POLITICAL AND CULTURAL PERSPECTIVES IN DANCE STUDIES

DANCE 165

A survey providing a framework for understanding and appreciating the significance of dance in and as human culture.

DANCE 665

Examines dance historical work in the changing field of Dance Studies since the mid-1980s. Introduces significant perspectives on dance history and dance theory, and considers how these impact and relate to dance creation and pedagogy. Engage with new research in dance history, practice archival research methods, and form a teaching approach to dance history that is responsive to the current direction and needs of the field.

DANCE 373

Introduction to community engagement through dance and movement. Focus on skills to work within service-oriented programs that engage communities in transformative, decolonizing, and humanizing dance practices. Investigate theory, practice, and empirical research to support ethnographic approaches with feminist and critical perspectives when working with dance in communities.

DANCE 168

Gender theories and feminist theories focus on the body as the main site where gender distinctions are understood. As the body holds a central position in the art of dance and the academic discipline of dance studies, explores gender and feminist theories through the lens of dance. Drawing on a wide array of examples and dance genres ranging from across the globe (such as Ballroom, Bollywood, Folk Dance, Ballet and more) introduces the cultural specificity of gender norms and the ways that dance has the potential to challenge heteronormativity through performance.

DANCE 675

Engages with dance arts for and in communities. Working in relation to core ideas about the value of dance/movement in community, covers interdisciplinary research, scholarship, and praxis within this diverse area of work. Investigates how dance and interrelated arts serve as vehicles for social and environmental change in diverse communities. Specific themes might include racial justice, environmental justice, indigenous survival struggles, and how these themes impact or galvanize communities. Theory and practice reaches beyond campus and connects to the H'Doubler legacy as well as the Wisconsin idea.