Black Dance Is/Black Dance Ain't: Intro to African/African American Aesthetics
Reserved for Hudson & Holland Scholars
Stafford C. Berry Jr.
African American & African Diaspora Studies
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.
Catalog Information: AAAD-A 219 HISTORY OF BLACK DANCE