A Unique Opportunity

Consistent with the distinction and popularity enjoyed by the visual and performing arts on Sarah Lawrence’s home campus, Sarah Lawrence in Paris offers an impressive array of studies in the arts. Not only do students have a large selection of creative and performing disciplines from which to choose, they also can opt to study at an wide range of institutions—from ateliers to conservatories. And for those exceptionally involved in their artistic pursuits, the program permits students to devote up to half of their curriculum to concentrated study.

Dance in Paris

La danse. The words conjure the impression of a Degas canvas, celebrating the poise and possibility of the human figure at repose and in motion. For ballet, Centre de dance du Marais and Studio Harmonic each offer instruction of clarity and concision, allowing dancers at varying levels of development to flourish equally. These studios also provide a well-balanced mix of contemporary styles, taught by instructors versed in such disciplines as martial arts, choreography, and Horton and Cunningham techniques. The Centre de dance du Marais also offers excellent studies in Flamenco sevillanes, Ta’ai Chi Chuan and tap dance. Studio Peter Goss, combining contemporary dance styles with ballet and yoga, also offers eclectic and rigorous instruction. And for beginning classes in Iyengar Yoga, both the Studio Harmonic and the Iyengar Center provide useful, detailed approaches.

The Visual Arts

One of France’s most prolific cultural exports, the nation’s visual arts hold a revered position in both hearts and museums around the world, and continue to emerge in two and three dimensions from within the ateliers of Paris. The Sarah Lawrence program offers courses in drawing at four different locations: Atelier 63, Ecole d’Art Supérieure Francoise Conte, Académie Port-Royal and Atelier de la Miroiterie. Students may enroll in painting courses at the latter two institutions as well. For pottery, classes are available at Atelier Matières et Formes; for sculpture, Atelier Paul Flury; and for engraving, Atelier 63. The Ecole d’Art also provides classes in textiles and other media.

Home and inspiration to the inventors of photography, Nicephore Niepce and Daguerre, as well as such greats as Nadar, Atget, Doisneau and Cartier-Bresson, France plays a very important role in the history of the medium. Paris is the ideal setting for students to take photography courses at SPEOS and Studio Vermes where they enter into the great photographic tradition of this city.

Performing and studio arts classes bring students directly into studios, ateliers, conservatiories and schools, where they benefit from the expertise of dynamic, practicing professionals in the arts.

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Theatre

Where language and movement intersect, theatre begins. In Paris, the Sarah Lawrence theatre program provides opportunities for students to extend their interests and talents as they expand their dramatic vocabularies. With options that include acting, voice, and movement components, students in the program participate in classes and workshops designed to develop their expressive abilities to the fullest. The city’s cultural history—rich in the Pierrot and mime traditions—provides an ideal context for such pursuit.

Students have three acting studios from which to choose. Studio Jack Garfein offers acting techniques for all levels, continuing a lineage of instruction that originated with Stanislavski’s renowned “Method.” Studio Alain de Bock specializes in scene studies, movement, improvisation, masques and commedia dell-arte. And FACT (the French-American Association for Cinema and Theatre), founded by artistic director Sarah Eigerman, provides workshops in both acting and directing. In addition to enrolling in one of the above studio classes, theatre students take a voice course (either voice for actors or singing) and a movement course (either movement for actors or dance).

Students interested in an even more rigorous program may audition in Bronxville for École Internationale de Théâtre Jacques Lecoq, which applies the traditions of mime and dramatic choreography to acting. Core faculty specializing in movement and improvisation are supplemented by guest instructors from the Parisian theatrical community.

Music*

Structured around personal tutorial study in composition, voice and/or instruments, the program’s music curriculum includes supporting course work in theory, history and performance. Of the four institutions central to the program, the private Schola Cantorum, housed in what was formerly a 16th century English Benedictine abbey, constitutes the core. Close to the program’s center at Reid Hall, the school offers classical instruction in all instruments and voice, with particular strengths in piano, organ and chamber music—as well as classes in such areas as solfege, counterpoint, and composition. For jazz, the private I.N.F.I.M.M./C.I.M. offers a wide range of traditional and interdisciplinary programs tailored to student needs. The public Ecole Normale de Musique, highly competitive for French students, accepts advanced American students by audition, and the Sorbonne enrolls students on the program interested in adv-anced academic studies including theory and analysis, music history and ethnomusicology. Students with other musical interests may enroll in courses at additional institutions affiliated with the program.

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"As an art history student, I found the flexibility of the program particularly appealing. Not only was I able to choose from a number of intriguing seminar courses, but I also had the rare opportunity to actively pursue my independent research through engaging tutorials with my professors." —Participant, Sarah Lawrence College