This Level 4 module is designed to provide students with knowledge and understanding of dance history. The module introduces students to dance histories and practices throughout time and the research methods associated with the study of dance history.
The combination of practice and theory will enable students to establish, identify and experience the relationship between dance histories, theory and practice. In a series of tutor-led seminars/practical sessions and workshops, students will consider the historical contexts that gave rise to and changed dance practices, the dancing body and dance performances. For example, discussions and practical sessions may include theories and histories embedded in the dancing body; Natural Movement in Britain; popular dance in the USA; Reconstructing the past: re-enacting the canon; Judson Church: rethinking dance performance and the dancing body.
Besides learning subject-specific theory and practice, the introduction of research methods will enable students to develop key research skills such as information search and retrieval, bibliographical research, identifying and selecting relevant information, and referencing.
The development of skills will take place via formative tasks in the classroom and in e-learning environments such as webinars and web-based tests. The e-learning content will support students in enhancing their knowledge and will allow them to monitor their progress.
Introduction to dance history and historiography
Research skills and information retrieval
Dancing histories and the dancing body
Reconstructing the past: re-enactment, reconstruction and dance performance
Classical ballet
Natural movement
Contemporary dance
Popular and Social dance
Folk and national dances
Post-modern dance
The module consists of a series of lectures complemented by practical sessions and workshops. Teaching block one provides students with a solid foundation of dance history and introduces students to critical aspects embedded in history and historiography. Discussions during this teaching block will include sessions focussing on the writing and reading of history, poststructuralists approaches to historiography as well as introducing students to dance history.
Teaching block two provides students with a solid foundation of dance history and introduces students to intensive blocks of practical work that explore the issues embedded in reconstruction, revival and the re-enactment of past works.
| Definitive UNISTATS Category | Indicative Description | Hours |
|---|---|---|
| Scheduled learning and teaching | Lecture/seminar | 22 |
| Scheduled learning and teaching | Seminar / practical | 22 |
| Guided independent study | Independent study | 256 |
| Total (number of credits x 10) | 300 | |
The assessments are designed to guide students in their learning process and to provide opportunities for feedback. The summative assessment is a portfolio containing the following elements: a practice-based demonstration, and an essay (1500 words). The summative assessment provide students with the opportunity to demonstrate, in a variety of forms, an understanding of dance history, key theoretical approaches and methodologies to the study of dance history
In teaching Block 2: students will complete a series of formative assessments related to the key skills embedded in this module. Tasks may include: information retrieval from the library, referencing tasks and the completion of a formative test (via Study Space). Students will also complete one element of the summative assessment: a practice-based demonstration. The practice-based demonstration takes the form of small group assessment and requires student to articulate their conceptual and embodied understanding of the relationship between dance history, theory and performance practices that arise from a selected dance example.
In Teaching Block 2: The summative assessment is an essay (including a bibliography).The bibliography is linked to the final assessment that takes the form of an essay and both components are linked to key skills embedded in this module. The essay allows students to engage in the study and research of a topic related to dance history.
| Learning Outcome | Assessment Strategy |
|---|---|
| Demonstrate knowledge an understanding of dance history. | a) Essay b) Practice-based demonstration |
| Demonstrate a conceptual and embodied understanding of the relationship between dance history, theory and performance practices | a) Practice-based demonstration b) Essay |
| Demonstrate an awareness of key issues, theories and debates embedded in historiography | a) Practice-based demonstration b) Essay |
| Demonstrate the ability to conduct research and synthesize bibliographical information (research and information literacy skills) | Essay |
| Description of Assessment | Definitive UNISTATS Categories | Percentage |
|---|---|---|
| Coursework | 1500 Word Essay | 50 |
| Coursework | Practice Based Demonstration | 50 |
| Total (to equal 100%) | 100% | |
It IS NOT a requirement that any major assessment category is passed separately in order to achieve an overall pass for the module
Adshead-Lansdale,J & Layson,J (1999) Dance History an Introduction. Routledge: London.
Anderson, J (2008) Ballet and Modern Dance: A concise History. Paw Prints.
Carter, A (ed.)(2004) Re-thinking Dance History: A reader. Routledge: London.
Carter,A & Fensham,R (eds.)(2012) Dancing Naturally: Nature, Neo-Classicism and Modernity in Early Twentieth-Century Dance. Palgrave MacMillan: London.
Cohen,SJ (ed.) (1992) Dance as a Theater Art: source readings in dance history from 1581 to the present. Hightstown:Princenton book company.
Copeland, R & Cohen, M (eds.) (1983) What is Dance? Readings in theory and criticism. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Dils,A & Cooper A (eds.) (2001) Moving History /Dancing Cultures: a dance history reader. Connecticut: Wesleyan University Press.
Donnelly, M & Norton, C (2011) Doing History. London:Routledge.
Franko, M (2012) Martha Graham in Love and War: the life in the work. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Franko, M (2012) The work of Dance: Labour,Movement and Identity in the 1930s. Middletown:Wesleyan University Press.
Lee,C (2002) Ballet in Western Culture: a history of its origins and evolution. Routledge: London & New York.
Wulff H (1998) Ballet Across Borders: career and culture in the world of dancers, Oxford: Berg Press.