Nusha Martynuk, Professor of Dance, Associate Program Director
Ann Cooper Albright, Professor of Dance
Roger Copeland, Professor of Theater and Dance
Holly Handman Lopez, Visiting Artist
Carter McAdams, Professor of Dance
Elesa Rosasco, Associate Professor of Dance
Adenike Sharpley, Artist-in-Residence,African American Studies/Dance
Deborah Vogel, Lecturer in Dance
The Oberlin Dance Program encourages students to create, perform, and think about movement in a manner that is consonant with their experience in the other fine and liberal arts. The curriculum offers various approaches to the study of movement, from creation and performance to physical techniques, critical inquiry and somatic studies.
Dance at Oberlin is characterized by its commitment to experimentation and to the creation of original work. Student, faculty and guest artist choreography is presented throughout the year in formal concerts, and in a regular series of studio events. Outstanding resources for artistic collaboration with student and faculty directors, designers, composers, musicians, and video artists are found in Theater, the Conservatory of Music and the Art Department.
Students also have the opportunity to explore somatic studies; with its focus on alignment, movement integration and meditative practice it offers an excellent preparation for a lifetime of personal health and work in therapeutic fields.
The Dance Program provides critical study of the field’s rich history to encourage and support students’ curiosity and willingness to take risks and explore new ideas. Students are encouraged to recognize that movement has cultural meaning, and to find the variety of meanings inherent in different traditions and cultural contexts. The practice of research and writing about dance in its historical context is developed to widen an appreciation of dance as an artistic and cultural phenomenon: to include rather than exclude.
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