Course Syllabus
Course: DANC 1680
Division: Fine Arts, Comm, and New Media
Department: Dance
Title: Hip-Hop I (Formally DANC 1590)
Semester Approved: Fall 2022
Five-Year Review Semester: Spring 2028
End Semester: Summer 2028
Catalog Description: This course will introduce students to hip-hop styles, including popping, locking, and breaking. Hip-Hop as a cultural movement will be discussed. This course is repeatable for credit.
Semesters Offered: TBA
Credit/Time Requirement: Credit: 1; Lecture: 1; Lab: 1
Repeatable: Yes.
Prerequisites: None
Corequisites: None
Justification: Hip-hop is quickly becoming a major field of study in many university dance programs. It's an accessible high-energy dance technique with several styles, including popping, locking, and breaking. By offering hip-hop classes at Snow College, we continue to provide our students with an equitable and diverse dance education while making our dance training accessible to students of all backgrounds and skill levels.
Student Learning Outcomes:
Students will acquire beginning-level hip-hop technique skills. Students will be evaluated on their beginning-level knowledge of hip-hop center and across-the-floor phrases through regular in-class instructor and peer feedback.
Students will develop critical thinking skills through observation and analysis of personal movement habits while displaying increased ability in areas of flexibility, strength, musicality, coordination, proprioception and endurance. During their Midterm Exam, students will self-evaluate (via written critiques) their hip-hop technique through observation of their classroom movement habits (as recorded on a mobile device).
Students will become familiar with the history of hip-hop and its contribution to the World culture. For their final Exam, students will create a short hip-hop-based dance work. In preparation for their Final, students will be shown examples of diverse hip-hop works, followed by a discussion of their contribution to dance history.
Students will analyze the relevance/application of hip-hop technique to a dance concert performance. Students will submit a written critique of the Snow College Dance Concert and choreograph their basic hip-hop dance for the end of the semester in class performance.
Content:
Each class will consist of three essential components: warm-up, hip-hop progressions and combinations, and cool down. Hip-hop exercises emphasize strength, balance, core work, syncopated rhythms, and musicality. Students will explore various hip-hop choreographers and dancers in preparation for their Final. Finally, through observation and written critiques, students will further refine their critical thinking skills and further appreciate the art of dance.
This class welcomes movers of all abilities, backgrounds, and body types. By its very definition, hip-hop is a diverse form that derives its influences from many other styles, including house dance, break dance, martial arts, and African dance. Because everyone is unique, this course will welcome diverse perspectives and ideas. As diverse perspectives are shown, we will value differences and commonalities and promote respect in personal interactions as a class. We will be examining the issues of inclusion and colonialism as they apply to the history of hip-hop through classroom discussion and observation of diverse hip-hop dancers and choreographers.
Key Performance Indicators:
Attendance and class conduct 25 to 40%
Technical progress 25 to 40%
Midterm practical (self-evaluation) 10 to 20%
Final project (creating and performing a beginning-level hip-hop dance combinaion)) 10 to 15%
Snow College Dance Concert critique 10 to 20%
Instructor and peer feedback 5 to 15%
Representative Text and/or Supplies:
Video materials as found on YouTube
Pedagogy Statement:
This class welcomes movers of all abilities, backgrounds, and body types. As hip-hop has quickly become a global phenomenon, we will be discussing the issues of diversity, inclusion, and social justice as they apply to the history of hip-hop through classroom discussion and observation of diverse hip-hop dancers and choreographers in preparation for our final project. The individualization of this course promotes and sustains a sense of belonging. As a group, we will practice respect for individual talents and beliefs.
Instructional Mediums:
Lecture/Lab
Maximum Class Size: 25
Optimum Class Size: 15
