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| Nearly every time you turn on the TV, log into Facebook, or go to a dance club, you are very likely to encounter African dance aesthetics. Although rarely made explicit, the influence of African dance and music on popular culture worldwide is pervasive and undeniable. This course introduces students to African dance aesthetics so that they may make connections - and detect important differences - between their daily media landscapes and expressive cultures in Africa and the Diaspora. Course materials focus on dance in Africa, the Caribbean/Latin America, and United States and ask students to consider several major issues in the field of dance studies: How is dance a means for forming social identities? Why do dances change as they travel across national and ethnic borders? How do dance aesthetics communicate cultural values? While no prior dance experience is required, students will be expected to actively engage in modes of inquiry that define the discipline of dance: choreographic analysis, historical inquiry, and culturally specific aesthetic literacy. With help from the instructor, students will develop literacy in viewing dance, a vocabulary for writing and talking about it, and a framework for connecting it to society, politics, and culture. The course culminates with individual research papers in which students will apply course concepts to self-selected case studies that demonstrate the pervasive impact of African dance aesthetics on global, contemporary popular culture. This course satisfies the requirements for a 300-level Arts and Letters course because students will actively engage in modes of inquiry that define the discipline of dance: choreographic analysis, historical inquiry, and culturally specific aesthetic literacy. This course focuses on African dance aesthetics in Africa, the Caribbean/Latin America, and United States, locating that subject in the broader context of major issues in the discipline: how dance is a means for forming individual, national, and global identities; the reasons that dances change as they travel across geopolitical and ethnic borders; and the ways in which dance aesthetics communicate cultural values. The course culminates with individual research papers in which students will apply course concepts to self-selected case studies that demonstrate the pervasive impact of African dance aesthetics on contemporary, global popular culture. |
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