COURSE: DANC 2950 Introduction to Dance Science and Kinesiology

COURSE DESCRIPTION: An introduction to the field of Dance Science for dance majors. Emphasis is placed on anatomical analysis, conditioning principles and injury prevention, with special attention given to application of information to technique class, rehearsal, choreography and individual anomalies. This course, in combination with DANC 1960, meets the Area VIII Health and Well-being General Education requirement for dance majors.

SEMESTER: Fall 2009

COURSE TIMES: Tuesdays and Thursdays from 9:30-10:45 a.m.; Lab on Fridays from 8:00-8:50 a.m.

LOCATIONS: Studio B, Fridays, 8:00-8:50
3125 Dalton Center, Tuesdays and Thursdays, 9:30-10:45

INSTRUCTOR: Jane Baas, Professor of Dance, 3123 Dalton Center

TEACHING ASSISTANT: Cate Biedrzycki

OFFICE PHONE: 387-5845 (office with voice mail). Please leave a detailed message if I'm not available. PLEASE DO NOT call the main office to leave me a message.

HOME PHONE: 628-4650 before 9:00 p.m., please (also have answering machine).

EMAIL: jane.baas@wmich.edu (preferred)

WEBSITE: http://homepages.wmich.edu/~baas. Course schedule information, assignments and handouts will be posted on this site. Please check the site prior to each class.  Note that you do not put in “www.”

OFFICE HOURS: Sign up for appointments 24 hours in advance in the main dance office.

REQUIRED TEXT:  Dance Kinesiology, 2nd edition, by Sally Sevey Fitt. Schirmer Books, 1996.

RECOMMENDED TEXTS:
Diet for Dancers, by Chmelar and Fitt, Princeton, 1990.

COURSE GOAL: To introduce students to the field of dance science with a focus on specific application of the information to the dancer's health, technique and injury prevention. The course covers the skeleton, specific muscles and their actions, chronic injuries and anatomical abnormalities common to dancers, and methods of assessing posture and fitness, as well as healthy lifestyle choices and professional care options.

COURSE OBJECTIVES:
1. To provide study and activities which expand the dancer's understanding of the human body as the instrument used in creating the art of dance.

2. To provide study and activities that develop the student's ability assess strengths and weaknesses and anatomical differences, enabling the student to make changes and to adapt her technique to accommodate what cannot be changed.

3. To provide information that will enable the dancer lead a healthy lifestyle and to avoid injury in technique class, rehearsal and performance, and when injured, enable the dancer to seek appropriate treatment and work intelligently with medical professionals.

COURSE REQUIREMENTS AND ASSIGNMENTS:
Exams: There will be five exams and one comprehensive final in this course consisting of objective (multiple choice, short answer, and true/false for example), demo analyses and essay questions. Each exam will cover a specific joint or joints, possible actions, muscles, bones and connective tissue of that joint, as well as individual differences and anomalies common to dancers. Joints covered will be: Ankle/Tarsus/Toes; Knee; Hip; Spine; and Shoulder/Scapula. Each exam will also cover material presented in the Friday lab and the guest lecture sessions as well as regular lectures. The final exam will be comprehensive as required by the University. A time for review will be reserved preceding each exam. Students who have a 94.5% or higher average for all exams will not be required to take the final exam. See course website for dates.

Papers: You are required to submit two papers for this course. For the first paper, you should select an article related to the subjects covered in this course from a magazine or journal, or a chapter from a book (other than the course texts) from the selected bibliography provided for this course. After reading the material, write a one-page summary of it and a one-page discussion of how the information can be applied specifically to you as a dancer. Full MLA bibliographic citation must be included. The second paper should discuss what you have discovered about your own body as a result of this class. For the challenges you can change, discuss what you will do to work on them. For the challenges you cannot change, discuss how you will compensate for them using information gained throughout the course. The paper should not exceed 5 pages. See the course website for due dates.

