beyond their normal range of motion to adopt both dynamic (moving) and static (still) shapes and positions. To meet these demands, your muscles need to be resilient. Resilient muscles allow for maximum range of motion in the joints. Some dancers are naturally flexible, but most need to develop and maintain flexibility through stretching. When done properly, stretching gradually extends the elasticity of muscle tissue, permitting it to lengthen without pain or tearing of muscle fiber. It is important in stretching never to bounce, for bouncing within a stretched position tends to tear muscle fiber, and this causes pain and reduces flexibility. It is also important never to stretch cold muscles. Always warm the body up before stretching. Contrary to popular belief, stretching is not itself a way to warm up the body. Good ways of warming up include brisk walking, gentle swings of the arms and legs, and basic calisthenics that stimulate blood to surge into the muscle tissue, making it pliable and safe to stretch. It is important to breathe as naturally as possible during stretching, and to extend the degree of stretch only very gradually with each exhalation. Finally, it is wise never to extend or hold a stretch beyond the point of very mild discomfort. The mild pain signals that the tissues are lengthened to their limit on this occasion. To increase flexibility, you need only to maintain your natural breathing, hold the stretch for 30 seconds or so, and then back off. One or two repetitions of each stretching exercise are plenty for one session of work. Your teacher will not always be able to provide ample time for stretching during each class. You need to make sure that you find time to stretch after each class, or after a full day of class or rehearsal. Ask your teacher for advice on stretching as well as for particular stretches you can do to improve your flexibility.

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GOALS RELATED TO: Dance as Art: the aesthetic dimension of your dancing

Statistics show that not all dance majors will go on to earn their living as paid, professional performers. Yet the dance technique curriculum is designed to meet the needs of those who will. This means that while you are in technique classes your teachers will provide the kind of focused and intense instruction and feedback that those training for performing careers need, and all students are expected to work in class as if they are preparing to have a performing career. For whether or not that is your intention, you need to know about and experience the rigor of that kind of professional training so that you will understand bodily as well as intellectually just what it is that professional dancers have accomplished to get where they are. Your efforts to achieve the 6 learning goals in this section will bring this understanding to you.

GOAL: Grasp and retain the sequence of exercises and combinations

The vast majority of dance exercises and combinations of movement are taught as sequenced progressions. While numerical counts such as 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, are commonly used by teachers to designate both the rhythm and the distinct parts of a movement sequence, generic movement terms (such as run, leap, step, skip, hop, fall, reach, dive, curve) are often uttered in place of numbers to help you to grasp a sequence and to memorize its parts. The ability to "pick up" that is, to copy or imitate movements as they are demonstrated by a teacher or choreographer is a fundamental skill that you must develop to progress in dance technique, for only after you have command of the basic pattern of a movement sequence will you be able to attend to its subtle qualitative aspects, and really dance it. To master sequences faster it can be helpful to speak silently to yourself as you are learning the movement, naming its parts, or making up a little word plays to help you memorize the order of things. It can also be helpful to "mark" the movement along with the demonstrator as the sequence is introduced so you can begin to develop "muscle memory" of its pathways in time and space, and get used to its feel on and in the body. In general, the dancers who have the least trouble picking up sequences are those who look carefully at the movement as it is demonstrated, name (or chant or sing) the pattern silently to themselves as they are learning it, and mark the movement physically from the start. By opening up and engaging the visual, verbal, and physical channels at the same time, you give yourself the best chance of coming to know and understand the movement and hence to dance it quickly and correctly. If you are having difficulty in picking up sequences it may help to break them into smaller parts and to learn, say, the first half before going on to the second. Ask your teacher to "break down" sequences that you are not grasping, and to suggest other methods for you to reduce the time it takes for you to grasp sequences.

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GOAL: Grasp and retain the nuances of rhythm/phrasing of exercises and combinations

All movement exercises and combinations presented in dance classes are organized rhythmically in time. The simplest rhythms are repetitive pulses of equal duration and intensity which take place at equal intervals such as a pattern of "tendu, close, tendu, close, tendu, close. . ." in a ballet class, and "curve down two three four and up six seven eight" in a modern class. As you progress in dance you will encounter exercises and combinations that feature increasingly complex rhythmic patterns. For example, duple meters (2s and 4s) will be combined with triple meters (3s and 6s) to create sudden rhythmic shifts in movement, and specific movements may be designed to take place between the beats of a pulse to create patterns of accents that speed up and slow down in unpredictable and exciting ways. In addition, gestures and steps may be stretched out over a series of counts, or beats, or be accented in a punchier, more percussive manner.

