Sam Gould - dance accompanist

Sam Gould, a MSU College of Music graduate student, spends his Monday, Wednesday and Friday mornings in the dance studio of IM Circle where he is a dance accompanist for Sherrie Barr. This is not the first year that Gould has worked in the dance studio with Barr, he also worked with her for two years at Grand Valley State University. When asked if he liked working in the studio he replied, "It's probably the best job in the world." Gould and Barr work together to challenge the dancers to learn more about dancing through musicality. When asked if it's like having two teachers in the room at the same time, Gould said "definitely."

Theatre and Education Residency

In the MSU course Theatre 390, Actors and Educators, the goal is for performance students to learn how to become effective facilitators in devising and leading drama integrated residencies in K - 12 educational settings. Eight theatre students have created a make-believe situation to bring to their students in an attempt to get them involved both physically and mentally in their story to believe that their actual classroom is a Space Station 3G Drama Residency.
The students will be going to Winans Elementary School throughout the rest of the semester to spend time with Ms. Larson's 4th grade class and expand their knowledge of themselves, space and the future.

MSU Improvisation Dance Class

This morning I visited DAN 253, Dance Improvisation, that meets every Tuesday and Thursday from 10:20 - 12:10. The students were working with their partners on scores that come from the idea behind dancer, choreographer and illustrator Remy Charlip. Charlip constructed something called the bed dance, which was an "Airmail Dance", one that creates a story without giving a story. The bed dance supplies the viewer with different shapes (usually danced on a mattress). However, in DAN 253, the students were allowed to stand, but had to move from one shape to the next shape in the order they were illustrated. The importance of the experience was to fill the "inbetweens" of the shapes. To collaborate with a partner using weight sharing and physical contact to explore the use of actively engaging in different body shapes. Sophomore Clare Eagle and freshman Ricky Price spoke with me about how the class has changed themselves as dancers and challenged them to expand their knowledge.

MSU Dance Pedagogy Workshop 10. 30.10

Under the instruction of Professor Sherrie Barr, students from MSU learned the essentials about the art of teaching dance. Through movement exercises and open discussion they explored the many different ways of speaking about movement and the benefits of these different techniques. Over 15 students attended the workshop, which was sponsored by Orchesis. To see the Orchesis website and any other Orchesis-related events click HERE