Theater and Dance
Contact
Department Chairs:
Nusha Martynuk, Dance
Matthew Wright, Theater

Administrative Assistant:
Janice Sanborn

Department Email:


Phone: (440) 775-8152
Fax: (440) 775-8340

Location:
Warner Center 100
30 N. Professor St.
Oberlin, OH, 44074

 


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Theater and Dance

Theater and Dance
Oberlin Dance Company & The Contemporary Music Ensemble

This Friday and Saturday, the Oberlin Dance Company and the Contemporary Music Ensemble join together. Theatrical, romantic, and celebratory, the night is a compelling example of collaborative success.

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Fall Forward Menu

Spring Back Dance Concert

April 2008

Department Overview

The performing arts at Oberlin College represent collaboration at its best. Students engage in all aspects of performance, both artistic and technical. Opportunities abound to interact and collaborate with disciplines such as cinema studies, studio art, creative writing, and music. Our faculty, who are accomplished professional artists in their own right, offer a range of courses that nurture and develop the interests and abilities of students, providing a sound grounding in the theory and practice of theater and dance.
 
 

Curriculum Overview

Suburbia: Enrico Nassi '09 (Tim), Derrick Bean '09 (Jeff), Tip Scarry '11 (Buff)

subUrbia by Eric Bogosian

February 2009

Our Theater curriculum offers a range of courses in acting, directing, history, theory, technical production, design and dramatic literature.The theater major incorporates study in all these areas with an individualized concentration, allowing each student to study a chosen discipline in depth. The Acting and Directing course sequences are especially intensive, and prepare professionally oriented students for graduate school.

We organize our Dance curriculum around four areas of study, allowing students to pursue dance from different perspectives: creation and performance, critical inquiry, physical techniques, and somatic studies. Majors take courses in each of the four categories to challenge and expand their perceptions of what it is to engage in the study of dance. Students develop a personalized course of study through the process of articulating their own goals and identifying courses that allow them to achieve the highest degree of proficiency in their chosen area.

Students who wish to combine theater and dance in unique ways can design an Interdisciplinary Performance Major.

Our curriculum is for both beginners and seasoned young performers. Students who want to use theater and dance as a way to enrich their education and their lives may begin their studies at an introductory level, choosing from a wide array of courses. Committed students who wish to focus on the performing arts as a professional career may enroll in upper-level classes after placing into those courses.

Performance activities abound. Faculty-directed and student-run theater and dance productions occur every semester. Students work closely with artists-in-residence, choreographers, guest directors, and specialists who offer workshops and classes lasting from a few days to a month. Students also have ample opportunities to study away or study abroad for a semester or a year.

Graduates of the Theater and Dance Program have continued their studies at such institutions as the Yale School of Drama, Cal Arts, Columbia University, L'Ecole Lecoq, Mills College, and the Tisch School of the Arts at New York University. Many have professional careers as dancers, actors, directors, choreographers, set designers, playwrights, art administrators, educators, and academics.

 

OASIS ArtS Intensive Semester

OASIS

Learn more about our new exciting partnership with Cleveland. Click here.

Oberlin ArtS Intensive Semester

March 02, 2012

OASIS semester marks the most dramatic collaboration between Oberlin College and Cleveland Public Theatre to date.

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Hypnosis for Salesmen: The Lessons of Penny Glass, Nov 17-20

November 14, 2011

College sophomore, Michael Cunningham directs this thrilling meditation on trust, love, and mind control.

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Fall Forward is back, Nov 10-12

Bring your parents to Oberlin's annual fall dance concert! - November 07, 2011

Oberlin's annual fall dance concert promises performances that will challenge the viewer both emotionally and conceptually in its presentation of ideas related to society and individualism, relationships, and the nature of change.

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There Always Has to Be a Story

A Hip Hop Ballet - September 29, 2011

This year's annual Dance Diaspora show will feature the choreography and performance of Dance Diaspora alumni Sherece Donalds ’06 and local talent DJ David B.I.G. Thompson.

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Play It Again, Sam

September 29, 2011

An endearingly funny tale of one man’s pursuit of love in the face of his neuroses.

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Darwinii: The Comeuppance of Man

September 19, 2011

Nightjar Apothecary's DARWINII: THE COMEUPPANCE OF MAN is a hilarious investigation of Darwinism through one man's search for his roots.

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Pursuit of Excellence Lecture Series

September 08, 2011

The Department of Athletics and Physical Education, the Conservatory of Music, and the Bettman Family Lectureship Fund present the Pursuit of Excellence, a series of four lectures that address the needs of elite performers. September 10, September 11, October 3, November 4!

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Annual Directing Class One-Acts Showcase Student Work, May 11-14

May 03, 2011

Oberlin College Theater's new class of directors present their work in rotating repertory, May 11-14 in the Little Theater.

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Dance performance (re) member ing brings artists together to remember, April 29 &30

April 29, 2011

Kai Evans and Helen Joyce collaborate with a team of artists utilizing dance, sound, text, film, and sculpture. April 29 & 30, Warner Main Space.

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Revamped Flora, the Red Menace plays Hall Auditorium May 5-8

April 27, 2011

Composer John Kander '51 and writer David Thompson team up with Director Matthew Wright and Musical Director Ian Axness '09 to present a reworking of the classic Communist musical Flora, the Red Menace! Holly Handman-Lopez choreographs the musical with members of the Oberlin Dance Company. May 5-8 in Hall Auditorium.

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