Course Info: HACU-0237

This course built on students' previous study of modern dance (and related) techniques, continuing the practice of employing the studio as a laboratory for semester-long exploration. Our work included special attention to the ways Horton technique can be imagined as a release technique of sorts. This paradox supported ongoing focus on deepening sensation, clarifying points of initiation in the body, expansive use of space, connectivity, the development of strength and stamina, and increasingly complex phrase work. Further, we began to consider the ongoing evolution of "modern" and "contemporary," as they relate to dance "training." What habits are we dismantling and what seemingly divergent histories are we weaving together in our quest to develop a unique dance voice all our own? The hope is that this will form the basis of a sustainable and deeply engaged movement practice-one has informed a lifetime of embodied creative process. Variable Credit.

The intermediate Modern-Contemporary Dance Technique course met by way of Zoom over the course of the semester. Participants in the class devoted 4 hours each week to collective study of Horton technique as a vehicle for increasing spatial awareness and clarity, strength, flexibility, and overall connectivity. Along the way, the group learned an extended movement phrase that unfolded throughout the semester, and were invited to adapt that sequence to their individual kinesthetic desires/impulse as the semester concluded. By emphasizing the potential for easeful flow between positions of the body--rather than the high tone and militaristic reputation the technique carries--we identified more balanced relationships between release and muscular engagement, flexion and extension, rigor and ease, improvisation and strict adherence to codified vocabularies, and how these factors supported or hindered individual expression.