Journey through time and experience in your own body the evolution of hip hop from its social dance roots to the contemporary phenomenon of commercial choreography that hip hop has become. Using film and text in addition to studio work, this class creates a framework from which to understand and participate in the global culture of hip hop dance. Enrollment limited to 15.

Prerequisite: 113 or previous dance experience. Enrollment limited to 15.

This course offers an in-depth exploration of aesthetic and interpretive issues in dance performance. Through experiments with improvisation, musical phrasing, partnering, personal imagery and other modes of developing and embodying movement material, dancers explore ways in which a choreographer’s vision is formed, altered, adapted and finally presented in performance. May be taken three times for credit.Instructor permission and audition required.

This course introduces the students to the New York mambo style of salsa (beginner-level). It also covers elements of the Cuban style of salsa, representative of an Afro-Caribbean dance aesthetic. Students master different variations of the salsa basic step, as well as turns, connecting steps and arm work. They learn how to dance in couples and also in larger groups known as ruedas (wheels). Toward the end of the semester, students are able to use their salsa vocabulary as basis for improvising and choreographing salsa combinations.

Hip hop is a popular form of Afro-diasporic cultural production and, for many, a lifestyle. In this studio course for beginner dancers, student learn movements from the poppin', lockin', house and breakin’ dance techniques. This study of movement vocabulary is contextualized in analyses of hip hop’s history, culture and current trends. Enrollment limited to 15.

This course explores conjunctures of popular culture and social protest at a time when digital
technologies have come to saturate everyday life. From the Arab Spring to youth-led revolutions in
Hong Kong and Taiwan and populist outbursts across Iran, Lebanon, Cuba, Russia, and the US, social
media has been hailed as turnkey in catalyzing confrontations between people and states. But play
could turn political, the political could turn playful, or messages could go awry. Building from theories

In this course, we will consider such questions as: What do we know and how do we know it? What knowledges count as science? How is knowledge culturally situated? How has science been central to colonialism and capitalism and what would it mean to decolonize science(s)? Is feminist science possible?

This course places the “Culture Wars” – U.S. political battles waged over issues such as race, gender,
sexuality, the family, abortion, education, guns, climate change, and even the “non-partisan” COVID-19
pandemic – into the context of recent U.S. history. The goal of the course is to invite students to think
critically about the workings of the Culture Wars within America’s democratic political system and
about the impact of the Culture Wars on the broader sweep of life in the U.S. We will pay particular

Students interested in independent study in dance (Dance 395) must provide convincing reasons for pursuing independent work and be self motivated and directed in their work. Students are responsible for choosing and receiving approval from a faculty advisor, with whom workload expectations, meeting times, and outcomes will be mutually negotiated and set for the semester. Credit load (1-4) will reflect the workload level and outcomes of the proposed study (e.g., a 2-credit independent study requires a minimum of 2-4 hours of outside work each week.