Repertory and Performance
DANC 378
Fall 2015 not offered
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| This course may be repeated for credit. |
Choreographer Will Rawls offers a multidisciplinary study and choreographic research of the film and musical score Ballet Mecanique. Rarely performed or screened, Ballet Mecanique, a canonical collaboration between French filmmaker Fernand Leger and American composer George Antheil, premiered in 1924. There was no dance that accompanied this "ballet," and no choreographer has attempted a full-scale concert dance version since. Both the film and music were designed to represent the chaotic energy of post-WWI Europe, taking industrial noise, mass production, Dadaist imagery, kaleidoscopic consciousness, and metaphors of speed as cues for innovation within their respective forms. Both film and music led to actual inventions of technology and instruments. Just over 90 years since the premiere, the themes and techniques of Ballet Mecanique have potential resonance with contemporary life, which is writing its own narratives of society, identity, militarization, speed, global consciousness, and technological evolution.
We will study the cultural factors that gave rise to Ballet Mecanique, identify contemporary parallels of these factors, and translate these ideas into the embodied media of dance and voice. How can performers intervene into the crisis of modern (or contemporary) progress by trying to embody it? What are the techniques (somatic, sonic, graphic, digital, or otherwise) that we can investigate in relation to this question? While unpacking Ballet Mecanique, we'll explore music history, vocal score composition, orchestration, dance, political and sociological thought, neurology, and computer science. Students from diverse interests and backgrounds are welcome. |
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| Credit: 1 |
Gen Ed Area Dept:
HA DANC |
| Course Format: Performance | Grading Mode: Graded |
| Level: UGRD |
Prerequisites: None |
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Fulfills a Requirement for: None |
Major Readings:
Selected readings from:
Anne Carson, GLASS, IRONY AND GOD
Richard Senett, FLESH AND STONE: THE BODY AND THE CITY IN WESTERN CIVILIZATION
Paul John Eakin, LIVING AUTOBIOGRAPHICALLY: HOW WE CREATE IDENTITY IN NARRATIVE
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Examinations and Assignments:
Each class will include a movement and vocal warm up, writing exercises, video viewing, as well as learning dance phrases and vocal and physical scores based on prior research into Ballet Mecanique.
An informal public performance will occur at the end of the semester |
Additional Requirements and/or Comments:
All classes will meet in Schonberg Dance Studio at 247 Pine Street.
NOTE REVISED course dates:
Sunday, September 13: 2-5pm
Sunday, September 20: 2-5pm
Monday, September 21: 7-10pm
Sunday, October 4, 2-5pm
Monday, October 5: 7-10pm
Sunday, October 11: 2-5pm
Monday, October 12: 7-10pm
Sunday, October 18: 2-5pm
Monday, October 19: 7-10pm
Sunday, November 8: 2-5pm
Monday, November 9: 7-10pm
Sunday, November 22: 2-5pm
Monday, November 23: 7-10pm
Sunday, November 29: 2-5pm
Monday, November 30: 7-10pm
Sunday, December 6: 2-5pm
Monday December 7: 7-10pm |
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