Appreciating Dance

Catalog description

Dance is an intangible art, one cannot head to a museum and pick up a print as one might do at the Louvre with the Mona Lisa. This course will provide an overview of the role that dance plays in a globally integrated world. The course content will lead the student through modules including: Dance and Society, Dance and Culture, Dance History, Specific Idioms of Ballet, Modern and Jazz Dance, as well as Controversial Issues in Dance. It will pose various questions including: What makes dance art? What makes it entertainment? It will look at the historical context of the three major idioms as they relate to the roles of government, institutions, transnational production, corporate responsibility, technical knowledge and personal ethics in fostering national economic development. The course will also discuss the socio-political ramifications of cultural appropriation as it relates to dance and culture, and the personal ethics of the demands of choreographers against their dancers.