Our European faculty aims to create an atmosphere that encourages authentic and individual expression thereby cultivating artistic development and personal growth. Finding its roots in the European tradition of modern dance, German Ausdruckstanz and German dance theatre, the program combines classical ballet, modern and post-modern performance techniques as well as somatic approaches with specific cultural movement traditions such as Butoh or the traditional Italian Tarantismo. Students in the Accademia’s Dance Program will enjoy an enriching and challenging encounter with European dance culture in a truly inspiring environment.
Sabine Fichter
Director of the Dance Program
The dance program at the Accademia dell’Arte offers American college students a unique semester-long learning opportunity in the heart of Tuscany. During the program, students dance, improvise, and create daily, while working with superb European artists in an intimate artistic community. With an intense focus on developing one’s own personal style, I find that students return to America with expanded self-awareness and more sophisticated skills as performers and art makers. Living collectively in a Renaissance villa surrounded by magnificent views, students advance their talents within an artistically fertile and supportive environment. Complementary course work on the Philosophy of Art invites further reflection and challenges students to comprehend their own responsibility as dancers, performers, choreographers, consumers and producers of art. The lovely town of Arezzo provides an authentic Italian experience and easy access via train to the capitols of Europe for weekend and spring break travel. This semester spent abroad is a positively beautiful and transformative experience for American college and university dancers.
Karen Dearborn
Professor, Chair of Dance
Muhlenberg College
