SYLLABUS

Dance 505 Contemporary Dance: Aesthetic and Cultural Practice (3)

Spring 2008

HHP 319

Monday and Wednesday 11:00-12:15

Instructors:

Ann Dils

220K HHP

Office hours: by appointment (ahdils@uncg.edu)

Emily Quinn

emquinn@uncg.edu

Pr. DCE 205 and 305; 2.50 GPA; graduate students must have satisfied the dance history requirement for admission to a graduate dance program.

For Whom Planned: Upper division undergraduate dance majors and graduate students in dance.

Catalog Description: Study of cultural issues and aesthetic priorities of dance in the late postmodern world, especially contemporary dance. Provides opportunities to present ideas about and debate issues concerning contemporary dance. All sections are taught as Speaking Intensive (SI). (Spring)

Student Learning Goals:

Upon successful completion of the course students will demonstrate:

1. Skills necessary to library, Internet, and media research in contemporary dance. It’s especially important to obtain accurate information and confirm it through a variety of reputable sources, and to be able to access critical discourse in dance and dance studies.

2. Proficiency in reading and discussing dance writing.

3. Skills necessary to work with others towards a team presentation.

4. Skills necessary to creating and delivering an accurate, interesting oral and multimedia presentation using an appropriate style; skills necessary to leading discussion; and skills necessary to serving as a discussant for oral presentations.

5. Skills necessary to attending to and learning from oral presentations.

6. Skills necessary to the creation of rubrics and to peer feedback.

7. An ability to analyze contemporary dance work, discerning the choreographer’s methods, understanding the movement content, and formulating meaning.

8. An ability to improve your oral presentation skills in response to feedback.

9. An ability to enter into critical discussion in dance.

Teaching Strategies:

To support student achievement of the learning goals I will:

1. Serve as coach and consultant for all aspects of the presentations.

2. Provide timely feedback from multiple sources including my own observations and ideas, the observations and ideas of team members, and the observations of class members.

3. Contribute to class discussions in a way that is supportive and enhances learning.

4. Provide two opportunities to test your learning, at midterm and final, and two opportunities to practice speaking skills.

Assignments and Evaluation

Tests: 10% and 10%

We will have two tests this semester that will give you the opportunity to demonstrate knowledge of contemporary choreographers and their methods and works and to critically discuss approaches to contemporary dance.

Two Group Projects:

Individual Presentation: Ann and Emily’s assessment of prepared materials. THIS IS A PLACE TO SHOW YOUR INDIVIDUAL PLANNING AND RESEARCH. RESEARCH MUST BE DOCUMENTED. MUST BE TURNED IN ON TH DAY YOU PRESENT. 10%, 10%

Individual Presentation (based equally on the following)* 10% and 10%

Ann and Emily’s assessment of presentation

Class assessment of presentation

Group Presentation (based equally on the following)*: 10% and 10%

Receipt of adequate planning information for your group, two class periods previous to start of group presentation, and/or planning meeting with Ann or Emily (with the exception of groups going at the beginning of the semester and just after spring break).

Ann and Emily’s assessment of presentation

Class assessment of presentation

Group assessment of your participation in the group

Audience Member 5% and 5%

Group assessment of your participation*

Actual attendance

Attendance at Vagina Monologues (February 14-15-16 at 7:30 pm in the EUC Auditorium) and one other event this Spring.

Your self-assessment, performed at midterm and end of course 10%

* This assumes that all class members act responsibly and professionally in giving feedback. If I find that you lack the ability to discriminate friendship from professional feedback, I will reassess this way of assigning grades.

Absences and latenesses: Students are expected to attend every class session, to arrive on time, and to participate. NOT attending on a day you are scheduled to present will result in a 0 for your individual presentation.

Required Text:

Dils and Albright.2001. Moving History: Dancing Cultures: A Dance History Reader. Middletown, CT: Wesleyan University Press.

