Carnegie Mellon University

VDM SHORT COURSE ARCHIVES

Links to the Virtual Dalcroze SHORT COURSES can be accessed through the registration site.
Descriptions of the courses are listed below.

Short-Course with
Elda Nelly Treviño
Six sessions / 80 min. each

Latinamerican music: a rich source for Dalcroze Eurhythmics and Music Classrooms

Are you curious about finding novel repertoire to enhance your teaching  practice? This short course will take you through a journey of discovery of  Latinamerican traditional music rich in rhythmic patterns and beautiful melodies. We will work through Dalcroze eurhythmics exercises which can fit students of all ages and musical backgrounds. We will explore traditional music from different Latinamerican countries and short  piano pieces written for didactical purposes: music in simple and compound meters  both regular and irregular, pentatonic, tonal, modal melodies, and dance music.

Through a journey of discovery, we will emphasize musical aspects such as rhythmic patterns, melodic contours, phrasing, harmony, and character, which offer opportunities to work on the four areas of study of the Dalcroze pedagogy:  eurhythmics, solfège, improvisation, and plastique animé. Furthermore, we will explore various excerpts of concert music based on Latinamerican dance rhythms suitable for plastique animé. A lead sheet (music notation) with the lyrics in English and Spanish will be provided along with the links for recorded versions of the music available in public platforms. 

This course does not require prior background or experience with Dalcroze Eurhythmics.

 

This course was originally presented May–June, 2023.

 

Short-Course with
Stephen Neely
Six sessions / 80 min. each

INVITATION to
The Self and The Shared Gesture

The Self and The Shared Gesture 


Exploring the therapeutic and wellness opportunities of music & movement
• What happens when we sync up our motion with the motion of others?
• How might shared breath, shared trajectory, or shared gaits contribute to feelings of calm, stability, confidence, and community?
• What is the experience of bodied empathy and how might it lead to deeper connection with our friends and colleagues?

The Dalcroze Eurhythmics classroom, first recognized as a space for musicianship training, has yielded therapeutic benefits since the first explorations in 1903. We see these benefits even more clearly now after almost 120 years of practice and growth in the method.

In this 6-session short course, Stephen Neely will lead us through common Dalcrozian interactions with a focus connection, community, empathy, shared gesture, awareness of self, risk, intimacy, and vulnerability – lessons critical for advanced musicianship, but also central to a healthy and rewarding participation in our extra-musical worlds. 

 

This course was originally presented June 1–22, 2022.



Short-Course with
Dawn Pratson
Six sessions / 80 min. each

Virtual Dance with Dawn Series 3

New in Series 3: We will explore the meaning and practice of somatics, with a little history. Dawn will also share an activity each week which teachers can immediately apply in their classroom.

 

This is a weekly, 80-minute long, Dalcroze-inspired movement class to develop and maintain functional, expressive and musical fitness. Principles of grounding, alignment, efficiency of movement, spatial intention, rhythm and phrasing, among other concepts, will be addressed through guided activities and improvisation.

 

This course was originally presented September 25–November 7, 2022.

 

Short-Course with
Dawn Pratson
Six sessions / 75 min. each

Ball Exercises from "Virtual Dance with Dawn Season 2"

 

Virtual Dance with Dawn Series 2

 

This is the second series of a weekly, 75-minute long, Dalcroze-inspired dance-movement practice to develop and maintain functional, expressive and musical fitness. Principles of grounding, alignment, efficiency of movement, spatial intention, rhythm and phrasing, among other concepts, will be addressed. We will play with movement as personal and communal metaphor, and other material as it arises. Some vocal and tonal play will also be included.

“We see light etched by shadows, feel joy emerging from sorrow; the present hovers between the past and the future. Between all these opposites, there is a sense of movement that renews the clarity of each experience.” Irmgard Bartenieff, with Dori Lewis, from Body Movement: Coping with the Environment.

This course was originally presented March 28-May 9, 2021.


Short-Course with
Dawn Pratson
Six sessions / 60 min. each

Virtual Dance with Dawn Series 1

Six hour-long dance-movement classes to develop and maintain functional and expressive fitness. Principles of grounding, alignment, efficiency of movement, spatial intention, rhythm and phrasing, among other concepts, will be addressed. We will also play with movement as personal and communal metaphor, and other material as it arises.

“ We see light etched by shadows, feel joy emerging from sorrow; the present hovers between the past and the future. Between all these opposites, there is a sense of movement that renews the clarity of each experience.”– Irmgard Bartenieff, with Dori Lewis, from Body Movement: Coping with the Environment.

 

This course was originally presented Januaru 31–March 15, 2021.