The Study of Dance
This course provides an introduction to the study of dance, one of the central motivations for the production of music. The course begins with a survey of the study of Western dance (choreology) followed by an examination of the study of the ethnic dances and folk dances in other parts of the world (ethnochoreology).
The role of Critical Theory, Semiotics and Cultural Studies in the formulation of frameworks will be illuminated so students will have a variety of critical viewpoints to develop their own perspectives. Students will discover why dance is a contested discourse in public representations and university Schools of Music. Ballet and modern dance will be placed in the context of popular, folk, and world dance. Following the study of Western expressions of dance in Western European High Art, from historical roots to modern manifestations, we will look at the current state of popular dance, on the dance floor and the ballrooms. At each step, the study of the various dance expressions will be mirrored in the parallel expressions of music.
After reviewing mainstream dance, we will examine three dance cultures in detail. First Nations Kwakiutl and Pan-Indian Powwow will illustrate how straightforward choreographies in unison with drumming are set against complex music structures. South Asian bharata natyam will be examined to illustrate its position as a highly sophisticated mimetic and rhythmic complexity that equals anything in the West. Finally, English and North American social country dance and display morris dance are set against the backdrop of cultural identity and polysemic narratives.
Textbook
Learning About Dance: Dance as an Art Form and Entertainment (2010) by Nora Ambrosio (Kendall/Hunt Pub., sixth edition).
Lecture Schedule and Readings
Week 1 Class-room introductions and expectations: “To dance is human”
Ehrenreich, Barbara (2006) Dancing in the Streets: A History of Collective Joy
Morris, Neil (2001) Music and Dance: The Discovering World Music Series for Children
Jonas, Gerald (1992) Dancing: The Pleasure, Power, and Art of Movement (book and eight videos)
Week 2 The theory and practice of choreology
Fraleigh, Sondra and Penelope Hanstein, editors (1999) Researching Dance: Evolving Modes of Inquiry
Adshead-Lansdale, Janet (1994) Dance History: an introduction
Hanna, Judith (1979) To Dance is Human: A Theory of Non-verbal Communication
Week 3 The anthropology of dance: ethnochoreology
Williams, Drid (2004) Anthropology and the Dance: Ten Lectures
Buckland, Theresa, editor (1999) Dance in the Field: Theory, Methods and Issues in Dance Ethnography
Spencer, Paul (1985) Society and the Dance: The Social Anthropology of Process and Performance
Royce, Anya (1980) The Anthropology of Dance
Sachs, Curt (1937) World History of Dance (1933, translated by Bessie Schonberg)
Week 4 The sociology of dance: cultural studies and critical theory
Shay, Anthony (2006) Choreographing Identities: Folk Dance, Ethnicity and Festival in the United States and Canada
Thomas, Helen (2003) The Body, Dance and Cultural Theory
Desmond, Jane, editor (1997) Meaning and Motion: New Cultural Studies of Dance
Hanna, Judith (1988) Dance, Sex and Gender: signs of identity, dominance and desire
Week 5 Dance notation systems
Guest, Ann Hutchinson (2005) Labanotation: The System of Analyzing and Recording Movement
Guest, Ann Hutchinson (1989) Choreo-graphics : a comparison of dance notation systems from the fifteenth century to the present
Week 6 Renaissance and Baroque Dance
Little, Meredith and Natalie Jenne (2005) Dance and the Music of J.S. Bach
Arbeau, Thoinot (1581) Orchesography (1968, translated by Cyril W. Beaumont)
Week 7 Ballet from the Romantic Age
Smith, Marian (2000) Ballet and Opera in the Age of Giselle
Foster, Susan (1996) Choreography and Narrative: Ballet’s Staging of Story and Desire
Week 8 Ballet for the People – Ballroom Dance
Picart, Caroline Joan (2006) From Ballroom To Dancesport: Aesthetics, Athletics, And Body Culture
Malnig, Julie (1992) Dancing Till Dawn: A Century of Exhibition Ballroom Dance
Week 9 Hip Hop
Huntingdon, Carla (2007) Hip Hop Dance: Meanings and Messages
Schloss, Joseph (2009) Foundation: B-Boys, B-Girls, and Hip-Hop Culture in New York
Week 10 Canadian First Nations Dance
Murphy, Jacqueline Shea (2000) “Lessons in Dance History: Aboriginal Land Claims and Aboriginal Dance, circa 1999,” in Dancing Bodies, Living Histories, edited by Lisa Doolittle and Anne Flynn. pp. 130-69
Aldred, Lisa (2005) “Dancing with Indians and Wolves: New Agers Tripping through Powwows,” in Powwow, edited by Clyde Ellis et al, pp. 258-74
Boas, Franz (1944/1972) “Dance and Music in the Life of the Northwest Coast Indians of North America (Kwakiutl),” in, The Function of Dance in Human Society, edited by Franziska Boas, pp. 5-20
Browner, Tara (2004) Heartbeat of the People: Music and Dance of the Northern Pow-wow.
Week 11 Display dance in India: Bharata Natyam and Kathak
Chakravorty, Pallabi (2007) Bells of Change: Kathak Dance, Women and Modernity in India
Gaston, Anne-Marie (2003) Bharata Natyam from Temple to Theatre
Week 12 English country dance – history and departures
Dart, Mary McNab (1995) Contra Dance Choreography: A Reflection of Social Change
Keller, Kate Van Winkle (1994) The Playford Ball: 103 Early English Country Dances
Manuel, Peter (2009) Creolizing Contradance in the Caribbean
Week 13 English morris dance – polysemy and hegemony
Barrand, Anthony (2005) Six Fools and a Dancer: The Timeless Way of the Morris
Boyes, Georgina (1993) The Imagined Village: Culture, Ideology and the English Folk Revival
Sponsler, Clair (1997) “Writing the Unwritten: Morris Dance and the Study of Medieval Theatre,” in Theatre Survey, volume 38, number 1, pp. 73-96