Competition Dance - Through an Ethnographic Lens

Catalog description

Description: This upper-level course provides students the opportunity to learn, broadly, about dance as an expression of culture and, specifically, about the phenomenon of commercial competition dance in the United States. Through readings, lectures, discussion, and active fieldwork, students will learn about and utilize Ethnography as a framework for research; apply critical lenses to analysis of research, and plan, administer, and report on active field research. From week to week, students will observe and analyze filmed competition dance classes, rehearsals, and performances through critical research lenses of economics, pedagogy, race/ethnicity, gender, and performance of sexuality. Students will also consider factors of child development as they relate to these lenses. Final work will be submitted as a written report and a verbal presentation developed in collaboration with a small group of peers.