In addition to reflecting the personal artistic style of your teacher, the rhythmic structures of the movement combinations presented to you in class are intended continually to challenge your developing ability to see and replicate movement clearly. There are two common problems dancers face in learning to grasp and retain rhythmic nuance. First, some dancers have a tendency to give every movement within a sequence the same rhythmic value. These dancers perform movement in a kind of choppy, connect-the-dots kind of way, and thus do not capture in their dancing the rhythmic flow of the movement. High and low points of rhythmic intensity are lost, and the dancing looks somewhat mechanical. In correcting this problem, teachers will often urge you to breathe through the ebbs and flows of the material more fully and to allow the weight and momentum of the movement to surge more fully through your body. They will often advise you not to fight the movement but to go with it.

Other dancers tend to rush through movement sequences and thus to finish them before their rhythmic pattern has run its course. These dancers tend to have their body in the correct position on count one and on count twelve of a combination, but they neglect to move with and through each count from one to twelve in the required way. They need to learn to use the body and its parts to accent, or flow through, or rush past, or linger behind the beats, and the spaces between the beats, as intended by the teacher. To impart these skills to you, teachers will instruct you fully to use all the counts in a rhythmic phrase and to "finish" each movement in a sequence before initiating the next one. If you experience difficulties in meeting the rhythmic challenges presented in class, ask your teacher for specific advice ? for an inability to grasp the inherent rhythm in dance movement will slow down your progress. Rhythmic accuracy is extremely important, and your teachers are expecting you to work hard to achieve it.

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GOAL: Grasp and retain the qualitative dimensions of exercises/combinations

Art theorists use the term "quality" to designate the mood or ambiance of an element in or aspect of a work of art. A simple line across a page may exhibit a droopy quality, or perhaps a jagged or an aimless one. A melodic passage may be somber, twisted, or urgent, to name just a few possibilities. Movements exhibit qualities of these same kinds, and in much the same ways. Movement can be crisp, rambunctious, listless, topsy-turvy, ragged, eager, yearning, withdrawn, mechanical, tenders, scattered, agitated. . . . there are literally hundreds of additional examples.

Movement qualities differ from what we might call the properties of movement, and it is important for you to understand the difference. Properties of movement are the "what" of movement the runs, leaps, falls, rolls, curves, turns, reaches, bends, twists, lunges, etc., of movement. In learning the sequence of a combination you generally grasp, first, the order of the movement properties of the sequence, and in explaining the sequence to another person you might say something like, "two grapevine steps left, to a lunge, to a roll, to a vertical rise to a dive. . ." This description tells what actions the movement sequence is made of; movement properties are actions.

In contrast to the "what" of movement, qualities are the "how" of movement the manner in which an action is performed. The same action three runs, for example may be performed with a lazy quality, or a hasty quality, or a timid quality, or with any number of other qualities.

In learning dancing, it is vital that you strive to see, understand, and learn to perform not just the actions that make up the movement sequences presented in class, but the "how" of them. The qualitative "how" of movement is what moves dance out of the domain of exercise and sport into the domain of Art. If you pay attention you will notice that your teachers spend a great deal of time providing clear oral and visual cues about the qualities of movement they are teaching you. The reason for this is that they consider these qualities to be of the utmost importance. Many dancers do not notice this, and consider themselves as finished learning a sequence once they have learned its basic actions. Nothing could be further from the truth; learning the sequence of actions is just the beginning of dancing. The qualities of movement are where the art of it is pay attention to this and make it your business to know what movement qualities your teacher is after in each combination.

GOAL: Maintain whole-body and body part clarity of spatial orientation in movement

Dance movements often require you to orient in space both your body as a whole and specific body parts quite differently from the way in which they are oriented in ordinary movement. In your daily life, for example, you will probably never have cause to walk backwards (much less to skip, leap, hop, gallop, etc.) as one of your arms carves the space in front of you in gentle swooping motions and your torso leans to the opposite side. But such spatially complex movement patterns as this are quite common in dance. At first, orienting your body in space in ways that are unusual for you may be kinesthetically and/or intellectually confusing, and you may feel awkward and unsure of yourself. Over time you will gradually become used to orienting your body in the air, on the floor, and in all directions. You will also get used to moving individual body parts an arm, a leg, a hand, a foot, your head, and torso in one direction while other body parts move in other directions, and even in different rhythms, at the same time.

As you advance in the technique curriculum you will be challenged to deal with increasingly complex spatial orientations of the body and its individual parts, and the rate at which you will be expected to make transitions from one spatial orientation to another will quicken. Your teachers will watch carefully and make corrections as needed to remind you of the need to maintain clarity in your spatial patterning, for along with rhythmic clarity, the achievement of spatial clarity in movement is arguably the single most important technical skill there is in dance. When your teacher, or a choreographer with whom you are working, demonstrates or explains movement to you, pay particular attention to its spatial pathways and orientations. Learn to see and to feel where in space your body and body parts are intended to move from moment to moment in every combination, and strive for whatever degree of exactness and accuracy the teacher or choreographer requires. Don´t be satisfied to perform movement "pretty much" how it is demonstrated unless that is all you are asked to do. Discipline yourself to learn the movement exactly as it is demonstrated, for exactness of this kind tends to be valued highly in dance.

