Colby Theater & Dance

#1: Research and Critical Thinking. While conducting scholarly, creative and tactile research, Theater and Dance students will be able to:

• Interpret theater and dance texts (play scripts, choreography and live performances) and their aesthetic and social values through time and cultures.
• Recognize the vital connection between theory and practice through direct engagement with scholarship and production experiences, thus providing a critical pathway for the transition from theory to praxis.
• Learn a range of new and emerging research methods and technology.
• Work independently in preparation for collaborative learning.
• Develop applied skills beyond the classroom environment by testing them in a real-world production environment.
• Prepare for graduate-level study, internships or jobs in the field of theater and dance or to apply what they have learned to a related field (such as Biology and Chemistry, Economics, English, Government and Psychology) in which our students frequently double major.

#2: Analytical and Problem Solving Skills. While engaging in traditional classroom and laboratory/production work, Theater and Dance students will be able to:

• Articulate, both in writing and in oral presentations, the socio-political context of a range of performance styles and genres throughout history.
• Apply problem solving and critical thinking skills in a real-time, high stakes public context.
• Further an individual sense of civic identity, reciprocity and professional purpose by reflecting on the role performance occupies in society.
• Strengthen capacities for analytical/critical thinking and problem solving in any context.

#3: Oral, Written and Kinaesthetic Communication. While participating in verbal, written and movement-based communication, Theater and Dance students will be able to:

• Articulate possible interpretations of a play script or performance clearly and effectively.
• Express and communicate ideas and opinions through clear and cogent writing.
• Develop clear and expressive speech habits in performance practices, cross-disciplinary studies and everyday life.
• Explore the connections between mind-body intelligences.
• Develop an awareness of individual and ensemble physicality in order to communicate emotion, thought and aesthetic intention.

#4: Practice-based Technique. While participating in the performing arts (acting, dancing, directing, choreography, design, playwriting, dramaturgy, stagecraft), Theater and Dance students will be able to:

• Acquire increasing levels of reasoning and technique in performance-based disciplines.
• Understand risk-taking as an essential element of the performing arts.
• Recognize, through rehearsal, final performance and evaluation, the benefits and consequences of creative and aesthetic risk.
• Advance their aesthetic knowledge and sensibility by participating in or observing a wide range of national and international aesthetic interpretations and styles of performance.

#5: Collaboration, Organization and Civic Engagement. While engaging in laboratory/production and service learning experiences, Theater and Dance students will be able to:

• Develop discipline, organizational skills, confidence and problem-solving etiquette—all capacities that can be fruitfully applied to a wide range of professions including business, government, law, journalism and the sciences.
• Strengthen interpersonal skills, including the capacity for problem solving, conflict resolution, and inter-generational and multi-cultural communication.
• Increase abilities in self-reflection, multicultural sensitivity, and the comparison of social values and ethical systems through interaction with other communities and cultures.
• Experience interdisciplinary artistic collaboration and dialogue with related disciplines such as Art, Creative Writing, English, Film Studies and Music.
• Push transactional learning (traditional classroom acquisition of knowledge) into transformative learning (promoting a change in student’s deep understanding and/or capacity for empathy) and transcendental learning (the application of new knowledge to further disciplinary knowledge).