Topical outline

Monday, January 14: Introduction to the course

Wednesday, January 16: Work in groups to prepare for presentations. Drafts of rubrics and contracts due.

Monday, January 21: Martin Luther King holiday

Wednesday, January 23, Monday, January 28, Wednesday, January 30, and Monday, February 4

Contemporary strategy #1: performing history.

“Embodying History: Epic Narrative and Cultural Identity in African-American Dance,” Ann Cooper Albright:

Possible works: Bill T. Jones: Last Supper at Uncle Tom’s Cabin: The Promised Land, Urban Bush Women: Walking with Pearl; Maguy Marin and the Lyon National Opera Ballet: Coppelia, Mark Morris: The Hard Nut and Dido and Aeneas, Matthew Bourne: Swan Lake

Wednesday, February 6, Monday, February 11, and Wednesday, February 13

Contemporary strategy #2: performing communities

Find readings on community based projects by Liz Lehrman, David Dorfman, Judith Marcuse, Amie Dowling, and Bill T. Jones (Still/Here)

Monday, February 18, Wednesday, February 20, Monday, February 25, and Wednesday, February 27

Contemporary strategy #3: performing gender and sexuality

“The Trouble with the Male Dancer ... “ Ramsay Burt.

DV8 website readings

Readings about Vagina Monologues

See and report on Vagina Monologues

Lloyd Newsome and DV8: Enter Achilles, The Cost of Living

The Vagina Monologues is a celebration of female sexuality in all its complexity and mystery. Based on interviews with over 200 women about their memories and experiences of sexuality.

The Vagina Monologues is February 14-15-16 at 7:30 pm in the EUC Auditorium.

Monday, March 3: Ann’s day

Wednesday, March 5: test

Monday, March 10 and Wednesday, March 12: no class, Spring Break

Monday, Marcy 17 and Wednesday, March 19: begin new group process

Contemporary strategy #4: Monday, March 24; Wednesday, March 26; Monday, March 31; and Wednesday, April 2

Contemporary strategy #5: Monday, April 7; Wednesday, April 9; Monday, April 14; and Wednesday, April 16

Contemporary strategy #6: Monday, April 21; Wednesday, April 23; Monday, April 28; and Wednesday, April 30

Monday, May 5: Ann’s day

Final: Monday, May 12: 8-11 am

Among the strategies we might consider in the last half of the semester are Questioning the Dancing Body: Muscles, Cells, and Wheelchairs; Bodies and Machines; Dance and Technologies; Dance and the Nation.

Presentations to consider in the last half of the semester: showing of the film Windhorse on Wednesday, March 19 at 6:30 and presentation by Ali Schultheis on March 20. She will be presenting her research on Songs and Sentences of the Drapchi 7. (Has to do with the repression of artistic expression in Tibet.)

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION FOR PROJECTS

GENERAL ROLES

Team leader: make calendar and deadlines for each aspect of the presentation. Keep everyone in contact with each other and moving forward. Provide overview/ introduction.

Readings: What should class read in addition to required reading?

Introducing/ handling media:

Discussion leader:

Discussant: recap, reiterate and complicate key ideas

DOCUMENTS NEEDED

GROUP PLANNING AND RESEARCH RUBRIC (for Ann and Emily to use)

What kind of documents should you prepare before giving a talk? What resources should you use to prepare them? How should you convey them to your instructor to demonstrate your planning and research?

GROUP PLANNING AND RESEARCH RUBRIC (for group to use)

What roles are needed for effective teams? What role did the person in question play? What contributions were made to the group? What should be kept in mind for next time?

GROUP CONTRACT TEMPLATE

GROUP PRESENTATION RUBRIC (for class and Ann and Emily to use)

What makes a good group presentation? What approaches to presenting are possible?

INDIVIDUAL PRESENTATIONS WITHIN GROUP RUBRIC (for class and Ann and Emily to use)

What makes an effective individual speaker?

AUDIENCE EXPECTATION TEMPLATE (for presenting group to use)

What makes an effective audience member?