Swarthmore College Dance Program

10/22/2026

The Aesthetic of Cool: Exploring Jazz Dance.

This class is designed to prepare the body for the strength, stamina, and versatility that the style of Jazz requires.
Exploring the “aesthetic of the cool” this class delves into the dancer honing their own movement vernacular. It will start with a basic set warm-up consisting of rhythm, syncopation, and coordination practice. This will progress into modified “barre” exercises performed as center work. Then a thorough stretching/conditioning series will follow to work on flexibility and injury prevention. Students will move on to adagio work focusing on core balance, sustaining extensions, and moving through time. Across the floor work and center combinations will explore more rhythm and musicality, turns, jumps, and incorporate the use of polycentric movement throughout all phrases.

Bio
Lauren Putty White is a dancer, choreographer, educator, and writer whose artistry intersects jazz, improvisation, and embodied listening. She holds an M.F.A. from Montclair State University and a B.F.A. from the University of the Arts. Having toured with Parsons Dance and PHILADANCO!, she currently performs with the Sun Ra Arkestra at Carnegie Hall, Big Ears Festival, Montreal International Jazz Festival, SFJAZZ, the Guggenheim Museum, and Festival Internacional Cervantino.
She choreographed for Ballet, Bryn Mawr College, Drexel University and others. White has taught at Temple University, AileyCamp Baltimore, Cornell University, and Bates Dance Festival. She collaborated with Melanie George at the National Center for Choreography and was a 2025 Performing Artist in Residence at Glen Foerd. White co-directs Putty Dance Project with her husband, jazz musician Brent White. She created a Free Jazz improvisational methodology, Free Form Body Motifs, and is a Teaching Specialist at Stockton University.

Accompanist: Trombonist, Brent White

10/21/2026

The Aesthetic of Cool: Exploring Jazz Dance.

This class is designed to prepare the body for the strength, stamina, and versatility that the style of Jazz requires. Exploring the “aesthetic of the cool” this class delves into the dancer honing their own movement vernacular. It will start with a basic set warm-up consisting of rhythm, syncopation, and coordination practice. This will progress into modified “barre” exercises performed as center work. Then a thorough stretching/conditioning series will follow to work on flexibility and injury prevention. Students will move on to adagio work focusing on core balance, sustaining extensions, and moving through time. Across the floor work and center combinations will explore more rhythm and musicality, turns, jumps, and incorporate the use of polycentric movement throughout all phrases.

Bio
Lauren Putty White is a dancer, choreographer, educator, and writer whose artistry intersects jazz, improvisation, and embodied listening. She holds an M.F.A. from Montclair State University and a B.F.A. from the University of the Arts. Having toured with Parsons Dance and PHILADANCO!, she currently performs with the Sun Ra Arkestra at Carnegie Hall, Big Ears Festival, Montreal International Jazz Festival, SFJAZZ, the Guggenheim Museum, and Festival Internacional Cervantino. She choreographed for BalletX, Bryn Mawr College, Drexel University and others. White has taught at Temple University, AileyCamp Baltimore, Cornell University, and Bates Dance Festival. She collaborated with Melanie George at the National Center for Choreography and was a 2025 Performing Artist in Residence at Glen Foerd. White co-directs Putty Dance Project with her husband, jazz musician Brent White. She created a Free Jazz improvisational methodology, Free Form Body Motifs, and is a Teaching Specialist at Stockton University.

Accompanist: Trombonist, Brent White

10/09/2026

DANC 002A: Ballet and Modern Dance in Europe and North America, 1789–1960
Visiting Professor Tamara McCarty

This course explores the history of ballet and modern dance in Europe and North America from 1789 to 1960, examining how dance developed alongside social and political changes. Students will work with historical sources including film, texts, newspapers, and visual representations of performances to explore the development of Western theatrical dance, performance aesthetics, and its sociopolitical significance.

What is Professor McCarty excited about this semester?

“I am most excited about introducing first-year students to the world of Dance Studies and guiding their development as thinkers and writers through the lens of dance and the body!”

Professor McCarty is excited to make the past feel more accessible, help students connect historical dance to the present, and introduce them to the diverse artists and dance lineages that have shaped the field.

And as an added bonus, she’s new to Swarthmore too! So, she and her students will be sharing the experience of discovering a new place together.

”

10/06/2026

Sophie Gray-Gaillard (she/her) graduated from Swarthmore College with a double major in Neuroscience and Dance, and she was a visiting student at the Victoria College of Arts’ BFA Dance Program in Melbourne, Australia. Sophie was awarded the 2020 Melvin B. Troy Prize in Dance for her choreography from the Department of Music and Dance at Swarthmore College. After graduating from Swarthmore, she co-founded five two dance company in 2021.

five two dance company is a women-led 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization that shares highly physical contemporary movement. Working with early-career performers, the company seeks to create expressive, legible work that inspires conversation, imagination, and reflection among all viewers. five two dance company has produced four evenings of work for a sold out audiences at the The Mark O’Donnell Theater, Philadelphia Fringe Festival, and The KnJ Theater at Peridance. In addition to creating and performing their work, five two dance company is committed to offering affordable dance classes to movers of all experience levels. Visit fivetwodance.com for more info!

In addition to dancing, Sophie is an Immunology PhD candidate at the University of Pennsylvania Perelman School of Medicine.

10/01/2026

09/28/2026

Meet the Major Monday: Jeremy Weinstein-Sears, class of 2028. Double major in Dance and Education.

09/24/2026

09/22/2026

Join the Dance Department for Major & Minor Monday! Today we celebrate the senior and junior Majors & Minors in the Swarthmore Dance Department.

Swarthmore’s Dance Department brings together a talented group of students to perform a global repertoire of dance styles and simultaneously engage in critical thinking and writing. Our students are often double majors or special majors in fields such as Anthropology, Classics, Art History, English, Education, as well as Biology, Psychology, Math, and Computer Science. We welcome all students to join our dance community regardless of whether they are majors or minors in the program or have prior formal training in dance. Funding opportunities also exist to support majors and minors in studying specific styles here in the Philadelphia area — including with some of the city’s finest teachers and choreographers — and even internationally; as well as in pursuing research, creative work, arts activism, and community engagement.