Movement for Men: A Course Challenging the Notion That Male Students Don’t Dance

December 2010

Christina Tsoules Soriano M.F.A. &Karen Clemente Ed.D.

At Wake Forest University I teach a unique, eight-week course entitled Movement for Men. This elective class is open only to male undergraduates, and predominantly, the class population is comprised of student-athletes, most of whom are taking a dance class for the first time. The course goals are to encourage male students to embrace the notion of dancing as an acceptable and masculine activity by introducing beginning dance concepts, making connections between dance and athletics, and challenging social stereotypes that often associate dance as being an inherently feminine activity. My hopes are that students find joy in dancing in this class and beyond as they become ongoing dance students and future dance audience members. Lastly, this class seeks to inspire the idea that looking at the world through the lens of dance might reframe students’ ideas of what it means to be physical and what it means to be a man.