Daily Iowan

Issue date: 11/29/07 Section: 80 Hours

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Class time in the dance department's Collaborative Performance course was spent not perfecting the art of dance but instead refining another art - communication.

Lounging at desks in Halsey Hall, the 11 students worked at the process of collaboration. Dancers with legs gracefully draped on tabletops beside them exchanged ideas back and forth with composers, theater students, and a photographer. Everyone had to share and balance responsibilities, a process of cooperation and compromise leading toward the goal of a concert, titled Timeless Suspension of Dreams, which will début today at 8 p.m. in North Hall's Space/Place and run through Saturday.

Leaning back in his chair at the front of the room, Daniel Stark, a visiting assistant professor, observed his class thoughtfully, softly interjecting only when he felt guidance was necessary.

"Students are learning how to collaborate as they collaborate," he said. "I try to facilitate the process without being involved in the process. [I give the students] guidance in how they're doing things, not what they're doing."

Using his own experience with collaboration, Stark taught the class how to develop a vocabulary that reaches across the arts.

"[He] redirected how we discussed [things] in class," said Analia Alegre-Femenias, a graduate student in choreography.

She said that, for her, the class was about learning how to use the English language more effectively. "Sometimes, we just throw words out there, and it's not really what we mean," she said.

"To understand the language was an issue we had to go through," said Vladimir Condereche, a choreographer and graduate student. "Once we understood what we were saying, we realized we were all going in the same directions."

The students' work resulted in a program consisting of a multimedia photography show and four dance pieces weaved together by selected texts spoken by actors between the sets.

Continued...

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