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Dance in Paris Program
The Dance Program at USF has expanded the parameters of its curriculum by offering its students a program of study in Paris. This annual four-week course will present an opportunity for dance majors to expand their historical, cultural and performance-based knowledge through exposure to the rich tradition of dance in the French capital.
The goal of the USF Dance in Paris Program is to enable students to expand upon information they have already gleaned from several courses required of dance majors: history, choreography, and technique.
Led by USF faculty member, Michael Foley, this four-week intensive course in Paris will also feature studio classes taught by European dancers and choreographers of distinction, thereby exposing students to the contemporary Continental dance lexicon.
As Paris is the cradle of western dance civilization, students will visit the sites of some of history’s greatest dance events, including The Paris Opera, the Theatre de Chaillot and Versailles. Further, students will be led to reevaluate their notions of traditional dance-making by embarking upon projects involving site-specific work in the city’s many museums and music venues as well as those areas unique to the everyday life of the city, such as its cafes and the metro. Students will also attend performances by important dance artists working in Paris or visiting from elsewhere, thereby expanding their performance vocabulary.
Students enroll in a four week, four credit course entitled "Dance and Culture in Paris". This course is an immersion in Parisian culture from the point of view of the dancer. The course is divided into three major components: technique, history and composition. Students will take daily technique classes in modern, ballet and yoga, taught by guest faculty, as well as opportunities to take alternative technique classes in some of Paris’s professional dance studios. Students will be exposed to the rich artistic side of Paris through lectures and performances, as well as assigned readings by major dancers/writers/artists who have drawn on the Parisian landscape as inspiration for their work. A final choreographic project based on compositional exercises that will take students to various Parisian locales, will be presented during the final week of the course.
Course Components
- Students will be exposed to varying technique classes each weekday morning in modern, ballet and yoga, as well as classes in Paris’ many professional dance studios
- The purpose of the afternoon choreographic workshops (“Le cahier”— The Notebook) is to foster an understanding between the choreographer and the urban landscape: What kinds of materials can be used in choreography? What kinds of images are distilled into gestures? How does the urban environment inspire different movement choices? How does the “history” of a certain location influence one’s choreographic choices?
- Students will visit Parisian locales and explore the architecture, people, scenery and culture of that area and transform their observations into a short final piece of choreography. Among the areas students will be investigating: Père Lechaise, Ile St. Louis, Montmartre, the Marais, Trocadero/Champs de Mars, the Latin Quarter, Les Halles, Montorgeuil, and the Canal St. Martin.
- Students will be assigned readings based on the writings of artists who have drawn on the Parisian landscape as inspiration for their work, such as Degas, Toulouse-Lautrec, Isadora Duncan and Nijinsky. There will also be one required book for the course entitled: Paris in Mind, edited by Jennifer Lee. The book is a compilation of stories by American writers (Mark Twain to Saul Bellow to Langston Hughes) about their romance with Paris.
- Students will be given studio time for 2 – 3 afternoons per week to work on their choreographic projects; the other 2 –3 days will be spent ‘in the field’. The purpose of the studio time is to create a 5 – 7 minute piece of choreography based on their observations, assigned readings, field work, personal journals and sensations. The final pieces will be performed in an informal setting to an invited audience.
- Grading will be based on weekly projects, journals, short written assignments and pro-active engagement in all aspects of the Program.
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