The course introduces and studies contemporary practices of dance and movement, and theories of performance focusing on the performer's physical experience. She focuses mainly on somatic approaches to movement and the creative process of choreographic practice, and studies examples from modern, postmodern and contemporary dance. Tracing connections between practical and theoretical approaches, she examines applications of physical education in dance and performance, and analyzes how they shape the performer's performance phenomenon and skills. He also refers to practices such as physical theater, dance theater, and methods such as Meyerhold's Biomechanics and Grotowski's Poor Theater. Students study the application of contemporary physical approaches to: a. the creative process of choreographic act, and, b. artistic works shaped for a specific social context. The course also places bodily approaches in a theoretical context and introduces students to theories such as the phenomenology of Maurice Merleau-Ponty, Horton Fraleigh and Sandra Reeve with the aim of: a. cultivating performance and choreographic composition skills, and b. understanding, distinguishing and expanding the frameworks of application of bodily movement methods and their contribution to concepts such as "well-being", through a modern academic dialogue

Upon completion of the course, the student should be able to:

• Demonstrate an embodied understanding of bodily approaches to dance practice and performance
• Recognize and experiment with the application of different bodily methods during the creative process
• Place and analyze the phenomenon of performance through a relevant theoretical/ontological/conceptual framework

🔵 🔴 🟡 Theory (3 hours)

1. Introduction to the course and experiential workshop
2. Concepts of corporeality in dance and performance I
3. Concepts of Corporeality in Dance and Performance II
4. Postmodernism in Dance Practice
5. Corporeality and Creative Processes in Dance Theatre and Physical Theatre
6. Training of the Actor and the Body: A Perspective on Meyerhold's Industrial
7. Training the Actor and Body: Exploring Grotowski's Poor Theater
8. Concepts of Integration, Emerging Form and Choreographic Composition
9. Kinetic improvisation techniques and phenomenology
10. Physical Practices in Contemporary Choreographic Praxis I
11. Physical Practices in Contemporary Choreographic Act II
12. Improvisation in site-specific performance
13. Experimentation, design and guidance for projects and tasks to be considered

Review language: Greek

🔵 🔴 🟡 Evaluation method:

• 100% Presentation / Artistic Interpretation

Note: The defined evaluation criteria are detailed during the courses, and are available in the course's eClass.

• Face-to-face
• Use of ICT in Teaching, Laboratory Education
• Use of ICT in Communication with Students

https://eclass.uop.gr/courses/PDA142/

🔵 🔴 🟡 Course Textbooks [Eudoxus]

• Rigopoulou, Pepi (2003) The Body. Supplication and Threat, Plethron Publications.

• Garody, Roger, (2008) Dance in Life, 2nd Edition, Eridanos Publications.

• Barbousi, Vasso (2004) Dance in the 20th Century, 5th Edition, Kastaniotis Publications.

Extra Bibliography

• Abram, D. (1996) The Spell of the Sensuous. New York: Vintage.

• Abram, D. (2010) Becoming Animal: An Earthly Cosmology. New York: Vintage.

• Alter, J. S. (2004) Yoga in Modern India: The Body Between Science and Philosophy. Princeton NJ: Princeton University Press.

• Bainbridge-Cohen, B. (2008) Sensing, Feeling and Action: The Experiential Anatomy of Body-Mind Centering. Contact Editions.

• Bateson, G. (2014) Body and Mind in Motion: Dance and Neuroscience in Conversation. Bristol: Intellect.

• Benjamin, A. (2002) Making an entrance: theory and practice for disabled and non-disabled dancers.London: Routledge.

• Cooper Albright, A & Gere, G eds. (2003) Taken By Surprise: A Dance Improvisation Reader. Wesleyan University Press.

• De Spain, K. (2014) Landscape of the Now: A Topography of Movement Improvisation. New York: OUP USA

• Fraleigh S.H. (2004) Dancing Identity: Metaphysics in Motion. Pittsburgh: University of Pittsburgh Press.

• Feldenkrais, M (1993) Body Awareness as Healing Therapy: The Case of Nora Berkeley: North AtlanticBooks.

• Gallagher, S. & Zahavi D. (2008) The Phenomenological Mind. London:Routledge.

• Hartley, L. (1995) Wisdom of the Body Moving: An introduction to Body-Mind Centering.Berkeley:North Atlantic Books.

• Hartley, L . (2004) Somatic Psychology: Body, Mind and Meaning. London:Whurr.

• Hay, D. (2000) My Body, The Buddhist. Hanover NH USA: Wesleyan University Press.

• Huwyler, J.S. (1999) The dancer's body: a medical perspective on dance and dance training. Alton: Dance Books.

• Johnson, M. (2008) The Meaning of the Body: Aesthetics of Human Understanding. 

• Chicago:University of Chicago Press

• Kuppers, P. (2007) The Scar of Visibility: Medical Performances and Contemporary Art . Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press.

• Lepecki, A. (Ed.) (2004) Of the Presence of the Body: Essays on dance and Performance Theory.Wesleyan University Press.

• Leder, D. (1990) The Absent Body. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

• Merleau-Ponty, M. (2002) Phenomenology of Perception. London: Routledge.

• Olsen, A & McHose, C. (2004) Bodystories: A Guide to Experiential Anatomy. Lebanon, USA:New England University Press.

• Olsen, A. (2014) The Place of Dance: A Somatic Guide to Dancing and Dance Making.Wesleyan University Press.

• Reeve, S. (2011) Nine Ways of Seeing a Body.Triarchy Press.

• Pallant, C. (2006) Contact Improvisation: An Introduction to a Vitalizing Dance Form. Jefferson USA:McFarland & Company

• Pallaro, P. (2007) Authentic Movement: Moving the Body, Moving the Self, Being Moved. London: Jessica Kingsley.

• Reeve, S (2013) Body and Performance. Axminster:Triarchy Press.

• Sheets-Johnstone, M. (1999) The Primacy of Movement (Advances in Consciousness Research). John Benjamins Publishing Co.

• Sheets-Johnstone, M. (2009) The Corporeal Turn: An Interdisciplinary Reader. Exeter: Imprint Academic.

• Todd, M. (1980) The Thinking Body.Princeton NJ: Princeton Book Company.

• Tufnell, M & Crickmay, C (1993) Body, Space, Image: Notes toward Improvisation and Performance. Alton: Dance Books.

• Tufnell, M. & Crickmay, C. (2004) A Widening Field: Journeys in Body and Imagination, Alton:Dance Books.

• Williamson, A. (2014) Dance, Somatics and Spirituality. Bristol: Intellect.