Dance and Gender
ART 2260 ~~~ 4 credits ~~~ Class Time: MTh 8:00-9:20am (for real...alas)
Topic outline
Course Overview
Readings and Homework Assignments
Monday January 27
Readings:
Judith Lynne Hanna, Dance, Sex, and Gender p. 6-12 (note: more pages are copied here than you need to read)
Resources for defining Gender, Sex and Sexuality:
http://www.plannedparenthood.org/health-topics/sexual-orientation-gender-4329.htm
http://genderqueerid.com/defining-genderqueer
Assignment: Brainstorm
Thursday January 30
Reading: Iris Marion Young “Throwing Like a Girl”
Assignment: Observing, Writing and Moving
Monday February 3
Readings Due: Ann Daly “Unlimited Partnership” (from Critical Gestures)
Alexandra Carter “Bodies of Knowledge: Dance and Feminist Analysis”
Video Viewings: Dancing: The Individual and Tradition (on reserve in the dance classroom) cancelled
Assignments Due: feminist approaches to analyzing dance
Thursday February 6
Readings Due: Ramsay Burt, The Male Dancer, Chapters 1 and 2 (48 pages)
Assignments Due: Reading questions
Monday February 10Readings Due: review Burt as needed for comprehension
Video Viewings and Assignment: partner project
Romantic Ballet -- Two Really Great Articles that We're Skipping
Optional Reading:
Susan Leigh Foster “The Ballerina’s Phallic Pointe”
Sally Banes “Giselle”Thursday February 20 -- The Balanchine Woman
READ HOMEWORK ASSIGNMENT BEFORE DOING READINGS OR WATCHING FILMS
Readings Due:Ann Daly “The Balanchine Woman: Of Hummingbirds and Channel
Swimmers” and “Classical Ballet” (from Critical Gestures)
Video Viewing: The Four Temperments by George Balanchine
Dancing for Mr. B: Six Balanchine Ballerinas (both videos on reserve in dance classroom)
Assignment: Argument and Counterargument Pairs from DalyMonday February 24
Readings Due: Bud Coleman “Ballerinos en Pointe”
excerpts from Susan Leigh Foster “Closets Full of Dances” p. 147-151 and p. 187-198
(You only need to read the Matthew Bourne sections listed here, but the full chapter is posted for your reference)
Video Viewing: Les Ballets Trockadero Swan Lake Act II
Matthew Bourne’s Swan Lake
(optional -- The Kirov Ballet in Swan Lake)
Assignments Due: Three Discussion Questions
Revise Creative Essay
Wednesday February 26 Ain Gordon and Carmelita Tropicana in Conversation
Whittemore Theater, 7pm
Readings in preparation for this talk: I, Carmelita Tropicana and José Esteban Muñoz "Sister Acts"
Thursday February 27 Isadora Duncan and Male Gaze Theory
Readings Due: Ann Daly “Dance History and Feminist Theory" and “About Interpretation”
Laura Mulvey “Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema"
Sharon Freidler “Fire and Ice: Female Archetypes in American Modern Dance”
Video Viewing: selections from Duncan, Graham, etc.
