The Body in Performance
General
Course Long Title
The Body in Performance
Subject Code
DAIC
Course Number
202
Department(s)
Academic Level
UG - Undergraduate
Description
The Body in Performance: Liveness, Activism,
Feminisms is a course that inquires into the
practices of feminist artists who call upon the
live (often explicit) body in performance. We
will analyze the ways in which these performances
critique culture at large and trouble
distinctions between dance,
theater, performance art, activism, and visual
art. The artists in question (many of whom
comment on their training in dance) include (but
are not limited to) Adrian Piper, Narcissister,
Yoko Ono, Ann Liv Young, Annie Sprinkle, Carolee
Schneemann, Yve Laris Cohen, Carmelita Tropicana,
Marina
Abromovic, Senga Nengudi, Ron Athey, Lee Bul, and
Aliza Shvarts. We will read writing by scholars
and artists such as Amelia Jones, Claire Bishop,
Judith Butler, Rebecca Schneider, Adrian Piper,
Trinh Minh-ha, Jane Bennett, Tavia Nyong'o, Anna
Fisher, Jeanne Vaccaro, Linda Williams, Jennifer
Doyle, Jose Munoz, bell hooks, Susan Stryker, and
Coco Fusco. Major topics include performance,
presence, abjection, embodiment, sexuality, dance
in the museum, de-/re-skilling, vital
materialism,
transnational feminism, difficulty, obscenity,
racial kitsch, and pain/pleasure. Moving from the
midtwentieth century to the present through
international contexts, we will study these
artists and concepts through the
interdisciplinary lenses of performance studies,
gender and sexuality studies, critical race
theory, critical dance studies, porn studies, and
visual studies. While we will attune ourselves to
the history of performance and live art, the
course will be organized thematically (not
chronologically), and case studies will include
an artist (or set of artists) and
theory/scholarship relevant to that artist. This
course requires close reading of texts and art.
It also includes a practiceas-theory component in
which you will have the opportunity to experiment
and make performance to supplement otherwise
written work. While this course is designed as
the fourth semester BFA dance studies course in a
series of four, it is open to students outside of
dance with an interest in the material.
Students should expect to spend approx. $100 for
books and performances.
Feminisms is a course that inquires into the
practices of feminist artists who call upon the
live (often explicit) body in performance. We
will analyze the ways in which these performances
critique culture at large and trouble
distinctions between dance,
theater, performance art, activism, and visual
art. The artists in question (many of whom
comment on their training in dance) include (but
are not limited to) Adrian Piper, Narcissister,
Yoko Ono, Ann Liv Young, Annie Sprinkle, Carolee
Schneemann, Yve Laris Cohen, Carmelita Tropicana,
Marina
Abromovic, Senga Nengudi, Ron Athey, Lee Bul, and
Aliza Shvarts. We will read writing by scholars
and artists such as Amelia Jones, Claire Bishop,
Judith Butler, Rebecca Schneider, Adrian Piper,
Trinh Minh-ha, Jane Bennett, Tavia Nyong'o, Anna
Fisher, Jeanne Vaccaro, Linda Williams, Jennifer
Doyle, Jose Munoz, bell hooks, Susan Stryker, and
Coco Fusco. Major topics include performance,
presence, abjection, embodiment, sexuality, dance
in the museum, de-/re-skilling, vital
materialism,
transnational feminism, difficulty, obscenity,
racial kitsch, and pain/pleasure. Moving from the
midtwentieth century to the present through
international contexts, we will study these
artists and concepts through the
interdisciplinary lenses of performance studies,
gender and sexuality studies, critical race
theory, critical dance studies, porn studies, and
visual studies. While we will attune ourselves to
the history of performance and live art, the
course will be organized thematically (not
chronologically), and case studies will include
an artist (or set of artists) and
theory/scholarship relevant to that artist. This
course requires close reading of texts and art.
It also includes a practiceas-theory component in
which you will have the opportunity to experiment
and make performance to supplement otherwise
written work. While this course is designed as
the fourth semester BFA dance studies course in a
series of four, it is open to students outside of
dance with an interest in the material.
Students should expect to spend approx. $100 for
books and performances.