Dance
Dance is a universal human activity.
The desire to communicate through movement arises from the innate capacities and impulses to move, express, organize, relate, and communicate.
At Beloit College, students experience movement in a supportive environment that is also rigours and positive, offering students many opportunities to work on technique, discover their own artistic voices, and develop their unique gifts.
Dance courses are offered each semester for students at every level of ability and experience. Our program goes beyond the studio and the stage through theory, history, and interdisciplinary studies leading students to discover how the artform is integral to their whole education, applying it to the rest of their creative, professional, and personal lives.
Dancers trained at Beloit College are
- Gifted communicators
- Experienced collaborators
- Creative problem-solvers
- Agile Artists
Take your courses and rehearse your dances in one of the two new state-of- the-art studios in the newly renovated Hendricks Center.
Every year, renowned guest artists come to campus to teach, perform, and choreograph dances with students. During the 2019-2020 school year,
J’SUN HOWARD will be in residence October 21-26, 2019
J’Sun will be teaching vogue aesthetic classes and choreographing a new work for student dancers to perform in Chelonia 2020!
J’Sun Howard is originally from Chattanooga, TN and has been making art in Chicago for the past twelve years. J’Sun’s choreography has appeared in multiple venues around Chicago including Links Hall, Northwestern University, Sonotheque, Lincoln Square Theatre, Insight Arts/Center for New Possibilities, Epiphany Church, Rumble Arts, Patrick’s Cabaret (Minneapolis, MN), and has been commissioned for the Chicago Academy School for the Arts. J’Sun’s collaborative duet performance piece, Utopic Monster Theory, with poet Jennifer Karmin is documented in the first annual Emergency Index from Ugly Ducking Presse (2011) and has been presented in the biannual IN>Time Performance Festival. In 2009, J’Sun was selected to be a LinkUp Residency to deepen his artistic practice at Links Hall. In 2010, J’Sun was granted the Julius Margolin “Youth in Labor” Award to rally and protest at the gates of the School of Americas in Fort Benning, GA. In 2013, J’Sun was awarded a Distinguished Scholar Merit Scholarship to complete his undergraduate degree at the School of the Art Institute and will return to finish when his CDF project ends. J’Sun has performed for many choreographers including Asimina Chremos, Sara Wookey, Paige Cunningham, Selene Carter but most extensively with Darrell Jones.
Dance faculty and staff are committed to educating the whole person, to developing not only a dance practitioner possessing artistic capabilities and understanding, but a well-rounded human being.
Ching-I Chang Residency January 20-24, 2020
Ching-I will be on campus teaching classes in classical Chinese dance, contemporary dance, and choreographing a new piece for our students to perform in Chelonia 2020. She will also be visiting classes in the Chinese program and offering special events related to the Chinese New Year!
Ching-I Chang (Dance Artist) made in Taiwan. She is a lover of dance. She has performed and taught internationally in major cities, in Taiwan, Canada, Ireland, China and the United States. She has worked with many NYC contemporary choreographers and artists such as Susan Marshall, Gesel Mason, Michel Kouakou, Maurice Fraga, Tiffany Mills, Bill Young, Kyle Abraham, Yung-Li Chen, Kiori Kawai (Visual Artist), Thai Artist Alliance (Visual Arts), HT Chen (Chinese Dance), Phantom Limbs and Loco 7 (Puppetry), the screen dance endeavors of Marta Renzi, Christy Harris, and Jason Kaufman. She was an original NYC cast member at Punchdrunk’s Off-Broadway hit production, Sleep No More NYC as well as the rehearsal director of the Sleep No More Shanghai in the summer of 2017-2019. She received her MFA from University of Utah School of Dance in 2017. She is a Certified Laban/Bartenieff Movement Analyst, Yoga Teacher, Yoga Nidra Meditation Facilitator, and recipient of University of Utah Teaching Assistantship, Anne Riordan Scholarship, and Dee R. Winterton Award. Most recently, she was a visiting professor at Virginia Commonwealth University 2017-2018. Ching-I is also the co-artistic director of Tipsy Point Projects with fellow Taiwanese artist Kuan-Yu Chen. And she loves bananas.
DANCE AROUND THE WORLD
At Beloit, we dance all over the world! Faculty include students in their newest works which travel from Russia to Richmond, Newfoundland to New York City, Tanzania to Tarrytown. Students also study abroad in places like Malta, Moscow, and Jerusalem. Pack your bag and join us!
“I have worked with many dance majors, minors, and people who are simply interested in and participate in the department. I have also had the opportunity to form invaluable relationships with the dance faculty at Beloit, an opportunity I wouldn’t have gotten at a bigger school. The dance faculty never hesitates to do everything they can to help us succeed in our personal and professional goals. Currently, I am in the process of researching and making a plan for pursuing dance post-grad, and the majority of the connections I have made and am still making are through the dance faculty at Beloit. Beloit College offers a dance program that does both, allowing people to dance because they enjoy it and want to be involved” — Elena Cusack ’18
Guest Artists in past years: Marcus Hayes, J’Sun Howard, Jess Pretty, Andrea Markus, Kate Wallich, Katy Pyle, Kelsa “K-Soul” Robinson, Daniel “BRAVEMONK” Haywood, Sam Hertz, Maryanna Lachman, Ben Law, Nic Gareiss, TU Dance, Helen Simoneau