New Credit Course: Art of Movement
Elizabeth Bergmann, Dance Director, Office for the Arts, will teach a
new 
credit
course this fall called "The Art of Movement Design: Dramatic Arts
14." The class will investigate what makes movement art and how physical
energy and movement design choices develop into kinesthetic, dramatic,
and artistic experiences for both the performer and the audience. Students
will participate in creating dances as well as studying dance from an
analytical and theoretical point of view; no previous dance experience
is necessary. The course will be held on Tuesday and Thursday afternoons
from 2:30 - 4:30 at the Rieman Center for the Performing Arts, Radcliffe
Yard.
Of the questions pursued in the course Bergmann says, "The body is a mirror of the patterns, learned behaviors, and innate manifestations of one's inclinations. Choreography is about making choices, managing time, and shaping ideas into an understandable, artistic, non-verbal whole. Challenged to think more analytically, critically and conceptually about the study of movement, students will develop and enhance their aesthetic perception and individual creativity."
She compares the process of creating a dance to writing a paper. "Students struggle with how to get ideas and where to get them, arranging ideas in an order that is logical and clear, and making choices about which ideas to present. In dance, just as with a paper, you don't stop at your first draft. You have to learn to assess and edit."
This new course doubles the curricular offerings in Dance. Claire Millardi's course "Movement for Actors: Dramatic Arts 15 " will be offered again in spring 2002. As a result, students will now have two opportunities to experience dance more completely, doing deep work on the critical, theoretical side while developing movement and learning technique. "The body is a learner too", Bergmann says. "If you cut out the body you're not fully there." Combining thought and analysis with movement produces something new and valuable, she explains, saying, "Even simple movement makes thinking a richer experience."
Students taking "The Art of Movement Design" will learn to develop creative channels and gain access to their generative power. Bergmann, also a poet and photographer, emphasizes that knowing how to access and use one's creativity is a useful and transferable skill. She is the co-author, with Elizabeth Colton, of Connecting to Creativity: Ten Keys To Unlocking Your Creative Potential, published by Capital Books, 1999.
