Queer Dance Histories
This course focuses on historical and contemporary relationships between dance, politics, gender, and sexuality, with a particular emphasis on dance made by and for LGBTQIA2S+ artists and audiences in the US in the 20th century.
The study will investigate a wide variety of dance scholarship, including text and film resources, through discussion, embodied learning, and physical expression. Students will consider the work of artists and dance scholars that explicitly engage questions of queer liberation and solidarity. Students will also examine dance’s unique role in expanding and subverting normalized expressions of gender and sexuality in American culture since the early 1900s, with specific attention paid to the work of dance artists within movements for civil rights and social justice.
We will touch on significant moments in American dance history including the incorporation of Afro-Caribbean diasporic dance and other forms, toward the evolution of what is now referred to as American modern dance. We will also explore a selection of histories from drag, cabaret, and the emergence of distinctively Queer dance forms throughout the 20th century including forms that came out of the Ballroom scene; Vogue, Tut, Waacking etc. There will be a strong emphasis on dance artist-activist contributions during the early years of the AIDS crisis.
Students will be expected to view footage both inside and outside of class, complete weekly readings, short informal writings, and shared dance projects. A consistent movement practice will place our learning in an embodied dialogue with the artists, forms, and texts studied.
Evaluation will be based on attendance, participation in class discussion, timely completion of all assignments, and completion of a final project/paper. Prior dance training is not required, but students that have experience with rigorously integrating physical practice with reading and writing will be well-prepared for this course.