We want to hear from you! We are collecting photos and stories from the Dance Department and we’d love to hear from you! Please submit your photos/videos or blurbs. Click to submit. Since its inception in the 70s, the dance program at Williams has been a home to many students. Every now and then, a member of the dance department continues to study the performing arts in a professional capacity. They are good resources, and love talking about their experience and their growth as performing artists. Please check out our new page about alumni.
The Dance Department offers students ways to investigate embodied knowledge and to develop multiple perspectives by studying individuals and communities. Our courses support close study of physical practices, histories, cultural context and musical understanding and interpretation. Through techniques, research, and creative inquiry, students deepen capacity for interdisciplinary discovery.
The department curriculum offers complementary study in the disciplines of Theater, Visual Art, Africana Studies, American Studies, Asian-American Studies, Global Studies, Gender Studies, Music, and Performance Studies. Dance technique courses include ballet, modern, and African Dance.
Currently students seeking to anchor their academic and creative study in dance may pursue the Contract Major option. Designated courses are offered for full academic and/or PE credit; you must register for PE courses through the Physical Education department.
All students are welcome to audition for membership in the Department’s performing companies which include: CoDa, whose members train in and perform works created in the vocabularies of modern dance and ballet; Kusika, an African Dance and percussion ensemble which accepts members as dancers, musicians, and storytellers; Sankofa, the college’s step team, whose members present this percussive dance form with both respect to tradition and an energetic exploration of new ideas; and the Zambezi Marimba Band, which performs music from Zambia and Zimbabwe, as well as from around the world. Membership is also possible through invitation by the company directors. Company members study with faculty, guest artists and peers. Student choreographers are also supported.
A suite of dances from Anna Sokolow’s Rooms (1955), performed by the Williams College Contemporary Dance Ensemble (CoDa), fall 2020.
The Williams College Contemporary Dance Ensemble (CoDa), co-directed by Erica Dankmeyer and Janine Parker, collaborated with the Sokolow Theatre/Dance Ensemble (NYC), to learn a suite of dances from Anna Sokolow’s Rooms (1955). Assistant Professor of Art Sarah Rara made the film, and Lyell B. Clay Artist-in-Residence in Music, Kris Allen, directed musicians in Kenyon Hopkins’ original score.
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