The Wiley Handbook of Collaborative Online Learning and Global Engagement

5 In Between Dreaming and Insomnia: A Cyber-Dialogue Dance Project

Julie Brodie and Laura David

Kenyon College, USA

Exploration and expression of self in relation to others and the surrounding environment is at the heart of dance composition, making choreography courses an ideal vehicle for the development of global self-awareness. Rudolph Laban (1980), the forefather of the Laban Movement Analysis system, writes:

So movement evidently reveals many different things. It is the result of the striving after an object deemed valuable, or of a state of mind. Its shapes and rhythms show the moving person’s attitude in a particular situation. It can characterise momentary mood and reaction as well as constant features of personality. Movement may be influenced by the environment of the mover. (p. 2)

This statement encapsulates the ability of movement to reflect on who we are, what is important to us, and how we relate to our surroundings. Going a step further, shaping movement into a dance requires that the artists become conscious of these aspects of their movement profile and to begin to make choices about how to best express their desired message.

Recently, two beginners’ choreography classes from different countries engaged in a Global Course Connection (henceforth GCC) project, using technology to connect and reflect on cross-cultural concepts of body, identity, and place. This collaboration was the first Fine Arts GCC in the Great Lakes Colleges Association, and the results ...