Study-Unit Description

Study-Unit Description



CODE DCS3005

 
TITLE Choreological Perspectives

 
UM LEVEL 03 - Years 2, 3, 4 in Modular Undergraduate Course

 
MQF LEVEL Not Applicable

 
ECTS CREDITS 10

 
DEPARTMENT Dance Studies

 
DESCRIPTION An introduction to some specific research approaches in the dance and performance studies disciplines, with the use of case studies, to exemplify ways in which the study of dance is developing as a scholarly activity with evolving modes of enquiry, to include:

- Notions of embodiment: processes, techniques and roles
- Inter-relatedness of creating, performing, appreciating
- Corporeality and reification (VPD)
- Intersections between semiotics and phenomenology (SF/PH)
- Historiography and dance: a sense of the past (SB)
- Dance Ethnography: performance and culture
- Intertextuality: exploring the relationship between dance and the spectator (JAL)
- Dance, identity and postcolonial world (AG)

Study-unit Aims:

This study-unit aims to extend the theoretical work of Level 2, by introducing students to deeper study of some of the theoretical and methodological stances which have been applied in scholarly dance literature. In general terms, this gives the student opportunities to consider the kinds of approaches to interrogation that might successfully utilised in the Dance Dissertation study-unit.

- The presentation of a variety of research methods;
- Delineating common approaches for investigating dance through qualitative and quantitative inquiry models;
- Exploring ideas of interpretation, significance and meaning;
- Understand issues of perceptual value: historic, aesthetic and contextual;
- Applying multi-modal methods of analysis in dance and performance;
- Investigating and analysing the subject matter, analytical framework and literature of given case studies.

Learning Outcomes:

1.Knowledge & Understanding:

By the end of the study-unit the student will be able to:
- Demonstrate understanding of a variety of research methods;
- Delineate common approaches for investigating dance through qualitative and quantitative inquiry models;
- Formulate ideas of interpretation, significance and meaning in dance writing;
- Understand issues of perceptual value: historic, aesthetic and contextual;
- Apply simple and multi-modal methods of analysis in dance and performance;
- Investigate and analyse the subject matter, analytical framework and literature of given case studies.

2. Skills:

By the end of the study-unit the student will be able to:
- Analyse given readings;
- Extrapolate and precis particular approaches;
- Create/design and discuss with tutor and peer group individual ideas for research topics.

Main Text/s and any supplementary readings:

- Adshead-Lansdale, Janet. 1999. Dancing Texts: Intertextuality in interpretation (London: Dance Books).
- Ashcroft, Bill, Gareth Griffiths, and Helen Tiffin (eds.). 2006. The post-colonial studies reader (London: Taylor & Francis).
- Bourdieu, Pierre. 1980. The Logic of Practice (Stanford:Stanford University Press).
- Buckland, Theresa. 2010. ‘Shifting perspectives on dance ethnography’, in Alexandra Carter and Janet O'Shea, (eds.), The Routledge dance studies reader, sec. ed. (New York: Routledge), pp. 335-43.
- Chazin-Bennahum Judith (ed.). 2005. Teaching Dance Studies New York.and London (New York: Routledge).
- Foster, Susan Leigh. 2005. ‘Dance theory?’ in Judith Chazin-Bennahum (ed.), Teaching dance studies (London: Taylor and Francis), pp.19-34.
- Foucault, Michel. 1977. Discipline and punish: The birth of the prison (New York: Vintage.
- Fraleigh, Sondra. 2000. ‘Consciousness Matters’, Dance Research Journal 32 (1): 54-62.
- Fraleigh Sondra H and Penelope Hanstein, (eds.). 1999. Researching.
Dance: Evolving Modes of Enquiry. (London: Dance Books - Green, Jill. 2003. ‘Foucault and the training of docile bodies in dance education’, The Journal of the Arts and Learning Special Interest Group of the American Education Research Association 19 (1): 99-125.
- Franco, S. and M. Nordera. 2007. Dance Discourses: key words in dance research (Routledge).
- Giersdorf, Jens Richard. 2009. ‘Dance Studies in the International Academy: Genealogy of a Disciplinary Formation’, Dance Research Journal, 41 (1): 23-44Kaeppler, Adrienne L. 2000. ‘Dance Ethnology and the Anthropology of Dance’, Dance Research Journal 32 (1): 116-125 18.
- Lepecki, André. 2004. Of the presence of the body: Essays on dance and performance theory (Middleton, CT: Wesleyan University).
- O’Shea, Janet. 2007. At home in the World: Bharata Natyam on the global stage (Middletown, Connecticut: Wesleyan University Press).
- Pavis, Patrice. 2003. Analysing Performance: Theater, Dance and Film (Ann Arbor: University of Michigan).
- Preston-Dunlop, Valerie and Ana Sanchez-Colberg. 2002. Dance and the Performative: a choreological perspective (London: Verve).
- Schechner, Richard .2007. Performance Studies: an Introduction (sec.ed.) (New York: Routledge).
- Thomas, Helen.1995. Dance, Modernity and Culture: Explorations in the sociology of dance (Routledge).
- Sklar, Deidre. 2000. ‘Reprise: On Dance Ethnography’, Dance Research Journal 32 (1): 70-77.
- Sklar, Deidre. 2001. ‘Five premises for a culturally sensitive approach to dance’, in Dils, Ann and Ann Cooper Albright (eds.), Moving History/Dancing Cultures: A Dance History Reader (Middletown, CT: Wesleyan), 30-32.

 
ADDITIONAL NOTES Pre-requisite Study-unit: DCS2005

 
STUDY-UNIT TYPE Lecture, Independent Study, Seminar and Tutorial

 
METHOD OF ASSESSMENT
Assessment Component/s Sept. Asst Session Weighting
Oral and Written Exercises Yes 30%
Seminar Paper Yes 70%

 
LECTURER/S Malaika Sarco Thomas
Brandon Shaw

 

 
The University makes every effort to ensure that the published Courses Plans, Programmes of Study and Study-Unit information are complete and up-to-date at the time of publication. The University reserves the right to make changes in case errors are detected after publication.
The availability of optional units may be subject to timetabling constraints.
Units not attracting a sufficient number of registrations may be withdrawn without notice.
It should be noted that all the information in the description above applies to study-units available during the academic year 2025/6. It may be subject to change in subsequent years.


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