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GOAL: Progress quickly from learning to performing movement

If you have had much experience in watching dance performances you know that there is a kind of integrity and intensity of focus possessed by some performers on stage that surpasses some of the others. Some dancers just seem to be there, and to be in and with the movement in a way that others do not achieve. It is not that the top dancers perform correctly while others make mistakes. No, the difference is not as simple as that. The difference is that the top dancers, even when they make mistakes (and all dancers do) are able to channel all their energies physical, intellectual, emotional, psychic into the performance of the movement; they become the movement, give themselves over to it, in a way that many others never are willing to do.

This ability which we call "performance quality" is something your teachers want you to strive to attain not tomorrow, not someday, but in each and every class. For it really is not something that will magically appear someday in your dancing, after 100 classes, or 1,000 classes, or 10,000 classes. It is instead something that will grow in your dancing bit by bit, and emerge with greater and greater clarity the more you give yourself to the art form, wrestle lovingly with its challenges, cherish its many rewards, and learn to focus your body/mind as a unified totality while dancing.

It may seem strange to expect dancers-in-training to make much progress or exhibit much achievement in performance quality, but we do expect it because we expect you to try to work toward this goal just as you try to learn the actions of combinations, their rhythm, and their subtle qualities. Your teachers can see who is working, really working, not just to learn movement but to learn to perform movement, by the look on your face, by the way you warm-up, by the way you listen to and apply corrections given not just to you but to others in class, by the way you maintain focus even when your group is not dancing, by the way you speak, and write, and think about dancing. Those students who open themselves up to learning on all channels tend to be the ones who treat every repetition across the floor as if it were a performance at Lincoln Center in New York. These dancers use every occasion in class as an opportunity to grow. Not surprisingly, they tend to be the ones whose performance quality develops most visibly and quickly. Thus while your teachers do not expect to see a high degree of performance quality in each dancer in each class at each level, we do expect to see the disciplined approach to dancing through which it develops exhibited by every dancer in every class at every level. You should expect no less of yourself.

GOAL: Implement technical/artistic corrections consistently & in all applicable contexts

One of the most frustrating things about learning dancing, and teaching it, is that the path toward achievement is almost never smooth and continuous. Rather, over the course of a semester, many dancers experience alternating periods of improvement, no improvement, and occasionally even regression. The best advice we can give to help you to sustain the improvement periods, and minimize the others, is to concentrate your focus each day in each class on implementing all technical and artistic corrections with consistency, and to think through the principles behind each correction so that you will grasp without having to be told over and over how each correction applies to your dancing. Let´s look at a couple of examples to make this advice clearer. Suppose your ballet teacher points out to you that you tend to sickle (turn in) your foot during tendus, or that you are sitting into your hip on the supporting side during an adagio. If you are like most dancers, upon receiving these corrections you will make the necessary adjustments during the remainder of the exercise, and this is great. The problem is that many dancers do not "hold on" to the corrections given them instead they return to sickling the foot or sitting into the supporting hip each time the exercise or combination is performed in class, day after day, and week after week. Other dancers implement corrections only when they are repeating the exercises and combinations they were doing when the correction was originally given. That is, while they no longer sickle their foot during that particular exercise, they do sickle it during other exercises.

It is your responsibility (because it is your dancing abilities we are trying to develop and improve) to learn both to retain corrections given so that you will avoid making the same errors over and over in the same situations, and also to implement the correction in all similar situations. To get better at this you need to think each day about the principle underlying each correction that is given not only to you but to the other dancers in class. Sometimes the principle underlying a correction is technical (as in the cases of sickling your foot or sitting into your hip), and sometimes the principle is artistic that is, it has to do with matters of style, manner, phrasing, movement quality, and the use of the body to create specific images/impressions through gesture or motion.

Make it your goal to think through the rationale behind corrections you, and others, are given in class, to ask for explanations if you do not understand something, and to remind yourself before class each day of the specific corrections you have previously been given that you need to apply during the class you are about to take. If you follow this advice you will maximize your time in class, and develop dancing skills more rapidly.´´

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GOALS RELATED TO: Effort and Professionalism: your attitude and behavior

As mentioned in the discussion on "talent," the effort and attitude with which you approach the work of learning dancing is the single most important factor in your development. This is why our definition of "achievement" in dance technique includes learning goals directed at the accomplishment of a professional attitude, and it is why we assess your achievements in this area as a part of your grade. We take effort and attitude seriously, and we intend for you to do so as well.

