The Dance Department joins together all training and courses in dance and choreography.
The development within the art of dance demands training that can critically evaluate, question and redefine artistic methods and the roll of the choreographer and dancer today. We offer educations that give the student tools for a successful career within contemporary art.
The tools must be suited for critical evaluation of the physical, structural and intellectual methods established by current choreographic practices, and work for the expansion and development of these by finding new models for creation and production. Thematic learning processes aimed at both theoretical and practical knowledge are offered as well as preparation for research and interdisciplinary meetings with other fields of knowledge and expression within the arts and sciences. The training critically evaluates the roles of the individual and the collective in society’s socioeconomic and political dynamics, in order to consciously participate in current processes of change. The activities are a significant working resource for the renewal of national and international choreographic art.
We are working to improve the opportunities for the students to develop individualized profiles in their education. Dancers and choreographers are active within wide spectra of practices that all demand widely differing forms of knowledge. We therefore develop the range of courses in order to better answer to these demands.
We cooperate with DOCH’s other educational programs and strengthen the connection to research in the basic training. Our educations links to strong international networks and we develop separate courses in close collaboration with the professional world of dance.
The Bachelor Program in Dance
The dance profession is developing and changing. At DOCH we see this as a challenge and a stimulus to promote the flexibility needed for a contemporary dance program. It is fostered in an environment where artistic methods are questioned and the role of the dancer is critically assessed and redefined. We offer a dance program that empowers the student to realize her or his vision for a career in dance.
A student in the Bachelor Program in Dance is given three years of instruction in contemporary dance, artistic creation and performance. The student works to develop her or his physical and intellectual potential in relation to different practices. In the meeting with professional dancers, knowledge and methods are taught that make it possible to work in different artistic directions. After examination, the student is well prepared to work as an independent artist in a variety of scenic arts. Different practices, aesthetics and expressions are tested in collaboration with artists. This adds insights into various attitudes toward movement, work methods, creation, staging and production. Teachers are recruited among professional artists, nationally and internationally, which helps networking both among professionals and in the work place.
Master Program in Choreography
The program develops a critical consciousness and an understanding of contemporary choreographic practices through a wide range of studies, based on how aesthetics and the art affect and are affected by our different ways of experiencing and understanding the world. Thematic learning processes include practical as well as theoretical knowledge, training activities for research and interdisciplinary meetings with other artistic and scientific fields of knowledge and expression. Furthermore, it highlights our individual and collective roles within art and society’s other socioeconomic and political dynamic elements at a time of changing processes.
The Program offers knowledge and methods to critically explore practical, structural and intellectual tools and principles, established by contemporary choreographic practices, and work for their expansion and development. The field engages students in processes to lay bare the ideological, ethic and operative framework within which choreography finds its expressions. Considerable emphasis is also laid upon knowledge formation including current debate, for example about power and identity in relation to body, movement, and performativity. DOCH offers the student a rich environment in which to explore more deeply her or his own practices.
A Cross-Discipline Masters Program
Together with the Circus Cluster we will work for the development of a joint cross-discipline Masters program, profiled for circus artists, dancers, choreographers and others active in these areas. Our aim is to start this program in 2011.
Independent courses
Independent/short courses at an advanced level are being developed in close collaboration with the professional dance environment.