Program Highlights

• Course content is either directly creative or focuses on the process of creativity, the outcome of creativity, or the generation of situations that foster creativity.
• Students can choose to emphasize one area of creative practice or sample from across the curriculum.
• Curriculum includes courses with cultural and aesthetic diversity.

Multidisciplinary Creative Practice

Why study creative practice at Geneseo?

This minor is a good fit for students who aren’t studying fine arts but who are interested in engaging with their personal creativity. It fosters creative thinking and practice, critical thinking, problem-solving, and the integration of theory and practice in a transformational manner by bringing together research, intellectual development, and practical application in different disciplines and areas of creative expression, which are inherently self-reflective. Students can explore their expressive potential in the generation of original projects, works of art, scientific experiments, and created texts.

Program Option

Visit Geneseo

Apply

Sample Courses

• Basic Musicianship
• Costume Construction
• Digital Electronics
• Foundations of Creative Writing
• Intro to Dance
• Monologue Workshop
• Museum Studies
• Philosophy of the Arts
• Production Stage Management
• Professional Public Speaking
• Reading as a Writer
• Video Production
• Visual Communication

Contact Info

Alla Myzelev, Associate Professor in Art History and Program Coordinator
myzelev@geneseo.edu
Brodie Hall 224
585-245-5811 

Dept

Faculty

Program Highlights

• Geneseo supports a variety of student dance organizations.
• Artists-in-residence give students an opportunity to learn from esteemed professionals.
• The College has two dance studios and two fully equipped stages.
• A diverse learning environment helps students broaden their viewpoint to participate in a multicultural society and interrelated world.
• Graduates go on to pursue advanced dance studies, choreograph for public school musical theatre productions, teach in private studios, perform in small regional companies, perform in Equity musicals, and use dance therapy to work with physically or emotionally disabled persons.

Dance 

Why study dance at Geneseo?

Geneseo offers two minors: dance studies and dance history. An audition demonstrating proficiency at the 200-level in two techniques, either ballet, modern, or jazz is required for admission to the dance studies minor. Students develop their potential as performers, choreographers, teachers, and research assistants. The non-performance dance history minor complements the performance-based minor, introducing students to the history of dance from a wide variety of cultural perspectives.

Program Option

• (audition required)

Additional Options

Visit Geneseo

Apply

Sample Courses

• Asian Dance Survey
• Ballet Technique
• Dance Composition
• Dance Ensemble
• Dance History as a 20th Century Art
• Dance Kinesiology
• Global Dance History
• Intro to Film Studies
• Intro to Music History
• Jazz Technique
• Modern Technique
   

Contact Info

Jonette Lancos, Professor of Theatre and Dance
lancos@geneseo.edu
Brodie Hall 164
585-245-5843 

Theatre and dance dept

Theatre and Dance faculty

Rajendra Ramoon Maharaj is a multi-disciplinary American Theater Artist, Administrator, and Cultural Activist who investigates the complexities of narrative, perception, identity, political, social, and community storytelling, through research driven work that explores BIPOC narratives that have been historically bypassed in the American Theatre. He is an alumnus of the Art Equity BIPOC Leadership Circle in partnership with the David Geffen School of Drama at Yale University, member of the Metropolitan Opera / American Guild of Musical Artists (AGMA) DEI Council, the former Associate Artistic Producer at Milwaukee Repertory Theater, and the former Artistic Director of New Freedom Theatre and American Stage Theatre Company. He is the former Stage Director and Artistic / Community Consultant for the inaugural Opera Theatre of St. Louis New Works Collective in partnership with the Mellon Foundation and the Edward Jones Foundation. Mr. Maharaj is the Founder and former Director of Artistic Programing for the Voices at the River Biennial Latinx and African American Playwright’s Residency Program, in partnership with Arkansas Repertory Theatre and the Winthrop Rockefeller Foundation. He is currently the Assistant Professor of Stage Direction (Musical Theatre & Theatre) at ºÚÁÏÍø.

After his graduate studies at Brooklyn College, Mr. Maharaj was awarded a Masters of Fine Arts Degree from Brooklyn College. Mr. Maharaj is a proud alumnus of the Actors Studio Playwrights and Directors Unit, Lincoln Center’s Directors Lab, and Theater Communication Group’s Rising Leaders of Color in the American Theater.