Effort and Attitude are revealed through discernible behavior. This means that no amount of verbal insistence on your part that you have a passion for dance and are working hard to grow as a dancer will convince us that you mean it if your behavior demonstrates otherwise. Rather than for you to tell us how serious you are about becoming a dancer, we expect you to show us, day in and day out in your classes. To help you understand how to do this, we have identified a number of behavioral markers that will signal to us when you are and are not making the effort and working with the attitude we require.

As a reminder, the specific requirements in this area are: to demonstrate a sense of personal responsibility to learning by

1. observing carefully;
2. listening actively;
3. practicing on the side;
4. completing all written assignments on time and with thoroughness and clarity,
5. learning and using correct terminology.

Observing carefully: There is a great deal to see in a dance class that will increase your learning and hasten your growth. But too many students do not observe demonstrations of movement carefully, especially after the first time, and they also tend not to watch other dancers very well to see what might be learned from the way others perform the material. Instead of observing carefully to see what may be learned from everything in class, many dancers spend the time between exercises and combinations fixing their hair, chatting, or thinking about something besides what the class is working on. When teachers see this they recognize it as evidence that the student is not really engaged, not making the effort required for learning. On the other hand, students who secure their hair and clothing for dance before class and who avoid chatting and other distractions while in class are recognized as those who are actually using every moment of class to learn. These students are evaluated higher than others in the area of effort.

Listening actively: By this we mean listening to the aural cues provided in class music and other sound accompaniment, teacher explanations, instructions, and corrections and using the information provided therein to grow. Active listening means not only that your ears function, it means that you are thinking about what you hear and responding to it appropriately as a dancer from moment to moment.

Practicing on the side: Dancers who want to maximize their time in class, and thus develop as rapidly as they can, use the time when their group is not performing to watch others carefully to learn from what is seen and/or to practice the movement. Some dancers "mark" the entire movement combination along with those performing, while others focus just on parts of it that pose particular challenges for them. Each of these ways of practicing demonstrates your commitment to learning.

Completing all written assignments on time and with thoroughness and clarity: From time to time your teachers will assign you to write reflectively outside of class, or perhaps even as part of a class session. You may be asked to assess your own and others´ movement performance, or to write about a concert or a video. The reason for these assignments is that reflective writing enables you to organize ideas, insights, and impressions in your mind far more clearly than you can just by thinking or talking, and it also enables you to discover new ideas and their connections with other ideas. Writing, then, is both a process of recording thoughts and of generating new thoughts. Completing written assignments on time, and being thorough and clear in your written explorations of ideas shows us that you take yourself seriously as a developing dancer and that you are trying to use all the tools you have to grow.

Learning and using correct terminology: Some dance forms are highly codified, which means there are terms used to designate certain movements and qualities of movement. Ballet is a good example of this there is a word for almost everything in ballet, and the rudiments if not the aesthetic dynamics of ballet combinations can generally be communicated through speech alone, without demonstration. For example, a ballet teacher might say "from the corner, tombé, pas de bourrée, glissade, assemblé" and through this verbal instruction the dancers ought to know what to do. The same general principle applies in Tap dance as well. Part of learning highly codified forms of dance, then, is learning their terminology.

In Modern dance, and even in Jazz, because there are so many different styles, there are often unique sets of terminology to learn in each class. While many of the terms used in dance specify precise movements, some dance forms have terminology for the meanings of movements, and even for the meanings of entire dances. In African dance, for example, you will learn terminology (and songs and chants) that specifies your relationship to other dancers, to the drummers, and even to the culture of which the dance is an integral, living part.

It is your job to learn all the terminology relevant to each dance form you study as quickly as possible both so that you can spend more time dancing and less time talking about what the teacher means, and also so that you can come to appreciate more fully the complex and highly refined cultural entity that each dance form is.

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Advancement In The Technique Sequences

Students should expect to remain at each level of Modern and Ballet for a minimum of two semesters prior to advancement, with the following rare exceptions:

• 1. Clear achievement (as documented by faculty) is taking place at a much faster rate than expected;
• 2. Recognition (as documented by faculty) that a student was originally placed at an inappropriately high or low level.

Moving down a level: Students who achieve a score in one class or an average score in two classes below 60 on the

Dance Technique Feedback Sheet with a Dance as Art score of 12 or below will be placed at a lower level the following semester.

African, Jazz, and other forms: Students may advance to a higher level if they earn at least a "B-" and have the endorsement of the faculty member(s) of the class(es) into which they seek entry. These decisions may be made shortly before the end of the semester.

* For students in DCE 111 and 113 courses the Body Preparedness score is used in place of the Dance as Art score.
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Page updated: 05-Jan-2006

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