LCSEM 0111 - West African Dance and History: Independence Struggles and the Rise of the National Ballet of Guinea

This course will combine West African dance classes with discussion-based classes on the cultural and social history of Guinea. Students will explore West African aesthetics as represented in the music and dance traditions of Guinea by dancing to traditional rhythms, watching films of performances and celebrations, and reading recent scholarship on the role that national dance companies, such as Les Ballets Africains, played in the anti-colonial, revolutionary nationalist politics of Guinea. The literature will include broader social histories of West African struggle for independence as well as cultural analysis of recurring themes such as debates about authenticity and processes of modernity. We will discuss the ways in which dance figured into the forging of national identities during the Independence era and consider how these projects in self-making evolved over time as the challenges of the post-colonial era constrained and informed the possibilities for such a project. Students will complete an interdisciplinary final project. This course will prepare students to pursue concentrations that explore the intersection of artistic modes of expression, history and ethnography. Keywords: West African History, dance, post colonial theory, ethnography

Time and Narrative Students should generally expect to spend 8 hours a week on work outside of class time. The content of this course deals with issues of Race and Power.