Course Info: LCSEM-0109
| Course | LCSEM-0109 West African Dance History |
| Long Title | West African Dance History: West African Independence Struggles and the Rise of Ballets Africains |
| Term | 2024F |
| Note(s) |
Textbook information |
| Meeting Info | Music and Dance Building MAIN on M,W from 10:30-11:50 |
| Faculty | Amy Jordan |
| Capacity | 15 |
| Available | 7 |
| Waitlist | 0 |
| Distribution(s) |
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| Cumulative Skill(s) | |
| Additional Info | The content of this course deals with issues of race and power Students should expect to spend 8 hours weekly on work and preparation outside of class time |
| Description | This course combines (in studio) West African dance classes with
discussion-based classes on the social and cultural history of
West Africa, with a particular focus on Guinea. We will explore
the multiple modes of knowledge production in which the people of
Guinea express their history, knowledge of place and look to
dance and music as an important means of expressing a dynamic
conception of history. Dance classes will be accompanied by live
drumming where they will learn Guinean choreographies at their
own pace. By practicing the choreography popularized by Les
Ballet Africains, we will gain a sense of the embodied knowledge
contained in traditional dance choreographies as well as a sense
of how they are in conversation with contemporary politics.
Students will watch films of performances and celebrations to
become familiar with criteria for judging aesthetics. The
assigned literature will include broader social histories and
ethnographies of the struggles for independence as well as
cultural analysis of recurring debates about what constitutes
revolutionary nationalism, authenticity and processes of
modernity. We will also explore critical memoirs and
autobiographical films that provide a window into how West
African writers and filmmakers articulate themselves as dynamic
historical agents engaged with the larger forces of empire making
in Greater Mali, French colonization, WWII and Guinean
independence. We will discuss the ways in which dance figured
into the forging of national identities during the Independence
era and consider how these projects in collective self-making
evolved over time as the challenges of the post-colonial era
constrained and informed the possibilities for such a project. Keywords:Dance, history, African Studies, postcolonial studies, drumming |