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An award-winning performer, choreographer, artistic director, and educator, amara tabor-smith taught at University of California, Berkeley, for more than a decade and, since 2017, has been an artist in residence at Stanford University, designing both courses and productions. “Everything is connected,” says tabor-smith about balancing priorities as a teacher and an artist. Expanding on the common […]
To help first-time faculty members start the semester strong, three professors share their best practices for creating a syllabus, grading effectively, and designing meaningful assignments.
Today’s professors are expanding the conversation, not only about how choreography is taught and what is prioritized, but even what the term itself encompasses.
Listening to Dr. E. Macias describe her approaches to teaching and performing, a certain word keeps appearing: “collaboration.” Whether it’s a lecture course at the University of California, Irvine, or a solo performance she’s creating, Macias is “activating connections.” This includes connections between humans and more-than-humans, meaning animals, atmospheric elements, and land. Macias’ investment in […]
Kieron Dwayne Sargeant was just 13 when he first felt the spark for teaching. He was standing in a modest studio in the Embacadere neighborhood of San Fernando, Trinidad and Tobago, when his teachers, Torrance Mohammed and Louise McClashie, asked him to lead the class through a warm-up. “That moment changed my life,” he says. […]
“I started dancing when I was 4,” says Diane Rawlinson, now 63 years old. “If someone had told me, when I was 18 or 20, that I’d spend half of my life teaching dance in public schools, I wouldn’t have believed them!” Now retired from teaching K–12, Rawlinson has embarked on her next career: mentoring […]
In most college dance programs, the curricular focus toggles between physical training and theoretical study. But one critical area is often overlooked: the business of dance. Despite how important it is, students are often not equipped with the tools or knowledge necessary to navigate the complexities of the dance economy. The omission is striking, given […]
On a Friday afternoon on the last day of May, Donna Faye Burchfield was sitting on her deck in Philadelphia when a newspaper notification popped up on her friend’s phone: University of the Arts, where Burchfield had been dean of the School of Dance since 2010, was closing its doors in a week—for good. Were […]
Because job security can be hard to come by in the dance world, there’s an understandable appeal to full-time professorships in college and university dance programs. The path to get there can seem elusive, however—and the requirements of the job extend beyond teaching and choreography. Two dance professors—Jason Ohlberg, Skidmore College associate professor and associate […]
As a certified intimacy professional who creates practices and choreography for scenes of vulnerability (including simulated sex and/or nudity in film, TV, theater, dance, and opera), I’m aware that the power dynamics of performance traditions do not allow for the less powerful performers to take creative risks, feel agency over their bodies, or ask questions. […]