Assignments Due: Argument and Counterargument
Monday March 3 Ted Shawn’s Men Dancers
Readings Due: Julia Foulkes “Dance is for American Men” (from Dancing Desires)
Jennifer Fisher, “Maverick Men in Ballet” (from When Men Dance)
Video Viewings: The Men Who Danced (on VHS in dance classroom)
Assignments Due: Three Discussion Questions
Thursday March 6 Contemporary Strategies: Muscles and More
Readings Due: Ann Cooper Albright “Techno Bodies”
Video Viewings: Clips to accompany Albright article
Assignment: Reading Questions
March 10 More Strategies: Bill T. Jones, Urban Bush Women
Readings Due:
Nadine George-Graves, Chapter 2 of Urban Bush Women
Gay Morris “What He Called Himself: Issues of Identity in Early Dances by Bill T. Jones” (from Dancing Desires)
Video Viewings:
Urban Bush Women Batty Moves (this film has gone missing) With apologies for the confusion, here is a short clip you can watch instead:
Urban Bush Women (the sections in which the dancers where black sports bras and black shorts with white shirts tied around their waists come from Batty Moves)
Bill T. Jones Soon (parts and )
Assignment: Creative project proposal due
Thursday March 13 -- Pina Bausch
Readings Due: Royd Climenhaga, Chapter 2 of Pina Bausch
and Pina Bausch sections of Ramsay Burt's The Male Dancer (p. 138-148)
Video Viewings: Pina Baush
excerpt from Gibirgeexcerpts from Sacre -- and
excerpt from Bluebeard -- (from this section you can go on to watch as many other sections of this piece as you would like)
Assignment: Preparation to lead class discussion
Plus: an optional video to think about in light of last week's Ann Cooper Albright reading on muscularity as a feminist strategy :
Camp and Drag: Kings, Queens, and Dance Covers of “Single Ladies”
Readings Due:
David Bergman, Introduction to Camp Grounds
(optional) Carol Ann Tyler “Boys Will Be Girls” (from Queer Aesthetics and the Performing Subject)
Harmony Bench “’Single Ladies’ is Gay: Queer Performances and Mediated Masculinities on YouTube” (from Dance on its Own Terms)
Video Viewings: Drag video clips
Single Ladies Clips (as referenced in the article above -- find them yourselves)
San Francisco drag-inspired performance:
Assignment: Reading Questions
Thursday April 3 -- Camp and Self-Objectification as Feminist Strategies: Madonna, Lady Gaga
and Miley Cyrus
Readings Due: Pamela Robertson, Chapter 4 from Guilty Pleasures: Feminist Camp from Mae West to Madonna
Nancy Bauer “Lady Power” (NY Times blog)
Open letters between Sinead O’Connor/Miley Cyrus in Fall 2013 -- O'Conner's first letter, Cyrus's first response, O'Connor's 2nd and 3rd letters with Cyrus's second response
Video Viewings: Music videos from Madonna (and more Madonna), Lady Gaga, Sinead O’Connor and
Assignment: Argument and Counterargument:
Do Camp, Female Drag, and Self-Objectification function as feminist strategies in the work of pop icons such as Madonna and Lady Gaga? Point out some arguments and counterarguments in answer to this question from today's readings.
April 7 -- Strip Tease
Readings Due: Katherine Liepe-Levinson, Introduction of Strip Show
Sheila Kelly, Introduction to The S Factor: Strip Workouts for Every Woman
And on a slightly different topic: Defining a Vagenre
Video Viewings: none
Assignment: Three Discussion Questions
Thursday April 10 -- Creative Project Showings
Monday April 14 Reschedule of Creative Project Works-In-Progress Showing
Readings Due: none -- work more on creative project
Video Viewing: none
Assignments Due: Final Project Proposal
Thursday April 17 -- Practice for Final Project
Reading: none
Video Viewing: Achterland (on reserve in dance classroom)
Assignment Due: brainstorm about course material to bring to bear on gender analysis of Achterland -- outline of mini-final project (prepare notes to hand in)
April 21 -- Dance Education
Readings Due: Jill Green “Foucault and the Training of Docile Bodies”
Sue Stinson “Journey Towards a Feminist Pedagogy for Dance”
Doug Risner “What We Know About Boys Who Dance”
(optional) Sherry Shapiro, chapter 6 in Pedagogy and the Politics of the Body
Assignment: Written reflection on the gendered messages of your own dance education (1-2 pages)
WEDNESDAY April 23 (4-6pm) -- Public Showing of Creative Projects
Due: Final drafts of creative projects
Thursday April 24 -- Social Dance
Readings Due: Miguel Muños-Laboy, Hannah Weinstein, & Richard Parker “Hip-Hop: Gender, Grinding, and Sex”
Juan Pablo Sarmiento Barletti "Change Partners!: Male Followers, Female Leaders, and Gender Performativity in Modern Lindy Hop"
Video Viewings: search YouTube as needed for videos to accompany articles
Assignment: Three Discussion Questions
Monday April 28 -- Unexplored Territory
Readings Due: none
Video Viewings: none
Assignments Due: 1. Reflective Paper on Creative Project
2. Bring something you want to look at/talk about with the class
Thursday May 1 -- Wrap Up
Readings Due: none
Assignments Due: reflect on themes of the course
Work on final paper
Monday May 5 -- Last Class
Assignments Due: Final Paper (bring 8 printed copies)