TH262-15 Motion & Movement: Dance in the 20th and 21st Century
Introductory description
This module explores dance as a vital component of theatre and performance studies, focusing on significant dance movements of the 20th and 21st centuries. We will examine how historical, cultural, economic, political, and technological factors have influenced choreographic styles and practices. Students will study various dance forms, including ballet, modern and postmodern dance, and contemporary styles, and think about these through historical, political, and aesthetic perspectives. The module is designed to trace how dance has developed from the early 20th century to the present, helping students understand key dance movements and the contexts in which they emerged in Europe and North America. It will introduce the idea of dance as a form, exploring concepts like stillness, pedestrian movement, authorship, re-enactment, and how the body can communicate and make meaning in performance. This module also investigates contemporary phenomena, including queer performance and drag, dance marathons and crazes, and radical reinterpretations of traditional dance forms, offering a rich and dynamic perspective on how dance and choreography respond to shifting societal and political contexts. In this module, we will be alive to key debates in dance studies and performance studies, with a particular focus on terms such as indigeneity, colonisation, embodied transmission, as well as exploring the politics of movement and stillness, race and visual culture, memory, oral histories and the archive, and how traditional dance forms like ballet have been reimagined through DIY post-punk aesthetics.
Module aims
To examine the historical, cultural, economic, political, and technological factors that have shaped choreographic practices and aesthetics across the 20th and 21st centuries.
To explore pivotal dance practices, figures, genres, and movements, from ballet and modern dance to postmodern, contemporary forms, through critical analysis of their historical, political, and aesthetic contexts.
To consider the ways in which dance and movement function as both responses to and reflections of global historical events across the 20th and 21st centuries, and how dance has played a part in reframing them.
To examine how contemporary dance phenomena, including queer performance, digital dance cultures, and radical reinterpretations of ballet, respond to and reflect shifting societal, cultural, and political contexts.
Outline syllabus
This is an indicative module outline only to give an indication of the sort of topics that may be covered. Actual sessions held may differ.
Week 1: Motion & Modernity—
Week 2: Jazz & Visuality
Week 3: Memory & Haunting
Week 4: Culture & Ritual
Week 5: Postmodernism & Minimalism
Week 7: Drag & Ballroom
Week 8: City & Environment
Week 9: Ballet & Risk
Week 10: Virality & Spectacle
Learning outcomes
By the end of the module, students should be able to:
- Demonstrate a critical understanding of key 20th and 21st-century dance movements, practices and choreographers and the historical, political, and social factors that shaped them.
- Demonstrate the ability to use critical concepts such as modernity, visuality, and archive through performance reviews and in-class discussions.
- Critically analyse dance practices using different theoretical and critical perspectives to analyse the connections between theory and practice.
- Demonstrate an ability to apply critical theory to creative practice.
Indicative reading list
Viewing:
Pina Bausch, Café Muller (1978).
Martha Graham, Appalachian Spring (1958)
Richard Move, Martha @ (1996–Ongoing)
Josephine Baker, The Story of an Awakening (2018)
Katherine Dunham, Ballet Creole (1952)
Yvonne Rainer, Trio A (1978)
Merce Cunningham, Walkaround Time (1973)
Marlon T. Riggs, Tongues Untied (1989)
Michael Clark, Stravinsky Project (2005–2007)
Reading:
Andre Lepecki, Exhausting Dance: Performance and the Politics of Movement (New York and London: Routledge, 2006).
Anne Anlin Cheng, Second Skin: Josephine Baker and the Modern Surface (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2011).
Mark Franko, ‘Emotivist Movement and the Histories of Modernism: The Case of Martha Graham,’ in Dancing Modernism/Performing Politics (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 2023), 48-89.
Paul Gilroy, ‘Introduction’ in The Black Atlantic: Modernity and Double Consciousness (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1993).
Sally Banes, ‘Yvonne Rainer: Aesthetics of Denial’, in Terpsichore in Sneakers: Post-Modern Dance (Middletown, CA: Wesleyan University Press, 1987), 41–54.
