Performing Culture: America's Dancing Bodies

This course (which includes film screenings) explores historical and cultural perspectives on American concert and social dance, emphasizing modern and postmodern forms from the late-1950s through the present. Our examination of this period of near-constant change will address a number of questions about "moving bodies" and their relationship to both political and artistic transformations occurring during this time. We will be especially concerned with the themes of gender, race, identity, and community. The course emphasizes cultural analysis, but it will also involve students in movement as a means of addressing the material and bridging scholarly and "embodied" forms of exploration and analysis. 3 hrs.