COURSE: DANC 3250 Advanced Dance Science Seminar

COURSE DESCRIPTION: Continuing exploration of the field of dance science for dance majors. Emphasis is placed will be placed on injury assessment, treatment and prevention, the application of dance science information to dance technique, and other aspects of health and wellness for dancers. Some in-depth inquiries will be determined by class consensus.
                            
SEMESTER: Spring 2009

COURSE TIMES: Mondays and Wednesdays from 1:00-1:50 pm

LOCATIONS: 3125 Dalton Center & Studio C

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

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 pm, 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: Email me or see me for an appointment time, or just catch me before or after class if your question is brief.

REQUIRED TEXT: Calais-Germain, Blandine, Anatomy of Movement. Eastland Press, Seattle, 1993. 

RECOMMENDED TEXTS:
Hale, Robert Beverly and Coyle, Terence, Albinus on Anatomy.  Dover Publications, Inc., New York, 1988.                                          

Gibaldi, Joseph, MLA Handbook for Writers of Research Papers, 6th ed.  The Modern Language Association of America, New York, 2003.

COURSE GOAL: To further explore the field of dance science with a focus on specific application of the information to the individual dancer's health, technique and injury prevention. The course will focus on individual challenges, remedies and working with the anatomical differences of the dancer’s instrument.

COURSE OBJECTIVES:
1. To provide study and activities that further 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.

4. To explore related areas such as psychology and motor learning that affect a dancer’s abilities to function effectively.

COURSE REQUIREMENTS AND ASSIGNMENTS:
Exams: There will be a mid-term exam and a comprehensive final exam in this course consisting of objective (multiple choice, short answer, and true/false for example) and essay questions. Each exam will cover material from course readings, the guest lecture sessions, as well as regular lectures and course software. The final exam will be comprehensive as required by the University. See course website for dates.

Papers: You are required to submit two papers for this course. For the first paper, you should select a topic related to the subjects covered in this course and get my approval of the topic.  You may not duplicate the topic of another classmate.  Conduct an exhaustive web search on the topic and identify the ten most helpful sites related to the topic.  Provide full MLA bibliographic citation for each site and a two to three sentence summary of the particular value of the site for dancers and any cautionary statements if appropriate.

The second paper should discuss specific ways you will apply the information from the class in your future endeavors.  Give specific examples of changes you will make in how you approach your health and wellness, what you need to work on, and how you can improve your dance and dance-related skills using this information. The paper should not exceed 5 pages. See the course website for due dates.

Additional Requirements: 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.

Attendance:  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 and must use MLA format.  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.

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.  In addition, you may access the Code of Honor and general academic policies on such issues as diversity, religious observance, student disabilities, etc. at http://osc.wmich.edu and www.wmich.edu/registrar.

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
Midterm exam = 25%
Final Exam = 25%
Paper # 1 = 20%
Paper # 2 = 20%
Participation = 10%
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.