DANC 311 Black Dance in America
This course will examine the African Diaspora through the lens of dance and movement. Examining the body as a potential site of empowerment and oppression, the course will explore the roles of both racism and the celebration of the Africanist Aesthetic, in a variety of vernacular, concert, and commercial American dance forms. We will combine readings and written assignments with movement practices. We will use New York City as a classroom to study African Diasporic forms of dance from a variety of instructors. The final term paper will be ethnographic; combining historic study with our contemporary observations and embodied experiences.