Mission of the Dance Studies Program

Mission

The Mission of The Dance Studies Program is to offer opportunities for students to develop excellence in creative, performance, and scholarly pursuits at our liberal arts college. We foster a diverse artistic community marked by mutual respect for the unique talents and contributions of each individual. 

We are pleased to be an integral part of the Creative and Creative Thinking aspect of GLOBE (Geneseo Learning Outcomes for Baccalaureate Education), A Framework for Building and Assessing a Holistic Student Experience at Geneseo. The Framework defines Creativity and Creative Thinking as: “To produce scholarly or artistic work, independently or collaboratively, that makes inventive connections among existing forms and ideas; to engage divergent or contradictory perspectives; to transform existing ideas or solutions into new forms; to understand and articulate the relationship between individual creative work and wider contexts; to practice techniques for presenting and performing creative work.”

Our emphasis this academic year has been to further strengthen our mission by nurturing student creativity, performance, and scholarly pursuits at our liberal arts college. Artists-in-residence, Guy Thorne, Chung-Fu Chang, Norwood Pennewell, Robin Dunn and Molly Christie González collaborated with general students and the dance ensemble, giving students an opportunity to glean knowledge from these esteemed professionals. By providing a diverse learning environment students broaden their viewpoint to participate in our multicultural society and interrelated world. In September 2012, Jon Lehrer and his Dance Company were artists-in-residence working directly with students in the introduction to dance, dance composition, kinesiology, and dance technique courses, giving students an opportunity to glean knowledge from this esteemed professional company.

We continue in our endeavor to prepare students for an ever-increasing multicultural world. We have been able to do so with our new Adjunct Instructor Nicolette Ferguson and Associate Professor of Dance, Dr. Mark Broomfield ‘94, Recipient of the Statewide 2013 SUNY Faculty Diversity Appointment, and our collaboration with Professor Shahin Monshipour and the Anthropology Department in staging authentic Persian dance, thus providing a diverse cultural experience for our students.

The Dance Studies Program

The Dance Studies Program offers an academic minor (25 credit hours), history minor (24 credit hours) and a concentration (30 credit hours), which is aligned with The School of Education. The Program offers courses in technique, theory, and history. Several courses within the minor and concentration are offered to the general student to satisfy the Fine Arts Core requirement. The goals of the Dance Studies Program for students in the academic minor and concentration are to develop their potential as performers, choreographers, teachers, and research assistants. After graduation, our students primarily use their dance studies by: further study in graduate schools, choreographing for public school musical theatre productions, teaching in private studios, performing in small regional companies, performing in Equity musicals, and using dance therapy to work with physically or emotionally disabled persons. A strong curriculum in the minor and concentration has been developed which allows our students to reach their full potential within their four years of undergraduate study.

Atmosphere: The Dance Studies Program is a nurturing and supporting program. The faculty encourages students to be supportive of each other’s work.  The atmosphere is friendly and accepting, fostering a strong work ethic, self-discipline, self-motivation, and consideration of a student’s range of training, performance aptitude and multiplicity in approach.  Longevity is a valued aspect of our program as we celebrate 50 years of Dance presence on our campus.

Facilities

Two dance studios. Brodie 152, located in Brodie Hall and Schrader 152, located in Schrader Building across from College Union.

Each studio has heat, windows for fresh air (Schrader), clean sprung dance flooring covered with Marley dance flooring, full-length mirrors, wall-mounted and portable ballet barres, portable air fans, a piano, percussion instruments, sound equipment (dual cassette player, CD player, I-pod jack, turntable for recordings [variable speed in Brodie], VCR DVD player and monitor, VCR and DVD cameras, overhead projectors, women’s and men’s dressing rooms with attached toilets and showers.

Theatres

Two fully equipped stages, Alice Austin proscenium stage, and Robert Sinclair laboratory theatre are both located on the 2nd floor in Brodie Hall. Each is equipped with lighting instruments and sound systems. A Marley dance floor is used for all dance concerts. Men and women’s dressing rooms with adjacent toilets, sinks, and showers are located on the 1st floor. Two fully equipped costume shops and a make-up room are located on the 1st floor near the dressing rooms.