Additional Requirements and Information: You are expected to keep up with reading assignments from the text and other readings assigned in class. You will also need to allow time to review the software (available in the dance computer lab) used in the course and for testing. Previous “A” students have emphasized the need to stay current on reading assignments and spend time with the course software. It is your responsibility to get any material you miss when absent BEFORE you return to class. All students will be expected to participate physically and verbally in class. You are required to attend all sessions presented by guest lecturers. No attendance is taken on other days. A missed guest lecture without acceptable documentation (e.g. court summons, funeral notice) will lower the final grade by 0.5 (half a letter grade).

Late assignments will be accepted, however, the grade will be lowered half a letter grade for each weekday the assignment is late. All assignments, except exams, must be presented in typed or computer-printed format with a clean, legible ribbon and must have a title page. Exams may only be made up if a written rationale is submitted stating the reason for missing the exam and at the instructor's discretion. Documentation from other sources may be required. Under no other circumstances will a make-up be considered.

So as not to disturb the class, you are required to ensure your cell phone is turned off during class time.  If there is an urgent reason you must leave the phone on, please notify me in advance, sit in the front row on the aisle so you can easily depart the class to take your urgent call, and put the phone on vibrate mode.  Failure to comply will result in you needing to give me the cell phone at the beginning each class for storage in my office during the duration of the class. 

Academic Honesty: You are responsible for making yourself aware of and understanding the policies and procedures in the Undergraduate and Graduate Catalogs that pertain to Academic Honesty. These policies include cheating, fabrication, falsification and forgery, multiple submission, plagiarism, complicity and computer misuse. [The policies can be found at http://catalog.wmich.edu under Academic Policies, Student Rights and Responsibilities.] If there is reason to believe you have been involved in academic dishonesty, you will be referred to the Office of Student Conduct. You will be given the opportunity to review the charge(s). If you believe you are not responsible, you will have the opportunity for a hearing. You should consult with your instructor if you are uncertain about an issue of academic honesty prior to the submission of an assignment or test. 
You are encouraged to go to http://osc.wmich.edu and www.wmich.edu/registrar to access the Code of Honor and general academic policies on such issues as diversity, religious observance, student disabilities, etc.   

Students with Disabilities: Any student with a documented disability (e.g. physical, learning, psychiatric, vision, hearing, etc.) who needs to arrange reasonable accommodations must contact the professor and the appropriate Disability Services office at the beginning of the semester.

DEPARTMENT POLICY FOR EVALUATION OF WRITING IN DANCE COURSES
Students are evaluated on their mastery of language arts skills. Each course will specify assignment requirements. The student who meets all course requirements should expect to receive a grade appropriate to his/her level of mastery.

An "A" student:
1. Demonstrates maturity and originality of thought reflected by the ability to analyze, synthesize and evaluate.
2. Sustains the development of a point or idea over the length of the assignment.
3. Uses organized paragraphs and transitional devices.
4. Makes conventional use of capitalization and punctuation.
5. Uses consistently the grammar, syntax and spelling of standard English, with particular attention to sentence structure and to agreement between subjects, verbs, pronouns and antecedents.

A "B" student's written work shows proficiency in four of the above criteria.
A "C" student's written work shows proficiency in three of the above criteria.
A "D" student's written work shows proficiency in two of the above criteria.
An "E" student fails to fulfill the requirements of the course regardless of his/her language arts skills.

GRADING:
The grading scale for course assignments is shown below. Your letter grade or average for each assignment will be multiplied by the weight indicated below to determine your final course grade. Borderline cases will have grades adjusted to the nearest grade on an individual basis.

Assignment Weight
5 Exams averaged = 60%
Final Exam = 15%
Paper # 1 = 10%
Paper # 2 = 15%
TOTAL = 100%

Grading Scale for the Course
95-100% = A
90-94% = BA
85-89% = B
80-85% = CB
75-79% = C
70-74% = DC
65-69% = D
Below 65% = E

Exam grades may or may not be curved depending upon student performance on each exam.