As a storyteller, Mr. Maharaj has worked on Broadway, Off-Broadway, and at many of our nation’s top Regional Theaters including the Bernard B. Jacobs, The Theater at Madison Square Garden, The Sheen Center for Thought & Culture, The Public, Second Stage Theatre, Soho Playhouse, Classical Theater of Harlem, New Federal Theater, New World Stages, Nuyorican Poets Café, Tribeca Performing Arts Center, Theatre Row, Ensemble Studio Theatre, Portland Stage, Actors Theater of Louisville, Alabama Shakespeare, Signature Theater, Theater Works, Goodman Theater, New Freedom Theater, Arkansas Repertory Theater, Perseverance, and The Kennedy Center.

Mr. Maharaj has been honored with numerous awards for his body of work in the American Theater including the prestigious Woodie King Jr. Award, four Vivian Robinson AUDELCO Awards, Barrymore Award, Stage Directors and Choreographers Society Theatrical Moment of the Year, The New York International Fringe Festival Overall Excellence Award, Theater Communications Group Directors Grant and Playwriting Grant, Recipient of the National Alliance for Musical Theater Fifteen-Minute Musical Theater Challenge Award, he is a two time semi- finalist for the Blue Ink Playwriting Award Competition presented by American Blues Theater and a semi-finalist for the Austin Film Festival.

Mr. Maharaj was twice hailed in The New York Times as a Critics Pick for his work in the American Theatre. His playwrighting residencies include the Nuyorican Poets Cafe, New Orleans Writer’s Residency, Alliance Theater, Arkansas Repertory Theater, Crossroads Theater, Amas Musical Theater, Triskelion Arts, the Resident Playwright of the Letter of Marque Theatre, is an alumnus of Theater Now’s Virtual Musical Theater Writer’s Group, a Season Finalist in The Downtown Urban Arts Festival in New York City, the inaugural playwright for the Theatre Raleigh New Works Reading Series, and a finalist for the Eugene O’Neill National Playwrights Conference. He is the recipient of the Negro Ensemble Company Cutting Edge Playhouse Playwriting Residency.

Mr. Maharaj was recently the stage director of the World Premiere of The Factotum at the Lyric Opera of Chicago in their 22-23 season. He is also the Co-Book Writer and Dramaturg for this dynamic new American opera.

He also served as the stage director and consultant for Slanted: An American Rock Opera, Madison Lodge, and Cook Shack as part of Opera Theatre of St. Louis’ Inaugural New Works Collective in their 22-23 season, as well as the stage director for Scott Joplin’s Treemonisha re-imagined by composer Damien Sneed and librettist Karen Chilton.

In the 21-22 Season, Mr. Maharaj served as the Assistant Director on the World Premiere of Fire Shut Up In My Bones (Terence Blanchard / Libretto by Kasi Lemmons) at the world famous Metropolitan Opera House. This groundbreaking opera was the first in the one-hundred-thirty-eight-year history of The Metropolitan Opera to feature on the main stage an African American composer and librettist while opening the world of Opera to BIPOC and Queer BIPOC communities throughout New York City, many of whom saw themselves reflected on The Metropolitan Opera stage for the first time.

As a scholar, he has lectured at Yale University, Columbia University, University of Arkansas at Little Rock, The Kennedy Center for Performing Arts, Howard University, George Washington University, Catholic University, St. John’s University, St. Joseph’s College, and Brooklyn College.

He has been featured in numerous articles and interviews in notable industry publications such as The American Theater Magazine, The New York Times, The Yale School of Drama / Repertory Theater Review, The Dramatist, The Uptown Magazine, Playbill, Broadway World, The Daily News, The New York Post, The New York Beacon, The Philadelphia Sun, Time-Out New York, Harlem News, Amsterdam News, and The Stage Directors and Choreographers Journal for his work as a theater practitioner and leader.

Mr. Maharaj is the former Third Vice-President for the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People for the Borough of Brooklyn as well as the founding Chairman for the Equity in the Arts and Culture Committee of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People for the Borough of Brooklyn. Mr. Maharaj has been recognized with the Time Warner Diverse Voices Grant, New York City Council Citation for Outstanding Community Service Leadership, New York State Senate Citation for Outstanding Community Service and Mentoring Leadership, The Commonwealth of Pennsylvania House of Representatives Citation for Excellence in the Performing Arts, Philadelphia Mayoral Proclamation, and a Proclamation from New York City Mayor, Eric L. Adams. Mr. Maharaj was recently awarded the 2020 Trinidad and Tobago United Community Association Inc. Award for his outstanding contribution to the Trinidad and Tobago Diaspora as an Artist, Advocate, and Educator in the United States of America.