Dance, Power, and Identity

Catalog description

This course sets out to introduce students to dance as an academic subject and explore a range of historical and contemporary dance practices within local, national and cross-cultural settings of America. Students will refine their skills in contemplating, discussing, and writing about cultural meaning and political agency construction in dance. We will look at dance as a location of knowledge and history, a practice that creates political power and identity, a mode of perceptual study, and an embodied form of resistance. Following an introductory unit, this class will explore African American dance, American modern dance, Native American dance, Hawaiian hula, Jewish American dance, ballet, queer dance, and other contemporary dance forms. The course will provide historical and cultural context for these dance practices, provoke informed and insightful discussion and debates, as well as provide training in critical approaches to dance and theatre history. Offered regularly once a year.