Sheldon Museum of Art Main Content

Combining movement-based and visual analysis

DANC 260/460 Repertory, Improvisation, and Performance

 

 

Students in a choreography class taught by Susan Ourada, associate professor of dance, used works of art in the exhibition Now’s the Time as inspiration for original dances.

They began their study with a guided walk-through of the exhibition with museum education staff to immerse themselves in the post–WWII context of the New York School artists and formal attributes of abstract expressionism. Then, through focused observation and study of a single work of their choice, each student choreographed an original dance that embodied the gesture or “action” of abstract expressionism, which they publically debuted at a Sheldon First Friday during the same semester as the course.