Theatre and Dance - Grinnell College

Theatre and Dance from Grinnell College is a Campus Bachelor Theatre degree that prepares you for a Art and Design career. In the practice and study of theatre and dance, the Department of Theatre and Dance at Grinnell is committed to high standards of artistic expression and creative scholarship within the context of a liberal arts education. Performance is a cultural necessity that can transform the lives of those involved; as an academic practice it is interdisciplinary in its very nature. Here, theory and practice of performance are integrated, and students engage in acting and directing, dance and choreography, design, and the history and literature of drama and performance as a broad foundation prior to advanced study in any of these areas. Combining historical knowledge and critical thinking with current practices in performance, directing, design, choreography, and studies in drama, students interact creatively with diverse ideas, cultures, and historical moments often far different from their own. The art forms of theatre and dance, inherently collaborative, provide the model for learning to work well and creatively with others. The department also provides students with opportunities for interdisciplinary performance-making. These studies are broadly beneficial to all students in the liberal arts. Grinnell students participating in these studies develop analytic, organizational, technical, and artistic skills, an understanding of socio-political contexts, and an active commitment to social engagement that inevitably contribute to interdisciplinary study and innovative approaches to learning within the liberal arts. This theatre experience expands our ways of knowing others and ourselves. It can also enable critical examination of the past, since our own social and political concerns inform the making and understanding of the dramatic event, even as we attempt to appreciate and understand staged performances in their social, historical, and artistic contexts. In every community, drama and dance have been among the most important ways of articulating our experience of ourselves and others. Developed aesthetic sensibilities, cooperative skills, historical imaginations, and critical habits - the fruits of a liberal education - are important in personal and professional lives. The knowledge of the various aesthetic and intellectual means through which a theatrical concept is realized is developed through coursework in dramatic literature, critical theory, and theatre history; in the methodology of stagecraft and the plastic arts of scene, lighting, and costume design; and in the performing arts, including directing, choreography, acting, and dance. All courses at the introductory level and all departmental productions (for which limited academic credit is offered through Performance Laboratory) are open to students without previous experience in the theatre. Courses in dramatic literature, theory, and theatre history are of particular interest to students majoring in English, foreign languages and literatures, philosophy, history, or religious studies, or to any student who wants to become an informed audience member. The theatre curriculum serves the College's mission to provide a broad liberal arts training to all its students and prepares students with a compelling interest in theatre to undertake appropriate postgraduate training in the field. To this end, all theatre majors take selected core courses in six principle areas: acting, technical theatre/design, dance, directing, dramaturgy (including textual, critical, theoretical, and historical study), and performance studies. Each area focuses on some aspect of making the dramatic work of art; many skills are at work in each area. The coordination of all of these aspects and skills is manifest in the production. View more details on Grinnell College . Ask your questions and apply online for this program or find other related Theatre courses.