Black Dance Is/Black Dance Ain't: Intro to African/African American Aesthetics
Stafford C. Berry Jr
Stafford C. Berry, Jr., MFA, is an accomplished artist, educator, activist, and scholar of African-rooted dance, theatre, and aesthetics. He is the Director of the Indiana University African American Dance Company (AADC). He is certified in Umfundalai Contemporary African Dance and a licensed Zumba® Instructor. Mr. Berry has toured nationally, and internationally to Europe, Africa, and the Caribbean. He was the Associate Artistic Director of Baba Chuck Davis' internationally acclaimed African American Dance Ensemble for 14 years; former Co-Director of The Berry & Nance Dance Project; and faculty at the American Dance Festival for 5 years.
Mr. Berry’s artistic work is concerned with black male discourse, black folks’ embodied epistemologies, and “making space” for African American, Lgbtqia+, “weirdos,” and disempowered communities. His recent work includes: Double-dutch and Broken Levees ‘2017, a dance about urban cultural play and climate change, set to the music of jazz virtuoso, Wynton Marsalis, and hOw to bUILD a hOuse, ‘2017, a work that juxtaposes the construction of a physical dwelling with the making of a familial, queer safe-space, for which Mr. Berry received the Greater Columbus (Ohio) Arts Council’s prestigious Choreographer’s Fellowship. Wawa Aba ‘2013 his work on the world-class Dayton Contemporary Dance Company, continues to tour nationally and internationally as an audience favorite.
Now in his third year as Professor of Practice in both African American and African Diaspora Studies and Theatre, Drama, and Contemporary Dance at IU, Mr. Berry has made several dances for both departments, including a restaged Good Game, Yo!, a dance about black male relationships, at the 2018 American Dance Guild Showcase Festival in New York City.
What is black dance? Is there a black aesthetic? How do we know it when we see it?
This course will interrogate African/Diaspora dance, power, and privilege in America. Over a series of directed readings, videos, lecture-discussions, master classes and live performance, students will examine multiple African/African American aesthetic possibilities. This approach will frame “black dance” as a complex sociopolitical activity made public through various agendas of race, creed, national origin, sexuality, and gender. Writing, discussions, and practice-based epistemologies will facilitate an appropriate balance between embodied knowledge and traditional “library” knowledge. Students may sample traditional African, Jazz, Hip-hop, Contemporary and/or other appropriate aesthetic forms.
By the end of this course, students should understand African/African American Aesthetics (in Performance/Dance) as a complex, continually evolving, intersecting discourse of art, culture, identity, race, politics, and power. Furthermore, students should be able to articulate and critically navigate said discourse in conversation. Success in this course will be assessed through weekly reflective essays, two presentations, and two 5-7-page papers. No dance experience necessary.
This course is eligible for honors credit through Hutton Honors College.
GenEd Information: See the GenEd Website for information about courses approved for the IU Bloomington General Education requirements.
Catalog Information: AAAD-A 219 HISTORY OF BLACK DANCE
Stafford C. Berry Jr
Stafford C. Berry, Jr., MFA, is an accomplished artist, educator, activist, and scholar of African-rooted dance, theatre, and aesthetics. He is the Director of the Indiana University African American Dance Company (AADC). He is certified in Umfundalai Contemporary African Dance and a licensed Zumba® Instructor. Mr. Berry has toured nationally, and internationally to Europe, Africa, and the Caribbean. He was the Associate Artistic Director of Baba Chuck Davis' internationally acclaimed African American Dance Ensemble for 14 years; former Co-Director of The Berry & Nance Dance Project; and faculty at the American Dance Festival for 5 years.
Mr. Berry’s artistic work is concerned with black male discourse, black folks’ embodied epistemologies, and “making space” for African American, Lgbtqia+, “weirdos,” and disempowered communities. His recent work includes: Double-dutch and Broken Levees ‘2017, a dance about urban cultural play and climate change, set to the music of jazz virtuoso, Wynton Marsalis, and hOw to bUILD a hOuse, ‘2017, a work that juxtaposes the construction of a physical dwelling with the making of a familial, queer safe-space, for which Mr. Berry received the Greater Columbus (Ohio) Arts Council’s prestigious Choreographer’s Fellowship. Wawa Aba ‘2013 his work on the world-class Dayton Contemporary Dance Company, continues to tour nationally and internationally as an audience favorite.
Now in his third year as Professor of Practice in both African American and African Diaspora Studies and Theatre, Drama, and Contemporary Dance at IU, Mr. Berry has made several dances for both departments, including a restaged Good Game, Yo!, a dance about black male relationships, at the 2018 American Dance Guild Showcase Festival in New York City.
