This course introduces students to basic dance literacy by viewing dances on film and video, making movement studies, and practicing writing in different modes about bodies in motion. The utopian ideal of "the natural" dancing body will guide our investigation of dance as art and culture, from Isadora Duncan to the postmoderns. We seek answers to such questions as, What do performance codes about the natural body feel and look like? How do dance traditions preserve, transmit, and reconfigure eco-utopian desires? No dance experience is necessary. The desire and confidence to create and move collaboratively with others is expected. |