Beginner Classes

Conceptually guided, spontaneous movement generation and invention reached through individual and group experiences will occur in this course. The class is appropriate for students with no prior movement experience.

• GEP Visual and Performing Arts
• Typically offered in Fall and Spring

Development of beginning-level skill of East and West African dances, including history, culture and context, emphasizing the central role that dance plays in African cultures.

• GEP Global Knowledge
• GEP Health and Exercise Studies
• Typically offered in Fall only

Development of beginning-level skills in social dance, including vocabulary, technique, history and performance, with emphasis on leading and following in the Cha-Cha, Foxtrot, Waltz, Rumba and Shag.

• GEP Health and Exercise Studies
• Typically offered in Fall, Spring and Summer

This course introduces students to the physical, social, communal, historical and cultural aspects of Hip-hop dance. Students might have to provide transportation and/or pay a minimal cost for a performance not to exceed $15.

• GEP Health and Exercise Studies
• GEP Visual and Performing Arts
• Typically offered in Fall and Spring

This beginning-level technique class covers basic tap dance skills in warm-up exercises, combinations and compositions. Emphasis is placed on correct alignment in tap dance steps and the exploration of a variety of rhythms and patterns.

• GEP Health and Exercise Studies
• Typically offered in Spring only

Development of beginning-level technical skills in ballet, including vocabulary, technique, history, performance, alignment, function and access of turnout, with emphasis on safe and efficient body use.

• GEP Health and Exercise Studies
• Typically offered in Fall and Spring

This beginning-level technique class covers basic jazz dance skills in warm-up exercises, combinations and compositions. A variety of jazz styles are covered including one or more of the following: classical (Luigi/Giordano), Broadway, contemporary, Afro-jazz and others.

• GEP Health and Exercise Studies
• Typically offered in Fall and Spring

Development of beginning-level technical skills and movement concepts in modern dance, including vocabulary, technique, history, performance and alignment, with emphasis on safe and efficient body use. Class format will include structured exercises and improvisations. A small fee may be required for dance concert attendance.

• GEP Health and Exercise Studies
• Typically offered in Fall and Spring

This course will emphasize the practice of the eight limbs of yoga at an introductory level. Coursework will include the study of yoga culture, breathing exercises, meditation techniques, and a variety of yoga asanas (postures): standing, twisting, balancing, forward bending, backward bending, and inversions. Students will develop the skills required to perform these postures and maintain a safe yoga practice.

• GEP Health and Exercise Studies
• Typically offered in Fall, Spring, and Summer

This course will teach the fundamentals of Pilates, which are to improve body awareness, increase breathing capacity and improve postural alignment through simultaneous stretching and strengthening movements. The goal of Pilates exercises is to achieve optimal functional fitness. The knowledge and training gained from Pilates will not only benefit an individual in their daily activities but also improve their performance in any physical activity they choose to participate in.

• GEP Health and Exercise Studies
• Typically offered in Fall, Spring, and Summer

Dance and Society examines dance as an artistic, religious, cultural and social form, including historic and aesthetic influences, basic dance elements and relationship to other arts. This course incorporates multiple modalities of dance knowledge – lectures, films, demonstrations and practical dance experience. A small fee may be required for concert attendance.

• GEP Global Knowledge
• GEP Visual and Performing Arts
• Typically offered in Fall only

An overview of the development of Western theatrical dance in the United States. This course introduces the major figures and movement theories of the 19th & 20th Centuries with particular emphasis on major stylistic trends and cultural influences. Readings, discussions, lectures and films/videotapes will introduce selected choreographers and the concerns that inform their work. Additional readings in dance philosophy and aesthetics will address ideas such as form, expression, audience expectations and performance conventions.

• GEP U.S. Diversity
• GEP U.S. Diversity, Equity and Inclusion
• GEP Visual and Performing Arts
• Typically offered in Spring only

Critical and contextual examination of current trends in dance. While specific readings and video resources will vary by semester as the field of dance continues to change, major course topics will include at least three of the following: the role of dance supporters and presenters, media influences, non-concert and site-specific dance, current movement trends, political significance and international concerns.

