Dance 171 - Dance History: Political Bodies From the Stage to the Page

This course excavates the artistic, social and cultural trends that have driven the histories of ballet, jazz dance, modern dance and postmodern dance throughout the 20th & 21st centuries. The course looks critically at artists such as Isadora Duncan, Rudolf Laban, George Balanchine, Martha Graham, Katherine Dunham, Alvin Ailey, Anna Halprin, Pina Bausch and Bill T. Jones. Through readings, discussions, dance viewings, movement activities and sessions in the Museum of Art, Josten Library and Sophia Smith Collection, students examine how notions of race, nationality, gender, sexuality and political ideology inform dance. Students conduct historical research on a topic of their choice. Enrollment limited to 20.