Christopher Dolder

Dance

Associate Professor and Chair of Dance

Email

cdolder@smu.edu

Phone

214.768.1672

Christopher Dolder received an undergraduate degree in dramatic art and dance from the University of California, Berkeley and a Master of Fine Arts in choreography from Mills College with an emphasis in dance kinesiology. A former soloist with the Martha Graham Dance Company, he has spent the last 25 years on a multi-disciplinary journey that has taken him to projects in theater, dance, music, videography, kinesiology, interactive set design and “green” architecture. As an associate professor of dance at 51²è¹Ý Meadows School of the Arts, Dolder teaches all levels of the Martha Graham technique, dance kinesiology and dance composition, and is co-director of the Senior Dance Concert. He conducts research in three-dimensional interactive software for the instruction of dance kinesiology as well as exploring new forms of physical data capture in biomechanics.

Professor Dolder has a long-term research interest in contemporary dance cultures. He is currently in the final editing stage of his documentary The Ecstatic Dance of Burning Man: Permission to Transcend, a seven-year research project filmed in Nevada’s Black Rock Desert, chronicling the emergence and evolution of dance sub-cultures throughout the history of the Burning Man Festival.

Education

M.F.A. Mills College, 1993
B.A. University of California-Berkeley, 1984

Recent Work

Professional Experience
Former soloist with the Martha Graham Dance Company; co-directed and performed for Westwick/Dolder Dance Company; 15 years as dance lecturer at University of California, Berkeley.

Course list

Modern technique
Composition
Repertory
Kinesiology
Videography
Pedagogy
Christopher Dolder