Dear Lindy Hop Society,
I wanted to let you know about an exciting new dance course that will pioneer at MIT in Fall 2014 that I thought the members of the Lindy Hop Society might be interested in! If you could forward this information on to your dancers, I would greatly appreciate it. I have also attached a colorful poster with similar information.
EAPS Professor Raffaele Ferrari, Woods Hole Oceanographer Larry Pratt and I (a professional choreographer) are teaming together to teach a semester long course entitled "Science, Dance and The Creative Process," which will be the first of its kind at MIT. In this course, we will use improvisational and compositional forms from the field of modern/contemporary dance to investigate, inform and challenge scientific ideas. One hour of class time per week will involve a lecture by an EAPS professor or other guest lecturer, while the other two hours of class time will be in the dance studio, creating dances related to the scientific material presented.
Class discussions will embrace the course's central questions: what are the benefits, challenges and limitations of artistic inquiry into modeling, understanding and communicating scientific ideas? How can scientific concepts shape art making? What commonalities exist between the scientific process and the creative process? The class will culminate with an informal performance of students' choreography. No prior dance training is necessary, and we welcome all abilities. The course number is 12.097 for undergraduates and 12.S593 for graduate students.
Thank you so much, and I hope to dance with some of you next year!
All the best,
Mariah
Choreographer & Artistic Director
Mariah Steele/Quicksilver Dance
msteele@mit.edu
mariah.steele@gmail.com