• GEP Visual and Performing Arts
• Typically offered in Spring only

This course covers the development of beginning and intermediate-level skills in Horton dance technique, including alignment, vocabulary, performance and history, with emphasis on strengthening the body for dance. Class format will include dance practice and performance (warm-up exercises, fortifications, studies, traveling combinations and choreographic works) and the in-depth study (through readings, videos and discussions) of Lester Horton’s career and influence in the modern dance field. Particular emphasis is placed on Horton’s relation to racial integration in concert dance, the effects of World War II and the associated Red Scare on his work and the formation of Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater by former Horton student Alvin Ailey.

• GEP U.S. Diversity
• GEP U.S. Diversity, Equity and Inclusion
• GEP Visual and Performing Arts
• Typically offered in Fall only

An introduction to Laban Movement Analysis (LMA) and Bartenieff Fundamentals (BF) through movement integration, observation, notation, analysis and application. LMA is a method and language for describing, visualizing, interpreting and documenting all varieties of human movement. It consists of the study of four major components: Body, Effort, Shape and Space, the relationships between them and ways of notating them. BF consists of a set of concepts, principles and exercises developed by Irmgard Bartenieff in applying Laban’s movement theory to the physical/kinesiological functioning of the human body. LMA/BF is used by dancers, actors, musicians and dance therapists, among others.

• Typically offered in Spring only

Learn to play a woodwind, brass or percussion instrument as a member of NC State’s Beginning Band. This introductory course will provide an outlet for creative expression as you learn to play a new musical instrument of your choosing in a safe, collaborative and nonjudgmental environment. In Beginning Band, students will learn to read standard musical notation while playing music together as an ensemble during class. A band instrument is required and can be rented through the Department of Music for an additional fee. No experience is necessary to enroll in this class. Beginning Band may not be repeated for credit.

• Typically offered in Fall and Spring

This course constitutes an introduction to piano playing by learning music notation, keyboard technique, fundamental music theory and beginning piano repertoire. No previous experience with music is required. No pre-requisites. This course is designed for true beginners who have had no previous experience with the piano. Students with previous music experience must contact the instructor for placement.

• Typically offered in Fall and Spring

The study and performance of intermediate piano repertoire.

• Prerequisite: MUS 107
• Typically offered in Fall and Spring

Development and practice of vocal techniques suitable to solo and ensemble singing in a variety of musical styles, both historical and contemporary.

Typically offered in Fall and Spring

This course provides an introductory survey of the characteristic musical forms, techniques, technologies and styles of Western art music from about 1750 to present. It uses historical methods to closely examine composers, listeners and performers’ activities and experiences alongside significant cultural, social and political events. The ability to read music is not required.

• GEP Global Knowledge
• GEP Visual and Performing Arts
• Typically offered in Fall and Spring

Examination of Western musical materials, forms, styles and history through the primary musical experiences of composing, performing and listening. Course designed for students with no formal musical training.

• GEP Visual and Performing Arts
• Typically offered in Fall, Spring and Summer

Understanding Music is a semester-long exploration of music’s materials, contexts and purposes. We will consider music as a global phenomenon and commonality of human social experience. Through videos, readings and listening to both recorded and live music from an array of world regions, we will examine the occasions and purposes of music-making and listening. We will explore the ways in which traditions, values, belief systems and patterns of social change are encoded and made manifest in musical practices. The ability to read music is not expected. This course can fulfill either the Interdisciplinary Perspectives (IP) or Visual & Performing Arts (VPA) GEP requirements and the Global Knowledge (GK) co-requisite requirement.

• GEP Interdisciplinary Perspectives
• GEP Global Knowledge
• GEP Visual and Performing Arts
• Typically offered in Fall, Spring and Summer

This course is designed for students interested in a fundamental study of the materials of music, including pitch, rhythm, meter, scales, keys, intervals, triads and seventh chords. Intended for students with minimal or no music theory background, this course develops skills in reading, writing and analyzing a wide variety of music.

• GEP Visual and Performing Arts
• Typically offered in Fall, Spring and Summer

A class specifically for songwriters, musicians, beat makers, sample manipulators and scratch artists using digital audio workstations (DAWs) as composition tools. This course will also introduce basic audio engineering, gain structure and signal flow from interface to DAW. The goal is to explore the broader DAW platform as a tool in the songwriting process. Students will explore editing, looping, effects, equalization, plugins and rack hardware. No specific prior mathematics, engineering, or computer training required. Students may be asked to provide their own transportation to and cover the cost of an on- or off-campus event.

• GEP Visual and Performing Arts
• Typically offered in Fall and Spring