THE LEARN PAGE
This page explains what dance is, how to make it, ways to think about it, and ways to enjoy it! The Theater page takes you behind the scenes and introduces a range of important concepts, techniques, and people instrumental in the production of dance. Video interviews allow you to meet the dancers up-close, learn how they became the artists they are, and hear about the influences in their lives that supported their pathways. The heart of the platform, How To Make A Dance: A Visual Guide provides a step-by-step process of how dances are constructed. Explore the pages and the narrated videos.
WHAT IS DANCE?
Dance at its core is an experiential form of art. One can experience dance as a doer or as a viewer. Even when sitting in a seat in the theater, a viewer can vicariously relate to the actions of a dancer, even if one has not trained to make these movements oneself. Movement is something we all share as human beings. For many, the definition of dance is expansive. As one answers the question of what is art, so one can answer the question of dance, that it is in the eye of the beholder. Becoming familiar with the core elements of the art form is the first step in learning about dance. Compositional devices are tools and can be the connective tissue between these basic concepts. How the material is used is how dance is made. As the potter uses clay. As the painter dips brush into pigment. As the illustrator takes a marker, or colored pencil. Dance is molded on bodies which move between movement and stillness, inherently unfolding in space and over time. The possibilities of dance production using the human body are infinite.
MAKING DANCE
How does it all come together? What are the different parts? These pages provide insight into the way dance is made. How dancers practice. Again, again, again! How to view choreography; knowledge of how music intersects and supports dance (counting out loud as the dancers explore a range of tempi); specific vocabulary specific to dance; a meaningful experience actively dancing (audience members will learn choreography in their seats); an understanding that dance and the arts can be a career and a subject of lifelong study.
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After learning the fundamentals of dance, we're ready to see how these parts all come together. How To Make A Dance: A Visual Guide is a step-by-step process of how dances are constructed, beginning with a simple phrase and developing it into a full dance. This acclaimed tutorial provides a clear and compelling insight into the dance making and dance rehearsing processes.