| CODE | DCS1015 | ||||||||||||
| TITLE | Introduction to Critical Dance Studies | ||||||||||||
| UM LEVEL | 01 - Year 1 in Modular Undergraduate Course | ||||||||||||
| MQF LEVEL | 5 | ||||||||||||
| ECTS CREDITS | 5 | ||||||||||||
| DEPARTMENT | Dance Studies | ||||||||||||
| DESCRIPTION | This theoretical study-unit investigates the cultural, historical, political, and philosophical dimensions of embodied expressions and bodies in motion through key pivotal texts. This is an interdisciplinary study-unit to introduces students to questions of culture, identity, media, and philosophy that are so crucial to the study of dance to become more critical in their analysis and creation of movement. Students will learn key texts that unpack social structures in terms of power dynamics and limitations/challenges of these to view and create art from an enlightened perspective. This study-unit is a steppingstone into understanding how to apply conceptual frameworks to the study of dance. Study-Unit Aims: - To investigate the main models, theories and concepts used in critical dance studies; - To clarify key concepts in identity (gender, race, sexuality) formations i.e. intersectionality in relation to the study of dance; - To apply a key theoretical text in the analysis of a dance work; - To gain insights into how multiply disciplines shapes and informs our social life. Learning Outcomes: 1. Knowledge & Understanding: By the end of the study-unit the student will be able to: - Demonstrate basic knowledge of selected models, theories and concepts and its application to dance studies; - Communicate ideas about dance in relation to theory through the written word; - Demonstrate basic insights into how theory shapes and informs our social life. 2. Skills: By the end of the study-unit the student will be able to: - Apply theories and ideas from other disciplines (the fields of cultural studies, gender studies, communication and media studies, film studies, and philosophy) to dance and performance; - Communicate ideas about theory in relation to dance makers and works through a 2500 word essay. Main Text/s and any supplementary readings: Main Texts: - Desmond, Jane. 1997. Meaning in Motion: New Cultural Studies of Dance. (Durham and London, UK: Duke University Press. - Benjamin, Walter. 1935. The Work of Art in the Age of the Mechanical. Reproduction. In Illuminations, New York: Schocken Books, 1969. - Chazin-Bennahum, Judith. 2005. Teaching Dance Studies. NY: Routledge. Chapter: Dance Theory? By Susan Leigh Foster. - Croft, Claire (ed.). 2017. Queer Dance: Meanings and Makings. Oxford University Press. - Fraleigh, Sondra Horton. 1987. Dance and the Lived Experience: A Descriptive Aesthetic. Pittsburgh: Pittsburgh University Press. - Foster, Susan. 1998. Choreographies of Gender. The University of Chicago Press. - Hall, Donald E. and Annamarie Jagose, with Andrea Bebell and Susan Potter. 2013. The Routledge Queer Studies Reader. NY and Canada: Routledge. - Hooks, bell. 2014. 鈥淔eminist Politics: Where We Stand.鈥� Feminism is for Everybody. Routledge. - Mulvey, Laura. 1989. Visual and Other Pleasures. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 3-38. Thomas, Helen. 1993. Dance, Gender, and Culture. Macmillan Press. - Said, Edward. 1978. 鈥淚ntroduction鈥� Orientalism, 1-28. - Sheets-Johnston, Maxine. 2015. The Phenomenology of Dance. Temple University Press. - Sobchack, Vivian. 1992. The Address of the Eye: A Phenomenology of Film Experience. Princeton University Press. |
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| ADDITIONAL NOTES | Pre-requisite Qualifications: UG general entry requirements | ||||||||||||
| STUDY-UNIT TYPE | Seminar and Tutorial | ||||||||||||
| METHOD OF ASSESSMENT |
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| LECTURER/S | Margaret Jean Westby |
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The University makes every effort to ensure that the published Courses Plans, Programmes of Study and Study-Unit information are complete and up-to-date at the time of publication. The University reserves the right to make changes in case errors are detected after publication.
The availability of optional units may be subject to timetabling constraints. Units not attracting a sufficient number of registrations may be withdrawn without notice. It should be noted that all the information in the description above applies to study-units available during the academic year 2025/6. It may be subject to change in subsequent years. |
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