This 3-hour course will meet M-F from 10-11:50am in the Creative Movement Studio (CMS108&110).
CRN37613 - Summer I
Instructor: Dr. Lisa Garner Santa, Professor of Flute and E-RYT500 Professional Yoga Teacher.
CATALOG COURSE DESCRIPTION:
[VPA2302] (3) This course will survey Raja Yoga (the eight part system laid out by Patanjali in the Yoga Sutras) and consider how its ethics and philosophy, as well its physical and mental practices, reflect and affect human experience as understood through, among other things, the creation of works of art including music, theater, dance, visual art and literature.
COURSE PURPOSE:
Though the study and methodology of Raja Yoga, an Indic philosophy of social and personal ethics and theory of consciousness, and Sankhya Philosophy, an Indic theory of origin from which Raja Yoga draws, students will learn how ideas, values, beliefs, and other aspects of culture affect not only the human experience, including the everyday experience, but also foster aesthetic and intellectual research and creation.
This course will cultivate the student’s ability to synthesize and interpret artistic expression through critical, creative, and innovative written and oral arguments about works of art including music, visual art, dance, theater, and literature.
Through a direct comparison of Indic philosophy to Western philosophical writing related to the creation and experience of art, students will be able to evaluate events, ideas, and artistic expression in terms of multiple cultural contexts and value systems.
Indic culture views music, visual art, dance, theater, and literature as inseparable aspects of art placed at the center of their culture. Through exploring how Indic philosophy, particularly the ethics and self-inquiry outlined in Raja Yoga, has not only sustained and evolved the rich cultural heritage of India but has also inspired great Western thinkers and artists, this course will demonstrate ways in which the humanities are fundamental to the health and survival of any society.
This course does not focus on the acquisition of skill as it pertains to any specific medium of creative art (i.e. how to play an instrument or refine a brush stroke) or to the physical practice of yoga (known as Hatha Yoga). This course focuses on a philosophical study of the creative process (“Practice”) as it relates to Yoga and Sankhya philosophies, though applications to creative art and hatha yoga are significantly explored as a part of the learning process.
NO PREVIOUS EXPERIENCE IN YOGA IS REQUIRED. ALL LEVELS ARE WELCOME.
