Faculty Profile
Erin Crawley-Woods
Lecturer in Dance (2014)
Contact Information
on sabbatical Spring 2025
Montgomery House
717-245-1151
Bio
Erin Crawley-Woods joined the Dickinson faculty in 2014 as a Visiting Assistant Professor of Dance where she has developed service-learning course work in community engagement and artistic activism and continued her choreographic research in site-specific performance. Prior to arriving at Dickinson she received an MFA in Dance from the University of Maryland- College Park where she directed Visible Seams, a site-specific sound/dance/video installation for the Clarice Smith Performing Arts Center and served as Education Fellow for the Dance Films Association. From 2007-2011 she was a Company Member and Director of Community Outreach at Keshet Dance Company in Albuquerque, NM where she taught and developed curriculum for Keshet's nationally-recognized M3 dance program for incarcerated youth. She has performed in the US and abroad with Adriane Fang, Sharon Mansur, the Nancy Meehan Dance Company, Leslie Satin & Dancers, Sara Rudner & Company, Anneke Hansen, and the Irish Modern Dance Theater. She has participated in artistic residencies in Oulchy-le Chateau, France and at the Omi International Arts Center in Ghent NY and leads workshops in site-specific choreography and community-based dance practice at national and international dance conferences. Crawley-Woods holds a Diploma in Wholistic Bodywork from the New Mexico Academy of Healing Arts and a B.A. in theatre, dance and French from Sarah Lawrence College.
Education
- B.A., Sarah Lawrence College, 2001
- M.F.A., University of Maryland, 2014
2024-2025 Academic Year
Fall 2024
THDA 102 Intro to Global Dance Studies
This is an introductory course that explores dance forms from six different regions: Africa, India, North America, Europe, South America and Asia. Focus will be on how dance functions within various social structures and how these functions operate to re-inscribe, contest or legitimate race, class, and gender identity formations. Issues such as authenticity, hybridity, cultural tourism and globalization will be examined. Through an interactive classroom, guest artists and studio work, we will gain a deeper kinesthetic understanding of how dance can operate as a powerful cultural tool, glue or agent for social change. Offered every two years.
THDA 215 Thinking Body:Hum Mvmt/Anat
This course employs an experiential approach to the science and expressive potential of human movement. It is meant to give students a foundation in anatomy and kinesiology basics. Simultaneously, significant time will be spent in explorations designed to deepen body-mind connections. We will focus on the act of embodiment - how does factual knowledge of the body help us move more efficiently and utilize healthy biomechanics? Through course readings, movement exercises, guest lectures, writing, partnered activities and self-directed independent studio time, we will connect how broad analytical frameworks of the human body apply to the personal and individual experience of movement.
THDA 220 Dance Production & Performance
A laboratory experience in the creation and performance of dance for the concert stage. Under the guidance of faculty or guest professional choreographers, students will explore the interpretive processes by which dances are created. Carries .5 academic credit. Credit/no credit. Prerequisite: Permission of instructor based on an open audition process for performance or application process for production. Two .5 academic credits of this course can be used to satisfy the Arts distribution requirement.
THDA 495 Senior Project
A culminating experience for students completing the Theatre major with emphasis in Dramatic Literature, Acting/Directing, or Dance. The specific nature of projects will be determined on an individual basis, but all senior projects will consist of at least two of the following: a) scholarship, b) technical/production work, and c) performance. Students will register for .5 course credit in the fall semester, during which planning and research will be conducted, and .5 in the spring, during which presentation of the project will occur. Prerequisite: four .25 course credits in THDA 190.