HSOC-252: African Diaspora

This course focuses on a range of dance and movement traditions in the African diaspora as vehicles of cultural expression, political resistance, and identity creation and preservation. We will look at the religious dance traditions of Cuba, Brazil and Haiti; Brazilian capoeira; Martiniquean Bele dance; African American popular and vernacular dance; and the dance technique of African American dancer and anthropologist Katherine Dunham. Understanding embodied traditions as a particular way in which those in the African disaspora have thrived in the face of genocidal conditions, the course also considers the body more broadly as a vector of identity and experience. Students need not be experienced with dance or martial arts, but this course does require full participation in weekly practicums where the traditions in question will be demonstrated.