[PRELIMINARY] Course Catalog 2024-2025
Dance
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Alysia Ramos, Associate Professor of Dance; chair
Ann Cooper Albright, Professor of Dance
Al S. Evangelista, Assistant Professor of Dance
Mary-Elizabeth Fenn, Lecturer of Dance
Holly R. Handman-Lopez, Assistant Professor of Dance
Amy M. Larson, Lecturer of Dance
Thomas Prestø, Visiting Assistant Professor of Africana Studies and Dance
Eric A. Steggall, Lecturer and Managing Director of Dance and Theater
 Visit the department web page for up-to-date information on department faculty, visiting lecturers, and special events.
Dance at Oberlin is characterized by its commitment to experiential, practice-based creative pedagogy integrated with the intellectual, academic rigor expected of all students at Oberlin College. Oberlin dance courses incorporate making and thinking, composition and cultural theory, uplifting the significance of play, creativity, critical thought, and embodied wisdom in the lives of our students.
At Oberlin, we believe dance is for everybody and every body. Student, faculty, and guest artist choreography is presented throughout the year both in formal concerts and in our regular series of showcases. Outstanding resources for artistic collaboration with student and faculty directors, designers, composers, musicians, and video artists may be found in various other college departments and programs, such as theater, cinema and media, and studio art, as well as in the Conservatory of Music.
 See information about Research, Internships, Study Away, and Experiential Learning (RISE).
 Explore Winter Term projects and opportunities.
Majors, Minors, and Integrative Concentrations
Curriculum
The dance curriculum is divided into four areas of study to help students organize their learning around certain approaches to dance: creation and performance, critical inquiry, physical techniques, and somatic studies. While interconnected, these areas represent different pathways into dance and related professional fields. Please see the dance major catalog page for an up-to-date listing of which courses correspond to which areas of study.
Creation and performance courses prepare students to become versatile performers and/or creators of dance work. These classes provide tools, skills, inspiration, and models for the development of a personal creative practice.
Critical inquiry courses investigate the many layers of aesthetic, cultural and historical meaning in a variety of dance forms across the globe. Bridging intellectual and physical training, this area combines intellectual rigor, critical theory, and movement analysis with the students’ own embodied knowledge. These courses are designed to prepare students for potential graduate study in the fields of dance and performance studies.
Physical techniques classes are offered in a range of genres and levels in order to support the physical, intellectual, and imaginative process of becoming a dance artist. These courses serve all students, including those who wish to explore dance as part of their broader education, those pursuing dance in combination with related arts, and those who intend to enter the dance field professionally.
The practice of research and writing about dance in its cultural contexts develops an appreciation of dance as both an artistic and a sociological phenomenon.
Courses
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