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Modern Dance
This class will combine elements of release technique and improvisation as a conduit for discovering flow through space and space for flow. Students will be focusing on inversions as a way to access strength in the upper body and lower body with equal ease. Students will also discover how their own body moves through the structure of floor and standing warm-ups, center-floor foot and leg exercises, across the floor inversions, improvisations and traveling phrases. Each class will end with a challenging center floor phrase combining elements of all class work.
Anatomy
We open the door to artistic expression and understanding when we discover what our bodies are made of and how all the parts and systems work together. By introducing a variety of practical and fun exercises and experiments students will more likely retain the information and be able to apply their learning skillfully in the real world. This class will introduce the students to the muscular and skeletal systems and how they work together to create movement. As we learn the names of the muscles and bones, students will build clay models to reinforce learning. Afterwards, we will discover the muscles on our own bodies and all of their movement possibilities.
The Peripatetics and the Greek Language
This course is designed for students with little or no background knowledge of the Greek language. Students will be introduced to the language and culture of the Greek speaking world while roaming the countryside and visiting landmark sites on the island just as it was done 2500 years ago when Hippocrates taught on the island! The course is uniquely focused on everyday language in settings where students can use the language in a practical environment. Emphasis is placed on vocabulary development, as students learn to speak about themselves, their families, and activities. Reading and writing will reinforce oral work. Field trips will include the open farmer's market, the Honey Co-op where they produce and export wax, the olive factory, the local festival events, and exhibits which are on all the islands. Students will learn the basics in traditional Greek food, how to shop for it as well as how to cook it. A visit to a goat farm where cheese is made, a fishing boat trip around the island, and a visit to the ancient ruins of Thassos' museum will be explored as well. All the places and people of interest will be visited as a roaming class as the ancient Peripatetics experienced. Only Greek will be spoken to maximize the effort that students will make to learn very basic but fundamental Greek.
Ballet Technique
This class is meant to build strength, flexibility, balance and endurance by combining basic barre work with a technical center. This class serves as a strong foundation for all other dance techniques by strengthening the versatility of the dancer while building a strong core.
Phrase Manipulation
This course is a jumping off point for dancers/movement enthusiasts interested in choreography. Students explore how to create new movement from one phrase of dance. Choreographing an entire work can, initially, be an intimidating experience. This class will provide new choreographers with techniques to create variations from one phrase.
Dance and Culture
This course teaches the significance and purpose of dance in world cultures. Differences among cultures and the function of dance are explored. Through lectures, video and demonstration, students will begin to understand the appearance of dance throughout history.
Character Development - The Physical World of the Character
A creative and interactive introduction to character development
This course will be a highly collaborative and interactive study of Character Development through understanding the Physicality of the character’s body and of the character’s environment.
It is important to learn some sense of who your people are physically. If these characters are ever to become real, breathing human beings for you, it is critical that you have a sense of what they look like, how they move, how they sound, how they appear when seen from a distance or from across a table, and how other characters react to their actual physical presence (McLaughlin, The Playwright’s Process).
What does the character look like? How does he walk? Does he/she have quirks when he eats? If put in a room with a stranger, how would his body react? What movements is he/she comfortable with? Which is he/she not comfortable with? Determining the physicality of a character is a mirror of true life as related to the newborn and the child discovering his/her own physicality and personality traits. Adding these details to character development creates specificity and uniqueness to the particular truth of the character, giving the body the first layer.
This course will focus on bringing awareness to this particular layer of character development for acting, performance, or writing. Students will explore through a series of improvisation, mask and movement exercises the careful layering that goes into creating a character. These exercises will be supplemented by group projects, literary support and improvisation games.
Course Breakdown:
The course will be broken down in two major blocks: The first will tackle physicality within the character, the second, the physical world of the character. Students will start with an introduction to various literary works that introduce Persona Identity and Physicality including McLaughlin’s The Playwright’s Process. From this reading, the class will engage in a mask study project, in which the students will be challenged to create characters out of very specific physical quirks, movements, realities and limitations.
The next stage includes a collaborative presentation (Improvisation) of these created characters in which the students will be challenged to tell a story with their bodies and their movements, without the use of dialogue.
Having the foundations, the group will take a leap forward to engage in the second block of the course which explores the physical world. Using the basics of Adler Technique to inspire the “Imagine if…” project, students will be expected to create a world for their characters, and share the world with the class. A series of visualization, and ideo-kinesis exercises will aid this process.
The course will culminate with a final project where students will be asked to collaboratively tell a story framed only with the physical specifications of the character and the character’s world.
Making It Up; Creative Movement through Impulsive Play
For beginner and experienced movement explorers and the theatre/contact improvisation enthusiasts
Experience the freedom of creative movement including a blend of contact and theatre improvisation and modern individual expression. Explore the grounded techniques of Ruth Zaporah, Steve Paxton and the personal movement style of Wess Staats in a playful and kinetically enthusiastic environment. This class is geared toward the playfully curious and kinetically intrigued. We will be exploring a wide spectrum of skills including physically dynamic contact improvisation and free-flowing release movement with an emphasis on Individual investigation of personal expression.
The intention of the class is to explore ‘pure dance’ or ‘pure movement’ through improvisational exercises and structured creative movement techniques. Improvisation is, like meditation, a practice that is of the moment and is centered around one’s impulses which are in a constant or continuous state of change. It is a process which necessitates a spontaneous state of mind, an openness to explore the ‘unknown’ and to trust and be in the moment. We will delve into our senses through exploratory work which heightens our physical, intellectual, emotional and spiritual awareness. The very core of improvisational work embodies a deep inner-awareness from which one may create.