Antonin Artaud, ‘The Theatre of Cruelty (First Manifesto)’, in The Theatre and its Double, trans. By Mark Taylor-Batty (London, UK: Methuen, 2024 [1938]), 97–107. [Extracts]
Tavia Nyong’o, 'Introduction', in Afro-Fabulations: The Queer Drama of Black Life (New York: New York University Press, 2018).
Marlon Bailey, Butch Queens Up in Pumps: Gender, Performance, and Ballroom Culture in Detroit (Ann Arbor, MI: The University of Michigan Press, 2013).
Arabella Stanger, ‘Ballet Gone Wrong: Michael Clark’s Classical Deviations’, in The Oxford Handbook of Contemporary Ballet (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2021).
Guy Debord, Society of the Spectacle, trans. By Ron Adams (Cambridge, MA: University of Massachusetts Press, 2021 [1967]).
Research element
Students will be undertaking weekly research in preparation for sessions and will be required to research selected
topics for assessment.
Subject specific skills
By the end of this module, students will:
Students will demonstrate an understanding of key 20th and 21st-century dance movements and the historical, political, and social factors that shaped them. They will show knowledge of choreographers, practices, and critical concepts like modernity, visuality, and archive, engaging thoughtfully through performance reviews and class discussions.
Students will critically analyse dance practices using different theoretical perspectives and explore connections between theory and practice. They will develop skills in interpreting and synthesising research and dance practices through practical and written tasks.
By giving and receiving constructive feedback, students will develop personal initiative, identify learning strategies, and collaborate effectively in groups. They will also think creatively, solve problems, and develop the ability to sustain and communicate creative work.
Students will effectively use research tools to connect critical theory with creative practice. They will also develop library and IT skills, deliver research-based presentations, evaluate visual evidence, and confidently communicate complex ideas.
Engage in research-based investigation of appropriate primary and secondary source material.
Communicate what they have learnt both orally, visually and in writing.
Transferable skills
Transferable skills
Analysis and decision making
Cognitive ability
Communication skills
Creativity
Performance skills
Presentation skills
Confidence
Interdisciplinary awareness
Critical thinking
Independent research
Academic writing skills
Intrapersonal skills
Problem solving
Project planning and delivery
Self-management
Time management
Study time
| Type | Required |
|---|---|
| Seminars | 9 sessions of 2 hours (12%) |
| Supervised practical classes | 1 session of 3 hours (2%) |
| Private study | 29 hours (19%) |
| Assessment | 100 hours (67%) |
| Total | 150 hours |
Private study description
Students are expected to undertake substantial preparatory reading and viewing each week which amounts to
approximately 2–3 hours per week.
Costs
No further costs have been identified for this module.
You must pass all assessment components to pass the module.
Assessment group A
| Weighting | Study time | Eligible for self-certification | |
|---|---|---|---|
Assessment component |
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| Reader Response Portfolio | 40% | 40 hours | Yes (extension) |
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Over the course of the module, students will be asked to keep a reader response diary, writing 5 x 500 words responding to one of the performances they have watched that week. At the end of the module, students will be asked to edit and refine 3 of these and compile them in a portfolio. These will be submitted in Week 10, with the expectation that students will have been working on these across the module. |
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Reassessment component is the same |
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Assessment component |
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| Movement Study | 60% | 60 hours | Yes (extension) |
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In groups of three, students will present their Movement Study as a presentation, selecting from 2–3 dance artists provided. They will be tasked with exploring how the artist’s work connects to a form of movement found in the world. For instance, students might examine Michael Clark’s work in relation to the concept of gravity or Yvonne Rainer’s choreography through the lens of the movement of machinery. (N.B. These will be presented after either the Winter/Spring break depending on when the module falls, so that students have the break to work on them). |
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Reassessment component |
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| Movement Study | No | ||
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The re-assessment option would involve the same assessment but presenting individually. |
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Feedback on assessment
Written feedback will be provided on all assessed work. Students will also receive ongoing verbal feedback throughout
the course.
There is currently no information about the courses for which this module is core or optional.