Historical Contexts in Contemporary Dance Practice

Catalog description

This course surveys historical flashpoints in the evolution of American contemporary dance. It provides a critical framework for interrogating cultural and sociopolitical influences on concert dance practice and performance. Students will analyze intersecting aesthetics originating from the French courts of Catherine de Medici and Louis XIV, the Atlantic slave trade and Asian theatrical dance forms such as kabuki and bharatanatyam in the development of ballet, modern, tap, jazz and musical theater dance.