This class will help broaden your perception of yourself as a performer and creator/choreographer as you learn to be true and open to the moment while the unknown unfolds. Improvisation entails a lot of risk taking but along with the risk there is room to grow; allowing us to deepen our perceptions of ourselves.
Through improvisational exercises and structured creative movement techniques, we will investigate and broaden our range of movement vocabulary; thereby challenging movement patterns and habits to enable us to expand our personal range of creativity and performance. Furthermore, we will work with the voice as an extension of our bodies using text and sound as additional elements to stimulate our senses and influence us to create.
Introduction to Philosophy:
A creative and interactive introduction to Philosophy and Logic. This course will be a highly collaborative and interactive study of Philosophy. The word Philosophy derives from the combination of the Greek terms philein (to love), and sophia
(wisdom), therefore making the term applicable as: the love of wisdom. This course willself‐motivate and guide each student’s desire for wisdom.
In this course, students will examine Philosophical issues by analyzing traditional and contemporary works in Philosophy while attempting to apply it to current and individual experience. The students will work together with instructor to improve the use of Philosophical language and logic. The course will cover a broad stroke of sources, from the birth of Philosophical wonder to a deep examination of historical and contemporary issues. These Philosophical examinations will be illustrated with compelling literary works, thought experiments, classroom debates and a final project.
Course Breakdown:
• Students (will be referred to as modern Philosophers) will start with a thorough reading and discussion of Plato’s The Symposium. From this reading, the class will stage a modern debate by using each of the arguments in the text as their own. Each student will have to “pick a side” from whichever speaker appeals to them the most and create a thorough argument to support and defend it.
• The next stage includes covering Aristotle’s The Politics. Students will be asked to engage in a collaborative “re‐writing” of the main points of the text, as well as creating an advertising campaign to sell it to a fictitious literary agent.
• Aristotle’s The Poetics will be another text covered. This text will require students to write a short (5‐10 minute) screenplay based on the principles delineated in this Philosopher’s work.
• Having the foundations, the group will take a leap forward to engage in the Philosophical aspects of more modern works. The issues of psychological egoism v. ethical egoism (The Myth of Gyge’s Ring, Plato); free will v. fate (The Dilemma of Determinism, William James) and the idea of personal identity (Flatland, Edwin Abbott) will all be excerpts pulled to create this area of the course. All of the above will be explored through different means such as: puppet shows,
collaborative sculpturing and metaphorical collages.
• The course will culminate with a final project where students will be asked to collaboratively choose a major issue in history, current‐events, science fiction, etc. Once the main theme is selected, the students will have to create an art show (including but not limited to paintings, photographs, sculpturing, performance art, etc.) revolving around the main theme and support its design and production with a Philosophical text, idea, argument and/or thought.
Dance – Techniques
Whether you are just learning to dance/move or to master a specific technique such as, Grahm or Alexander, you will be challenged and encouraged by your peers and teachers. Students will learn modern dance as well as other techniques and performance skills. Structured dance classes are held in a safe and fun environment and are at the core of each day at The Academy for International Movement Studies.
Dance - Creative Process
Gap year students participate in this creative process course to further develop their own creative movement techniques and vocabulary. The Creative process is essential at the beginning of each quarter and is a primary focus of The Academy for International Movement Studies program.
Athletic Training
The Academy for International Movement Studies students train daily. At the end of the semester, students are proud of their physical well-being and are provided with motivation to continue this healthy lifestyle. Training may not always be a dance related activity but could also include running, strength training, and other alternative activities.
Foreign Language
Gap year students are required to take a foreign language course. It is recommended that a minimum of one Spanish hour be taken. Spanish is a highly recommended course within The Academy for International Movement Studies environment. Every student and teacher will want to learn Spanish for future South and Central American exploration. A course in the destination's native language will also be offered.
Video or Photo Media
Students will walk away from a semester with a new found passion and the skills for recording life memories. Our destinations, being photogenic, provide our students with the opportunity to submit and be published within the outdoor publication industry.
Independent Study
Projects may include activities such as: guitar, keyboard, advanced native movement studies, choreography, advanced placement or university courses for college credit, learning poi, Students will make their own syllabus to map their goals, choose their text, design their own grading method, and have a regular evaluation system for their progress.
International Logistics
Ever wondered how Dancers get around internationally? We will teach you the secrets that will make any trip enjoyable, safe, and economical. Gap year students will have the opportunity to completely plan for the three big logistics concerns: food, lodging, and transportation. Students are taught negotiating rules they can follow to benefit them for life's negotiation scenarios. The thrill of negotiating in a foreign language with real money is priceless. Students will also learn the best situations and deals to look for, what to avoid, how to book, and the value of the logistics coordinator in general.
Leadership
Gap year students naturally become leaders of the The Academy for International Movement Studies. They are given additional responsibilities that bring them rewards in turn. The student leaders learn and plan the entire schedule of the The Academy for International Movement Studies. Keeping in mind the goal of maintaining a high group moral, students learn to offer a clean and stable educational and training environment, and provide inspiration for all to prosper and grow.
Service Projects
Each quarter student leaders plan service projects. These have included: river cleanups, offering gifts at orphanages, teaching the local students to dance and animal rescue projects.
Alternative Activities
One day per week, students at The Academy for International Movement Studies are required to take a day off from dance and plan an alternative activity. Student leaders will learn how and then plan the logistics for these activities. These are often the most memorable activities and include: volcano hikes, visiting colleges, exploring the rainforest, viewing a serpantarium, relaxing in a hot spring, going wakeboarding, planning a horseback ride, and other local activities. Gap Year students can be as creative in their alternative activity planning as their imaginations allow!
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