Performance of the City

Catalog description

What can performance tell us about the dynamic histories that comprise New York City? How does the study of ​performance train us to experience the City in all its immeasurable diversity? This course engages a wide variety of performances to consider how they shape the metropolis and the lives of its people. With a focus on the 20th century to the present, students will become familiar with different aesthetic movements that incorporate music, dance, performance, and visual art in such New York creative experiments as the Harlem Renaissance, the Mambo Craze, Pop Art, Punk Rock, and Hip Hop. We will also study everyday performances as improvisatory responses to living in the city.