The study of dance
R Fensham
8 points
* 3 hours per week
* Second semester
* Clayton
Objectives Students successfully completing this subject will have learnt to identify different traditions within the history of dance and to apply this understanding to contemporary dance culture. They will also have developed skills in movement analysis and dance composition that could be applied to performance criticism, or in the construction of dance and dance theatre.
Synopsis This subject will introduce students to the diversity of dance in contemporary cultures. It will consider dance as an aesthetic and cultural practice and will focus on developing a perspective on different dance traditions and genres, European and non-European, as well as a history of twentieth-century dance as performance. Emphasis will be given to studying dance as a popular medium, through modern and contemporary approaches to dance and movement, and in comparison with other cultural traditions and contects. Ways of analysing dance informed by aesthetic and critical theory will also be considered. There will be opportunities for practical exploration and projects to inform the theoretical components of the course.
Assessment Essay (3000 words): 50%
* Seminar participation, and one
class paper to be written up as 2500-word assignment: 50%
* At third-year
level students will be expected to demonstrate, in presentations and written
work, evidence of wider reading in dance criticism and aesthetic theory.
Prescribed texts
Adshead-Lansdale and Layson Dance history: An introduction Routledge
Foster S Reading dancing U California P
Jowitt D Time and the dancing image 2nd edn, Berkeley U P
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