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Learning to draw is as much about learning how to use your hand as it is learning how to see. The focus of this course is learning to draw from observation and developing close looking skills; to that end this course will expand your capacity to see and represent what you see by inviting you to explore an array of methods, materials, and techniques. 

This is an advanced scene study class which will explore the canon of work by Tom Stoppard. Students will be assigned scenes and monologues from this canon, and the class as a whole will read all of the plays being worked on during the term. Rehearsal techniques, character development and sensory exploration of these plays will be a large part of the focus for the actors in the class. Written analysis of the plays being worked on will also be expected. Students interested in this class must be able to commit to a rigorous out of class rehearsal commitment.

The course will be for sustained work on an animation or projection design project, and should be a space for both experimentation, ambition and consistent endeavor. The first half of the semester will be concerned with conceptualizing and framing the world of the animations or projections, by research, drawings, investigation, imagining. The second half will be creating the animation or projections.

In this course, we will explore the visual and spatial potential of cut paper models. The course will begin with a number of directed drawing and model-making exercises, and end with original work made with paper, knives, and glue. Students will study and do research on paper models by a variety of contemporary artists and architects–Zarina’s paper houses, Siah Armajani’s bridges, James Casebere’s abandoned tabletop constructions, Bodys Isek Kingelez’s dazzling utopian propositions, and many others.

In this course we will encounter various strategies for building a career in the performing arts field.

This class uses movement and the principles of the Alexander Technique to prepare the body for making sound. It is designed for singers, actors, dancers, or anyone interested in using their body as an instrument. Our goal is to root sound in the body before the mind gets in the way. Class begins with gentle movements on the floor, sitting and standing to develop physical awareness and ease, and over the term will progress to vocal warmups, spatial games, and exercises that allow the free flow of air, vibration, resonance, and emotion.

A class, a laboratory that explores the relationship between movement and sound, starting with the phenomenology of sound and acoustics, and considering the translation from sound to movement.

Incorporates listening techniques and sensory perception and encourages participants, through improvisation, to draw from movement, sound, space and memory interchangeably. They will be guided through exercises that help make decisions based on assessment, observation, listening and decision making.

A primer in orchestration, for students who are selected to write for Sage City Symphony. We will pore over the 19th and 20th century orchestral repertoire, getting to know instruments, ranges, and agilities. Analysis, piano reduction, and orchestration from grand staff will be used to internalize and hear orchestration. Students will be expected to create and get feedback on textural sketches of their future pieces.

At the center of almost every live performance is a single human being who quite literally runs the show: the stage manager. This course will explore the stage manager’s role as both an artist and an administrator, using the SM’s wide-ranging responsibilities as a roadmap to understanding the production process and all the people involved in it.

In this class we will explore the art and practice of scientific communication. This course is inspired by the work of Edward Tufte as well as a lifetime of experience in scientific research and presentation. Our aim is to learn how to create elegant explanations of complex ideas using pictures, charts, numbers and words. We will analyze and produce displays for use in journalism, research publications and scientific presentations, as well as other art forms that inspire multifaceted understanding.

This course will introduce students to the components of storytelling in photographic series by examining migration as a theme and using photography as a research tool. Students will develop a robust sense of artistic ethics by studying representations of migration by photographers in diasporic communities and engaging methods for creating visual narratives around topics of belonging, heritage, and identity.

Are you interested in taking a closer look at the  immediate and collective spaces that we live in? What are some of the realities that exist around us and why/ how can we build work that pushes against these basic constructs.

research to design to construction

“Clothes aren't going to change the world. The women who wear them will.” – Anne Klein

Tai-Chi (Taiji) is a Chinese martial art and meditation system. The symbol of Tai-Chi is the famous Chinese Yin and Yang symbol also called Taiji.

This course explores the life, works, and revolutionary contributions of Harry Partch (1901–1974), one of the most original and influential American composers of the 20th century. Partch was a pioneer of microtonal music and developed a unique 43-tone scale, which led him to construct his own instruments to realize his visionary compositions. Students will examine Partch’s unconventional approach to tuning, his rejection of equal temperament, and his philosophy of music as an integrated theatrical and corporeal experience.

This is an advanced improvisation class for students from all disciplines. We will learn the concepts of complexity and advance our skills in pattern recognition, self-organization, emergent structuring, and development of movement, verbal, visual and design vocabularies. Collaborative processes will be explored to further different forms of creative practices, both to address an artistic practice and a dialogic practice.

In this class we will explore the practice of meditation as a physical and mental training exercise. In class meditation and discussion, as well as outside reading and writing assignments, will explore Eastern and Western persepctives on ourselves and the world.