Art, Movement and Performance
Art, Movement and Performance
Immerse yourself in the Art, Movement, and Performance Track, where you can dive into the creative worlds of art history, visual arts or dance. This track offers a unique opportunity to delve into the history and evolution of art, understanding its cultural and social impacts, or explore the realm of dance as a powerful form of storytelling and expression. Students will engage in hands-on experiences at iconic New York City museums and studios, participate in workshops led by industry professionals, and create their own artistic and choreographic pieces. This track is perfect for students passionate about understanding the past and present of artistic expression and eager to explore their own creative potential.
Program Structure
Classes take place on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday.
Office Hours, Junior Junction and Leadership in Action Workshops will be held on Monday and Friday.
Student life activities will be held in the evenings after class.
The Curriculum
Dance Discovery
Instructor: Caitlin Trainor
In this course we will utilize embodied practice as research. Alongside reading, writing, viewings, and class discussions, we will make dances, projects, and movement studies. The studio will function as our laboratory as we uncover information about our own artistic voices, aesthetics, and personal practices - examining how these interact, support, and relate to the many facets of our lives and identities. Students will experience dance in New York City both through our work in the studio, and through excursions into the city for performances and other creative inspiration. Throughout our time together we will examine the different roles of dance - as ritual, performance, spectacle, protest, politics, self-expression, activism, and cultural conduit. We will dream, question, and experiment with these ideas on our own, with partners, and as a whole group - utilizing choreographic practices and the body in motion to better understand our relationship to the material.
Global Modernism
Instructor: Nicole Coffineau
The aim of this course is to explore the history and discourses of modern art, modernism, and the
avant-garde via the social and theoretical questions understood to have driven the development
of artistic modernism around the globe from roughly 1789 to 1968. The course will be organized
according to four major lenses of inquiry: “Aesthetic Categories within Social Art Histories,”
“Formalism and Autonomy,” “Perception and Artistic Production,” and “the Role of the Mind,
or, the Beholder’s Share.” Each of these lenses, or themes, will be driven by a set of readings,
images, and key terms that together constitute “conversations,” or orientations toward the history
of modern art. An aim of this course is to enable students to identify and ultimately enter into
focused, art-historical conversations and to understand their positioning within the broader
discourse. However, because there is a fair amount of conceptual overlap among the course’s
themes, the foremost goal is to enable critical analysis of modern, visual artworks from multiple
perspectives, or within multiple frameworks. In considering the many, dynamic engagements of
theory, history, and visual artworks, this course will provide not only a strong knowledge of
modern art, modernism, and the avant-garde, it will also help students develop a sense of the
methods used to study the histories and theories of modern art.
Functional Anatomy for Movement
Instructor: Francesca Dominguez
This is an introduction to the study of Countertechnique® taught by certified Teacher, Francesca Dominguez. Countertechnique® is a system of movement designed for dancers to practice self-direction and to cultivate availability to movement while learning to take risks. Developed over the past 25 years by Dutch choreographer, Anouk Van Dijk, the technique utilizes a task-based approach for body and mind as the vehicle to approach dance. It is a movement system that helps the dancer think with the dancing body by focusing on the process of incorporating anatomical information into action; and beginning to direct and counter-direct the body through space as an alternative to gripping or falling over. Dancers are encouraged to be proactive in discovering connections and solutions, to be less concerned with judging themselves, and to work in a healthy way physically, mentally, and emotionally. The priority is to experience clarity and enjoyment of movement while utilizing the Countertechnique® principles. By the end of the course, students will have a clarified relationship to space; a developed coordination and articulation of the body; they will gain knowledge about the anatomy of the body especially joint structure, location, and range; and will be able to begin Scanning – the ability to observe one’s own state-of-being and draw upon solutions according to need and/or experimentation.
The Instructors
Nicole Coffineau
Global Modernism
Nicole researches the histories of photography, modernity, and the avant-garde in Italy. Her dissertation investigates photography’s impact upon artistic and social thought in Italy, and Western Europe more broadly, between roughly 1860 and the end of World War I. Nicole’s secondary focus is contemporary art history and criticism. She is an active critic and curator, work which she approaches through the lenses of media theory, politics, environmentalism, identity, coevality, and performance. She has been a member of HAA since 2013.
Francesca Dominguez
Functional Anatomy for Movement
Francesca Dominguez is a performing artist, educator, and choreographer in New York City, one of 15 certified Countertechnique teachers in the US, and holds an MFA/Dance from Hunter College, where she was the recipient of the school-wide Shuster Award for Outstanding Master's Thesis 2022. Francesca currently teaches Countertechnique as an adjunct professor at Barnard College, Columbia University. She also teaches at the Juilliard School, Gibney Dance, and Peridance Center. Francesca has learned from faculty at Hunter College, CSU Long Beach, and the Alonzo King Lines Ballet Training Program in addition to her intensive study of Countertechnique. She has danced professionally with Soluq Dance Theater, Manuel Vignoulle, Thomas Noone Dance, and Keith Johnson/Dancers, and began choreographing and producing her own work in 2020. Her sold-out, evening-length show, Galvanizing Steel was presented at Gibney/NYC, she has since presented work as part of the Doug Varone Devices Performance in 2022 and was recently awarded a grant and performance residency from The Jamaica Center for Arts & Learning (JCAL) to be performed in late September 2023.
Caitlin Trainor
Dance Discovery: Methods and Movement
Named one of “25 to Watch” by Dance Magazine, CAITLIN TRAINOR is the artistic director of Trainor Dance. She is a long time member of the faculty at Barnard College/Columbia University and the founder of Dancio, providing on-demand dance classes with world-renowned teachers. Her areas of interest include reducing barriers to access in dance, embodied interconnection, and dance as a primal force. Find Caitlin online at www.trainordance and www.dancio.com
Bridging Curriculum and Community
We believe student life does not start and end in the classroom. Each night after class, students can participate in activities led by our residential student staff
Community Office Hours
Each Monday, students are invited to meet with any member of our Pre-College Programs team. Office hours emphasize PCP’s open door office policy and gives students a space to meet with their instructor, Peer Academic Leader, or a professional staff member.
Technology and Academic Support
Canvas and Email Access
Barnard PCP utilizes Canvas, an online platform, where students will find their syllabus, assignments, discussion boards, and access to message their instructor or peers outside of class.
Students will also receive a PCP email address to use for the duration of the program.
Our team will go over technology usage in the student manual and during Orientation.