Theater and Dance Department

Mission Statement

The Department of Theater and Dance at Whitman College is a diverse community of empathetic artists and scholars. We engage critically and artistically to explore the canons of live performance in its many facets. Our students work collaboratively with the faculty and guest artists to investigate the process of art-making and challenge us to expand our capacity for, and ideas of, creative expression.

Our Program

The dance program at Whitman College is rooted in contemporary dance, a global concert form which incorporates disparate approaches to the body, aesthetics, and ideas, and which varies according to the artistic vision and personal histories of individual choreographers and practitioners. Reflectingthese values, dance at Whitman nurtures the individual artistry and curiosity of each student.

Our curriculum includes beginning movement courses in Modern Dance, Ballet, and Hip Hop, specifically West Coast Street Styles and B-boying/B-girling, each with corresponding lectures to situate the practices in cultural, historical, and political contexts. These courses progress through
intermediate levels of Modern Dance and Ballet to Advanced Contemporary Dance, where students are challenged to synthesize the technical demands of their movement practices in ways specific to their own interests. Students develop their skills as art-makers with individual points of view in Dance Composition, and dive deep into subtle functions and sensory experiences oftheir human body in Somatics.

Our students collaborate and create with nationally-recognized dance artists
in the annual dance concert, and immerse themselves in contemporary art-making practices of some of the most sought-after experimental performers during our dynamic Studio Series. Over the years, our guest artists have also offered workshops in West African dance, Contact Improvisation, and Butoh, among many other movement practices.

Throughout the curriculum, our students ask critical questions about meaning-making in dance, and engage these critical questions as choreographers, dancers, scholars, and lifetime audience members. Whitman students have the options to pursue the Dance minor, take courses for
general distribution credit, or study and perform simply for their own pleasure and enrichment.

For more information and course listings, see the Theater and Dance section in the Whitman Course Catalog.