Dance

An Honors Project is expected to go well beyond the general expectations of the program capstone, but again in flexible ways. For example, if a student chooses to prepare an evening of their own original work to perform they would also be asked to develop a written work process plan for the concert and then an additional reflection paper that examines how the process went. These additional requirements are designed to be flexible like the general capstone and are developed in direct consultation with the dance program honors advisor, who is the Dance Program Director.

In addition the dance program expects that the project:

• Be of the highest quality
• Represent the culmination of the student’s scholarly or creative work in dance.
• Demonstrate a level of scholarly or artistic ambition and achievement significantly over and above that of his/her non-honors peers.
• Involve a dimension of original research that develops the state of knowledge or practice in our field, as well as the student’s own skill-sets. The student should be able to explain the contribution of their project to dance or dance studies, positioning the work in relation to that of other scholars and artists. That is, it needs to demonstrate a knowledge of existing ideas, approaches, interpretations, or methods, and go beyond describing or replicating them.
• Be developed in a collaborative, mentorship-rich relationship with at least one faculty member. At all honors levels, students are required to have a review committee of three. One of these committee members must be a tenure-track or tenured faculty member.
• If the thesis is an artistic project, it should also have a substantial component of written documentation (see below) that is presented in a polished form, using appropriate citation or equivalent determined in collaboration with the honors capstone project advisor.
• Be presented as appropriate at all Dance Program Capstone Course activities with the additional deadline of the final day of exams for submission of the completed Honors Project portfolio. Additionally, the Portfolio should contain the materials needed to show the project has been fully completed e.g. a final written reflection, video reflection, copy of any live performance, process journals, etc.