If the saying "To be the best, you must learn from the best" holds true, then this book is gold for all aspiring dancers.
Dance Composition Basics, Second Edition, doesn't just
feature the works and brilliance of dance and choreographic legends Alonzo King and Dwight Rhoden--it is
completely based on the choreographic operations and forms in three of their original works:
Chants and
Dreamer by King and
Verge by Rhoden. All compositional exercises in the book are based on those three works, and the book itself is expertly crafted by Pamela Anderson Sofras, who has 34 years of experience teaching dance at the university level.
Dance Composition Basics, designed for beginning dance composition courses, introduces dancers to choreography through a series of problem-solving activities. The activities are starting points for novice dancers to embark on their own attempts at choreography.
Useful Tools The book offers several useful tools for instructors:
- 27 lesson plans that draw from and highlight selected portions of original compositions by King and Rhoden
- 33 reproducible assessment and self-evaluation forms
- An instructor guide that includes a sample course syllabus plus written exams for each chapter
- PowerPoint presentations to guide students through each lesson
- A web resource featuring online videos that are closely tied to the lesson plans and provide a richer learning experience for students; students can access this resource inside or outside of class
Highly Valuable Video Resource The videos give students access to Alonzo King and Dwight Rhoden, highly successful and respected choreographers, who share their processes and techniques. Many video clips show the choreographers working on the same movement concepts featured in the corresponding lesson. Students will see the choreographers in action with professional dancers as they develop the movement material for each dance. Because students get to see the choreographers and dancers struggling with the same creative concepts they have been assigned, these clips add tremendous value to
Dance Composition.
Book and Web Resource Organization The text is split into five chapters, each of which features several lessons based on that chapter's choreographic concept. Each lesson contains the following:
- An introductory statement and a vocabulary list
- A warm-up to prepare the body and focus the mind
- Structured improvisations that help dancers understand the movement concepts of the lesson
- Problem-solving activities that allow dancers to apply the concepts presented in the improvisations
- Discussion questions to engage dancers and promote understanding
- Assessment rubrics to guide evaluation of each dancer's learning
At the end of the book, a
glossary provides definitions for the vocabulary terms introduced in the chapters.
The main menu of the web resource corresponds with the five chapters in the book. To guide students' use of the videos, icons have been placed throughout the book, referring readers to additional information in the web resource. Reviewing the videos will provide further insight into the choreographic assignment. The web resource also contains all the discussion questions, assessments, and evaluations found in the book. Instructors can distribute these to students electronically or print them out. Instructors can also adapt the forms to meet their specific needs.
The Learning Process Dance Composition takes students through a systematic learning process: reading about a concept, discussing the concept, seeing the concept played out on video with professional choreographers and dancers, and exploring the concept through their own movement ideas. Through this process, which includes structured improvisations, students discover a movement vocabulary and original dance phrases. They then more fully develop their movement ideas, with specific movement assignments, and are given feedback by their peers and the instructor.
Invaluable Resource Dance Composition Basics, Second Edition, is an invaluable resource for dancers of all styles, from ballet to modern jazz, as it introduces them to some of the compositional structures used by professional choreographers. Through the carefully designed lessons in the book and the expert examples on the video clips, students can use this resource to take their first confident and exhilarating steps into the craft of choreography.
Pamela Anderson Sofras, MEd, is a professor emerita of dance and dance education and was the first chair of the dance department in the College of Arts and Architecture at the University of North Carolina (UNC) at Charlotte. She has 34 years of experience teaching dance at the university level and has taught and developed courses in modern dance technique, composition, and dance education methods. From 1978 to 1990, she was affiliated with the American Dance Festival as a faculty member. She served as assistant, associate dean, and founding director of the American Dance Festival's School for Young Dancers.
Sofras was part of a team of educators who wrote dance education guidelines for training K-12 dance teachers for North Carolina public schools. She has also developed curriculum materials, supported by state and national grants, for professional arts organizations in New Jersey, North Carolina, Tennessee, and New York. Sofras has been the recipient of six North Carolina Arts Council grant awards to study the choreographic processes of five choreographers as they created works for a professional dance company. The processes were documented and translated into curriculum materials for teachers and for university classes.
A charter member of the National Dance Education Organization (NDEO), Sofras has also been curriculum consultant for North Carolina Dance Theatre (currently the Charlotte Ballet) and a site evaluator for the North Carolina Arts Council grant activities. She has received numerous awards for her contributions to the field of dance education, including the NDEO's Vision Award; the American Alliance for Health, Physical Education, Recreation and Dance (AAHPERD) College/University Educator of the Year; and the North Carolina Dance Alliance Award. In addition, she received the UNC Service Award in 2002 for her sustained service to public schools. Sofras regularly presents professional development workshops in dance pedagogy for teaching artists and teachers working in public and private schools. Most recently, she has worked with Ballet Met in Columbus, Ohio, and the Alabama Institute for Education in the Arts. She serves as a member of the education committee of the Charlotte Ballet in Charlotte, North Carolina.
