Dance Lab 1: Studio Practices (DNCE10030)

To be a dancer in the continually evolving contemporary dance scene of today requires a solid, versatile technique, mental and physical resilience, an individual artistic voice and a collective consciousness of the dynamics of moving together.

This subject introduces students to the technical, physical, aesthetic and creative skills necessary to develop their individual and collective potential in these areas. Daily rigorous training in dance practices lays the foundations for choreographic performance and the composition of original creative work.

Through kinesthetic / proprioceptive tools, articulate practice, virtuosity and expressiveness, students develop a broad vocabulary of movement languages and embodied literacy. Core movement practices covered in this subject are indigenous, contemporary, ballet and dances of the Asia-Pacific.

In applying technical knowledge to improvisational tasks, students explore their individual movement signature. Body conditioning and somatic sessions address idiosyncratic habits which may inhibit the development of safe, efficient and flexible physical expression.

Students apply this awareness as they explore working spontaneously and imaginatively through improvisation and in developing class work of set sequences and phrases. Integrating a hybrid network of dance forms and body-work techniques, students develop skills for enhanced physical performance underpinned by aesthetic and philosophical principles accessed through readings and class discussion.