Faculty Syllabus

Dance Appreciation 2303 is a general survey of dance forms designed to create an appreciation of the vocabulary, techniques, and purposes of the creative process. This course includes critical interpretation and evaluations of choreographic works and dance forms within cultural and historical contexts.

Credit Hours: 3

This is a 12-week course, so students should expect to commit at least 4-5 hours/week to this course during the semester.

Fall 2026:  This course will be delivered online via Blackboard (https://acconline.austincc.edu/). This section is fully asynchronous. In other words, you may complete all work on your own by the due dates, without any live class meetings. That said, I am available to answer any questions during my regularly scheduled office hours as well as via email.

MANDATORY ORIENTATION: Orientation materials can be found in the “Start Here – Orientation” section of the Blackboard course. Follow the instructions for the required actions. This is what you'll need to do the first week of class:

• Carefully READ the Course Syllabus and all its policies
• WATCH the Student Orientation Video
• COMPLETE the Blackboard Introduction Assignment by midnight, Wednesday, September 23, 2026

Faculty are required to certify your class attendance, and you may be withdrawn from the class if you do not complete the orientation actions by the established deadlines!!  See Start Here - Orientation on Blackboard!

TECHNOLOGY: In this course, all materials, assignments, and many activities can be found and completed online. Please make sure you have the hardware and internet capabilities to view materials and turn in assignments online. A tablet or laptop with good internet connection is recommended.

WRITTEN ASSIGNMENTS:  Discussion Board Posts/Comments, Reflections/Critiques, Write a Letter

CREATIVE ASSIGNMENTS:  Video/Audio Discussion Posts, Make Slideshow, Conduct an Interview, Create Instagram-Style Posts, Organize a YouTube Playlist

COURSE LEVEL:

Upon successful completion of this course, students will: 

• Identify various forms of dance.
• Articulate the relationship between dances and the historical and cultural contexts from which they emerged.
• Express an informed personal reaction to dance forms.
• Critically analyze and write about dance using established methods of dance criticism.
• Evaluate the impact of dance on culture.

GENERAL ED:

Students completing this creative arts core curriculum course will meet the following objectives: 

• Communication Skills: Develop, interpret, and express ideas and information through written, oral, and visual communication that is adapted to purpose, structure, audience, and medium.
• Critical Thinking Skills: Gather, analyze, synthesize, evaluate and apply information for the purposes of innovation, inquiry, and creative thinking.
• Personal Responsibility: Identify and apply ethical principles and practices to decision-making by connecting choices, actions and consequences
• Social Responsibility: Analyze differences and commonalities among peoples, ideas, aesthetic traditions, and cultural practices to include intercultural competence, knowledge of civic responsibility, and the ability to engage effectively in regional, national, and global communities.
• Teamwork: Consider different points of view to work collaboratively and effectively in pursuit of a shared purpose or goal.

• Defining Dance:  Origins & Purpose
• Engaging with Dance (A Method for Critical Analysis)
• Elements of Dance
• Ritual Dance
• Dance and the Body
• Development of Ballet
• Social Dance
• Development of Modern and Contemporary Dance
• Hip-Hop, Jazz, and Tap
• Written Dance Critique

COURSE GRADE

This is how your course grade will be determined:

Monitor Your Progress:  Your assignment grades and weighted course grade may be checked on Blackboard throughout the semester. Please see or e-mail the instructor at any time if you have concerns or questions about your grade.

This is a ZTC (Zero Textbook Cost) section. In place of required textbooks, all textbook materials needed for the class will be available online to students free of charge. Students may print copies of the resources but will be responsible for printing costs.

Resources will include scholarly articles, essays, excerpts and chapters, which will be provided within each module on Blackboard. A curated selection of dance films, videos, podcasts, and other listening material will also be provided within each module on Blackboard. Students will be expected to access links to YouTube, Vimeo, and other public sources.

There is no required textbook.

Attendance/Class Participation

Though this section is a 12-week asynchronous course, all assignments, quizzes, the group project, and the paper have due dates. Regular and timely class participation in discussion boards and completion of work is expected of all students.  If participation or compliance with other course policies is unsatisfactory, the instructor may withdraw students from the class. Students should expect to commit at least 4-5 hours/week to this course during the semester. 

The student is responsible for communicating with their professor and completing all assignments or other activities designated by their professor.

Withdrawal Policy

It is the responsibility of each student to ensure that his or her name is removed from the rolls should they decide to withdraw from the class.  The instructor does, however, reserve the right to drop a student should he or she feel it is necessary.  If a student decides to withdraw, he or she should also verify that the withdrawal is recorded before the Final Withdrawal Date.  The Final Withdrawal Date for this semester is provided at this link.  The student is also strongly encouraged to keep any paperwork in case a problem arises.

