With the final scramble to register for next semester's courses, students that are looking for a fun, active class that will engage their cerebellum should check out these dance courses. These classes are now being offered for any student looking to add a class for their major, minor, or aesthetic expressions pillar. After 15 years of instructing dance at Randolph College, Professor Malone Dudly has started to teach these high-energy courses here at Longwood starting this spring in 2022. These three classes are beginning social and recreational dance, jazz dance, and modern dance technique.
The first class offered is beginners social and recreational dance. For those looking to jump into the world of movement through social dances such as the Virginia reel, Ukrainian folk dance, swing dancing, or Latin dance. These beginning social dances include many types of popular dance throughout history. During this 5 week dance flurry, students can look forward to enjoying connection through movement by learning these historical social dances together.
Beginners jazz dance focuses on learning jazz and jazz vocabulary with elements of musical theater incorporated into some combinations. Each class starts with stationary warmups. The class continues with movement across the floor and technique instruction. At the end of each class, combinations, or short dances, are taught to apply the techniques and include musical theater which often goes hand in hand with jazz.
For us non-dancers, Malone Dudly explained that modern dance means anything that is not ballet, jazz, contemporary, or hip-hop dance. She defines the modern dance umbrella, born out of a period of historical rebellion, as a “rejection of classical dance,” not to be confused with the dances we commonly do today.
Now that these courses have returned to Longwood with the arrival of Malone Dudley, students looking for a full brain and body workout should consider dance classes at Longwood. In 5 weeks undergraduates can learn many social dances, be given an in-depth introduction to jazz technique, or start to learn the ins and outs of modern dance. For one credit each, students can choose to take one, two, or all of these classes each semester.
While these classes are offered for beginners, more seasoned dancers can continue their learning of the dance language through practice, and continued instruction on technique. Malone Dudly encourages new and returning dancers to enroll and enjoy the art of movement no matter their skill level, rejoicing that “people need to move, and people need to dance.” Whether you find yourself in one of the 15 seats for each of these classes or just blast music in your dorm room, be encouraged to get out there and move.
