Africanism in modern and postmodern dance

The goal of this course is to gain an understanding of the breadth and depth of the Africanist influence on what we call Modern and Postmodern Dance in America.

Examine. Challenge. Embody.

What’s Included?

Africanism in Modern and Postmodern Dance contains a PDF Course guide, or Pre-Built Canvas Course guide to access readings, dance classes, and written response prompts.

Africanism in Modern and Postmodern Dance is also included in DANCIO EDU, a collection of Dancio’s academic and educator-focused courses.

Access Dancio EDU

Africanism in Modern and PostModern DancE

Includes downloaded excerpts from peer reviewed academic journals and critically acclaimed books on the history of dance.
Each module includes a dance/movement class related to the topic being studied. These classes allow for deeper kinesthetic learning.
Written response prompts are included at the end of each module to solidify material learned and allow for further personal exploration on each topic.

This course examines the presence of African diasporic dance forms and Africanist aesthetics in Modern and Postmodern dance, decentering the Westernized narrative typical of dance history classes. It looks at the historical evolution of Black dance in America and its most influential choreographers, dancers, and performances. This course engages in an embodied practice to deepen our learning. It examines and challenges the ideas, aesthetics, and tropes that came to characterize Black dance performance, choreography, and pedagogy.

Designed for college level students with some prior knowledge of dance history.

This course can be adapted for students of various levels: the curriculum features an addendum of resources to supplement as desired and offers a written response alternative — an auditory response. For this, students may record themselves speaking about their reflections using a voice recorder app orby recording themselves on video.