Integration was central to both the theories and practices of mid-twentieth-century American race relations. This course brings together content and methods from dance studies and performance studies to consider responses to integration, from landmark civil rights legal decisions to social and art movements that questioned mainstream understandings of integrations' potential denial of racial difference. The course will be anchored in key examples drawn from American dance from 1930-1970, but will also include the study of complementary performances in theatre and musical theatre. The course will develop students' performance analysis skills through close readings of choreographic works, plays, and librettos, as well as introducing students to performance studies' approaches appropriate for considering embodied forms of public engagement, including civil rights protests and political speeches, as performance. Interweaving dance and performance studies in a final writing project will provide undergraduate students with a dance-specific paper appropriate for application to graduate programs in dance studies and performance studies. The class will also provide historical and theoretical concepts students can deploy in their work as artists and as critically-engaged audience members. Credit earned in this course will count toward the History and Ideas requirement for dance majors.

Class Format:

This course will be offered in a blended design. This course will meet mostly in-person but online activities/learning will make up at most 1/3 of the course content.