Students are responsible for understanding the impact that withdrawal from a course may have on their financial aid, veterans’ benefits, and international student status.  Per state law, students enrolling for the first time in Fall 2007 or later at any public Texas college or university may not withdraw (receive a “W”) from more than six courses during their undergraduate college education. Some exemptions for good cause could allow a student to withdraw from a course without having it count toward this limit. Students are strongly encouraged to meet with an advisor when making decisions about course selection, course loads, and course withdrawals.”

Late Work Policy

Due dates are clearly stated in Blackboard Modules and the Gradebook. Students who are unable to complete work on time are encouraged to turn their work in late for partial credit. Late work will be penalized with a grade reduction.

Incompletes

Note that the completion date for unfinished work cannot be later than the withdrawal deadline for the following semester. 

Generative AI

• Introduction: In this course, the use of generative AI (GAI) technologies is strictly prohibited to preserve academic integrity and ensure the development of student competencies. Using generative AI tools to substantially complete any assignment is not permitted. Using instructive generative AI to assist, edit, review, etc. any written assignments is on a case-by-case basis and under SAS guidelines.
• Rationale: The prohibition is in place to encourage original thought, manual problem-solving skills, and to maintain equity in educational opportunities and assessments. In this section of "Dance Appreciation," the student's personal perspectives, opinions, and insights are explored through various assignments. All assignments must reflect these elements through the student's unique use of subjective writing/speaking in an active voice with personal insight clearly provided, unless the assignment states otherwise.
• Definition of GAI: Generative AI refers to artificial intelligence systems that can generate text, images, or other content based on minimal input. This includes chatbots, image generation tools, and code assistants that require some form of text or visual input in order to generate an output. Alongside generative AI are instructive GAI systems and programs. These systems and applications include Grammarly, Quillbot, Packback, Microsoft WORD Editor. Some programs have less obvious GAI elements that may rely on automated tools that correct and rearrange all human-written sentences, thus removing the need for students to think critically, individually review and edit their own spelling, grammar, punctuation, etc. alongside the traditional proofreading markers and suggestions. Further, these tools tend to edit and suggest text generations that are primarily objective and in passive voice, effectively eliminating the personal out of the content that a student is attempting to edit/proofread. However, these tools can also serve as examples of instructive AI that support student learning. This is where faculty discretion and SAS guidelines will come into play. GAI in the academic world is an ever-changing field with complexity for all involved; for more resources on the matter, see:
  • ACC's TLED GUIDE TO GENERATIVE AI
  • NYU's Generative AI and Large Language Models (LLMs)
  • TXST's Library Guide to Artificial Intelligence (AI).
• Usage Permissions - PROHIBITED: Students are not allowed to use GAI for completing assignments, projects, tests, or any form of assessment in this course. 

• Penalties: Any violation of this policy will result in academic penalties which may include a failing grade for the activity, reporting to academic affairs, and further disciplinary action.
• Exceptions: Exceptions to this policy will only be in regards to instructive AI programs and tools that are made under specific circumstances--typically where technology is used to accommodate learning differences--as communicated by the student at the start of the semester. Instructor approval for usage of programs that provide even the slightest GAI elements in any manner include (but are not limited) to auto sentence rewriter plugins such as paid subscriptions of Grammarly, visual submission to text outputs such as Image Describer, auto citation generators such as Scribbr, etc. These programs and support tools will only be considered approved on a case-by-case basis and under formal guidance through ACC's Student Accessibility Services; some cases may require specific GAI service support accommodations noted on forms. Additionally, exceptions will be made when AI is purposefully incorporated into an assignment by the professor in order to help educate students on how AI technology can be used appropriately within a college level course.

Given the AI policy in this class, all written student work this semester will be checked using the GPTZero AI detection tool via Blackboard Ultra. All writing that is flagged as AI Generated to a certain percentage (typically above 20%), will receive a grade of '0'

• Faculty Note: We, as faculty and staff at ACC, are in the active space of learning about these ever-changing GAI programs and tools. We acknowledge that mistakes can--and will--be made in regards to assignments under suspicion and/or flagged for GAI usage. False-positives are common in the world of detectors and human-error will always be a part of the grading process. Vice versa, students who engage with GAI systems and tools are most likely doing so for a number of reasons beyond our knowledge. Please consider the academic integrity side of this conversation as we aim to consider you--the students'--side of usage. It is always better to form an open, honest line of communication between one another from the start.

All ACC Policies are accessible to students in our Blackboard course.