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2010/1 Module Catalogue
 Module Code: DAN2014 Module Title: DANCE, POLITICS AND IDENTITY
Module Provider: Dance,Film & Theatre Short Name: DAN2014
Level: HE2 Module Co-ordinator: FENSHAM RS Prof (Dnc Flm Thtr)
Number of credits: 20 Number of ECTS credits: 10
 
Module Availability
Semester 1
Assessment Pattern
Group task: Either a choreographic presentation OR a lecture demonstration.
Essay (2,000 words)
 
Assessment rationale:
The choreographic presentation requires the interrogation of an issue or dance work discussed in class. Students will be encouraged to make evident how the political can be embodied by using relevant theoretical perspectives to support their performance. The lecture-demonstration follows the same topic but can be based on research into a specific case study that illustrates the political forms of dance. Both group projects must be accompanied by notes justifying the approach to the topic and a bibliography.
The essay invites the students to demonstrate their understanding of the ways that economic, political and social factors affect choreography and dancing by analysing a self-selected choreographic response to political issues. This reading of a choreographic practice will allow the students to demonstrate their analytic ability and application of provided theoretical approaches to dance, choreography and embodiment.
Module Overview
Prerequisites/Co-requisites
Module Aims
·        To provide detailed knowledge of political and social values articulated and reflected both explicitly and implicitly in dances and dancing.
·        To raise awareness of the social implications of identity politics and their impact on dance and bodily practices.
·        To develop a knowledge of theories of identity formation, and social change, and the influence of these on cultural production.
Learning Outcomes
·        Ability to decode and interpret dances from a political perspective.
·        Ability to explain how different dance practices, training regimes and cultural contexts construct dancing bodies and movement vocabulary
·        Ability to debate key examples that demonstrate the politics of dances and dancing.
 
Knowledge and Understanding:
·        A comprehensive understanding of the ways in which politics and identity can affect the creation and performance/production of dances.
·        A detailed understanding of economic, political and social events in which choreographing and dancing have been significant.
·        An awareness of a range of choreographic responses to political history or identity politics.
·        A comprehension of key theoretical concepts applicable to dance and identity in a political context.
 
Cognitive/Intellectual Skills:
·        Ability to analyse selected examples of dances through the application of appropriate theories of identity formation.
·        Ability to identify key issues in dance and politics and the selection of appropriate theories for their resolution.
·        Ability to articulate responses to a range of dance examples using appropriate academic methods and language.
 
Practical/Key Skills:
·        Ability to analyse research materials that relate to specific dance examples and theoretical models.
·        Ability to work with some independence when preparing for sessions and as part of a collective during class discussion.
·        Ability to articulate ideas of varying complexity in a clear and concise manner in a variety of formats
·        Increasing autonomy of research and theorisation.
Module Content
·        Reading dances from a political perspective: the dance sub-text, movement as a 'socio-political grammar', politics and structure.
·        The module introduces a range of political concerns embedded both explicitly and implicitly in dance, including such concerns as feminism, nationalism, globalisation, sexuality and gender politics.
·       A range of theoretical models from Gender Studies, Queer and Performance Studies, Critical and Cultural Theory that inform Dance Studies will be acquired.
Methods of Teaching/Learning
Lectures, seminars, video analysis, short seminar presentation and group discussion.
Selected Texts/Journals
Required reading:
 
Adair, Christy. Phoenix Dance Theatre. Dance Books, 2007.
 
Daly, Ann. Done into Dance. Indiana: Indiana University Press, 1996.
 
DeFrantz, Thomas F. Dancing Many Drums. Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 2002.
 
Desmond, Jane C (ed) Dancing Desires: Choreographing Sexuality on and off the Stage. Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 2001.
 
Desmond, Jane C. (ed) Meaning in Motion. Durham and London: Duke University Press, 1997.
 
Foster, Susan Leigh (ed) Corporealities. London: Routledge, 1996.
 
Foucault, Michel. The Foucault Reader. Rabinow, Paul. (ed) New York: Pantheon Books, 1984.
 
Goellner, Ellen W. and Jacqueline Shea Murphy (eds). Bodies of the Text. New Brunswick: Rutgers University Press, 1995.
 
Martin, Randy. Critical Moves: Dance Studies in Theory and Politics. Durham: Duke University Press, 1998.
 
Mauss, Marcel. Techniques of the Body. Zone 6: Incorporations. Jonathan Crary and Sanford Kwinter (eds) New York: Urzone, Inc./The MIT Press, 1992, pp 454-477.
Last Updated
14th July 2008