Dance Track
Dance Track
The Curriculum
Discover Dance in New York City
Instructor: Leah Wilks
In this course we will utilize embodied practice as research. Alongside reading, writing, viewings, and class discussions, we will make dances, projects, and movement studies. The studio will function as our laboratory as we uncover information about our own artistic voices, aesthetics, and personal practices - examining how these interact, support, and relate to the many facets of our lives and identities. Students will experience dance in New York City both through our work in the studio, and through excursions into the city for performances and other creative inspiration. Throughout our time together we will examine the different roles of dance - as ritual, performance, spectacle, protest, politics, self-expression, activism, and cultural conduit. We will dream, question, and experiment with these ideas on our own, with partners, and as a whole group - utilizing choreographic practices and the body in motion to better understand our relationship to the material.
Time: Mon, Tues, Wed and Thurs from 9:30 AM- 12:00 PM EST
Thurs afternoons from 2:00- 4:30 PM EST
Discover Dance in New York City
Instructor: Caitlyn M. Trainor
Explore, engage and understand the art of dance on a global scale as a form for expressing the human condition.
The goal of this course is to explore the art of dance on a global scale and gain insight into its many purposes, meanings, and functions across cultures around the world. Students will gain a deeper understanding of why and how dance has persevered and grown as a form of human expression used to convey cultural, social, or political ideas.Students will experience dance in New York City through live class and performance viewing. We will travel across the globe to witness how dance has engaged humanity for centuries, through ritual and community, identity and culture, entertainment and performance, and technology and protest.
Time: Mon, Tues, Wed and Thurs from 9:30 AM- 12:00 PM EST
Thurs afternoons from 2:00- 4:30 PM EST
This track offers an interdisciplinary program that integrates the study of dance within a liberal arts setting of intellectual and creative exploration. Located in a world dance capital, students will explore what dance is in New York City.
Program Structure
This track is residential with the option of commuting. Classes take place on Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday, from 9:30 AM- 12:00 PM and Tuesday and Thursday afternoons from 2:00- 4:30 PM EST. Enrichment and student life activities will be held in both the early day and evening time frames (10am EST- 8pm EST)
The Instructors
Leah Wilks
Discover Dance in New York City (Session 1)
Leah Wilks is a dancer, choreographer, musician, and teacher originally hailing from North Carolina and currently based out of Brooklyn, NY. She has taught and shared her work in a variety of locations including the American Dance Festival, Elon University, University of Michigan, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, Ponderosa Tanzland festival, Gibney Dance, and PROTEO|media+performance’s Post/Futures Festival. Leah has been a performer/collaborator with Okwui Okpokwasili, real.live.people, BAND|portier, and Tommy DeFrantz/SLIPPAGE among others. She holds an MFA in Dance from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign where she received awards both for choreography and undergraduate teaching. She is currently an artist in residence at MOtiVE Brooklyn, as well as a 2023 MacDowell Fellow with collaborator Mauriah Donegan Kraker (L+M). You can find out more about Leah and her work here.
Caitlin M Trainor
Discover Dance in New York City (Session 2)
Named one of “25 to Watch” by Dance Magazine, CAITLIN TRAINOR is the artistic director of Trainor Dance. She is a long time member of the faculty at Barnard College/Columbia University and the founder of Dancio, providing on-demand dance classes with world-renowned teachers. Her areas of interest include reducing barriers to access in dance, embodied interconnection, and dance as a primal force. Find Caitlin online at www.trainordance and www.dancio.com
Community Office Hours
Each Monday at 2:00 PM EST students are invited to meet with any member of our Pre-College Programs team. Office hours are meant to mimic the PCP’s open door office policy and give students a space to meet with instructors, course assistants, or a professional staff member.
Bridging Curriculum and Community
Community Building Programming
We believe student life does not start and end in the classroom. Each night after class students can choose from 2-3 evening activities led by our Program Assistants.
Program Assistants
Program Assistants are current Barnard students who manage small cohorts of student teams. Your PA is a resource for you to ask questions about non academic issues (remember: your Course Assistant is your point of contact for academics). PAs plan and facilitate nightly community building activities such as self care nights, Netflix parties, Broadway shows, and much more.