A dance performance by San Diego State University students. (Photo courtesy of SDSU School of Music and Dance)

Within SDSU’s dance department, Professor Joseph Alter is using artificial intelligence as a tool for step-by-step instruction. 

In dance, choreography ideas can come easily, but explaining the steps doesn’t always make sense. So Alter found a fix for this through AI.

Alter, a professor of dance, said he creates “web-based apps that serve as visual learning tools for students.”

Using generative AI, Alter can command animated stick-figures to perform jumps and pliés in a combination of steps. Other times, he’ll bounce ideas off the platform or sequence choreography.

“I try to fashion things for students that bring them into new places, rather than repeating, reiterating things they already know,” Alter said.

But Alter said he understands the limitations of AI, especially within a creative field such as dance. 

He’ll ask his students to input dance-related questions into AI to determine the credibility of its answers. Students are then able to navigate what AI can and cannot do.

Alter noted AI’s ability to “hallucinate,” or pull factually incorrect information out of thin air. Within dance education, explaining moves incorrectly could hamper a student’s understanding of an entire piece of choreography.

“If you’re not a subject matter expert, it sounds plausible,” Alter said, “But if you know something, if you’re an expert or are well read even in the subject, you’ll see that there are many, many errors.” 

Reflective writing, an activity in Alter’s class, breaks down personal experiences and asks that students make sense of those moments on pen and paper. Alter tells students to get up and start moving around if they feel stuck.

“AI can’t do that for you,” Alter said. 

While AI has an understanding of dance, it can’t recreate the act in a human way.

“Dance is an embodied practice; you actually have to have human beings in a space collaborating to do it,” Alter said.

Students of San Diego State University, with Dance Professor Joseph Alter in a group performance. (Photo courtesy of SDSU School of Music and Dance)

Julia Elbert, a dancer and former student of Alter’s, said the professor’s mode of teaching with AI was helpful in specific instances.

“He would create mapping sequences,” Elbert said, to imitate the form of a flock of birds or a school of fish, spatially set to Alter’s preference, for students to recreate.

Elbert said each sequence, recreating animal movement, “was very helpful in learning proximity.”

Despite the ways AI can help students visualize, it can’t fully understand dance as a practice, according to Elbert. 

“I don’t think it’s gonna be possible for AI to fully embody or understand all the teeny tiny nuances that goes on [for] doing the most simple steps,” Elbert said.

Students of Alter’s and other SDSU faculty have witnessed the university’s growing incorporation of AI within degree programs, certifications, and now a literacy credential. 

In July, California piloted a micro-credential program, AI-Ready California, so students and individuals entering the workforce can learn skills in AI. 

Freshmen enrolled at SDSU are now required to take a one-credit course, “Academic Applications of AI,” to earn this credential.

James Frazee, vice president of information technology at SDSU, said AI is becoming a standard in and out of the classroom.

“Having some fluency with AI is becoming an expectation of a lot of employers now,” said Frazee, noting what companies have shared with the university.

“AI is forcing us to have conversations around what we know about how people learn,” Frazee said.

To keep up with students’ and faculty’s thoughts on AI, SDSU runs an AI Survey, gauging the group’s evolving attitudes as the technology advances.

Instructors are allowed to decide how they want to use AI in their classrooms, Frazee said. 

Jess Humphrey, another professor in SDSU’s dance department, expressed her preference for keeping AI strictly administrative and out of the classroom.

“I’m limiting my use of AI to things that allow me to remain in the studio for more hours,” Humphrey said. 

What differentiates dance from AI, Humphrey said, is the physical. Physical action – touch – creates consequences.

“The purpose of dance is about getting people into a room, collaborating with one another and encountering the physical world,” Humphrey said.

Students and classrooms are evolving, but it’s not solely because of AI, said professor Alter.

“I’ve seen changes in students, but it’s hard to pinpoint exactly what is precipitating these changes – I don’t think it’s AI though,” Alter said.