Dance in New York City

Great prof! Not only is Prof. Glasner knowledgable but she truly wants to engage each student toward dance. She covers a variety of dance genre within the course and each class is engaging. Also, it fulfills the Visual Arts Requirement.

I agree with the prior review: this class was an utter waste of time. The performances themselves were highly worthwhile, but I doubt that the painfulness of the class made up for it; I had to consistently fight to stay awake. Even students with fairly strong dance backgrounds who do not happen to be one of the professor's clear favorites are likely to find themselves feeling like they're listening in on someone else's private conversation. If you want an "in" in the dance department, feel free to take this class, however for everyone else? I recommend that you get the list of performances and go on your own. Spare yourself the tedium or take it with another professor.

This course, which had the potential for being a very good class, was a total waste of my time. Although I enjoyed the out of class performances, I took very little away from the class. Professor Garafola has obvious favorites in the class, which often felt like a private conversation between her and the dancers in the class, leaving the majority of students completely left out. Class had little structure- Professor Garafola enjoyed going off on tangents, and the lectures often seemed to have nothing to do with the reading. When she did follow some kind of lesson plan, she read straight off her notes in a voice that was so obviously forced and fake that I found it almost unbearable to listen to her. Although Professor Garafola is obviously knowledgeable about her field and has a lot of experience with it, she did a horrible job of imparting that knowledge upon her students. I would not recommend this class to anyone who's not a dancer- someone actually made a comment in class that "you have to be a dancer to appreciate dance," and Professor Garafola nodded along. A lot of students LOVE Professor Garafola (and she really is a good person), but think very carefully before taking this class. Consult others who have taken it to see what they say, but in my book, it's not worth your time or the extra money it costs to take it.

I love professor scolieri's class. I knew nothing about dance going in, but had no trouble with the class at all. And, if you are a dancer, you'll still learn a lot and not feel held back. He's just a great speaker, and makes the class SO interesting. He just has a wonderful personality. When students make comments in class, he listens and responds well. The class discussions are great. It's a very comfortable setting, where you can participate if you want but don't feel like you HAVE to. The readings are very light. Most won't take more than 20 min before class. At the beginning of the semester he gave us a pop quiz on the readings. It was just to scare us, and wasn't graded. You should do the readings anyway, cause it makes the class more enjoyable. Instead of readings, we also had to watch a few films. But they're not long, and fun to watch. One was west side story. If you're worried about the performances taking too much of your time-don't. They're a nice break from your work during the week. If you're looking for a fun and interesting class, with a great professor, take this. I would definitely recommend him.

I went into this class knowing absolutely nothing about dance. Actually, I was just looking for an easy course so I'd have enough credits to graduate. Paul is very enthusiastic about the subject matter, has a decent sense of humor, and can tell entertaining stories about his past teaching and dancing experiences (ask him about Macauly Culkin). He will, however, know if you're completely slacking off. The class consists of the scheduled lecture hours, plus attendance at a number of dance performances throughout the city, which you must then write about. The semester I took the class, Barnard was also holding an evening lecture series on dance, and we were "strongly encouraged" to attend these as well (translation: you'd better have a damn good excuse if you didn't show up). Paul also added a handful of videos (to be watched in the library) to the workload as the semester progressed. Passing this class isn't hard - just make sure you go to all the performances, watch the videos (most are pretty interesting, actually), and glace over the reading before class so you can make one moderately insightful comment if he asks you to.

Professor Glasner is at first encounter a sweet, even cool woman. The more time you spend in this class however, the more abrasive her name-dropping and opinionated lectures become. Glasner forms staunch first-impressions of students and lets them color her grade distribution. If she suddenly doesn't like you (often for no apparent reason) you have no chance of ever doing well. Do not take this class, it is more hassle than you would think, and less enjoyable than it sounds.

Arright, Avoid this class at all costs. I mean seriously. Don't get me wrong. Prof. Genter is a nice person. She smiles at you sometimes and she's even approachable outside of class. It's just that she's really strict. Like witness her comment on my recent paper: My paper: "And the dancers were wearing bright red suits for the second act." Prof. Genter (in big red letters): "The dancers were wearing MAGENTA." I kid you not. Also, she gets upset if you chew gum in class. Also, this is DANCE and it's supposed to be a fluff class but I found myself going to Butler to research my papers---not cool.

I really enjoyed this class. Katie is an engaging and witty lecturer who knows all sorts of interesting facts about the New York City dance scene. The syllabus covers ballet, modern, post-modern, tap, jazz, musical theatre, and marathon dancing, and you don't have to have any previous knowledge of dance to take the course. This is probably one of the easiest classes you can take at Columbia, but it's really quite good