Spring 2023, CairoShort Course
The Performing Body: Theories on Dance and Performance
Course details
- Cycle
- Spring 2023, Cairo
- Length
- 6 sessions
- Format
- In person
- Taught in
- English
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About the course
This course will examine the body as a generator of political possibilities and alternative narratives, highlighting the body as a continuous performing entity. In this class students will learn to define performativity and performance through the lens of: ritual, everyday life, politics and social constructs. Using the critical theory we acquire in the first section of the course, students will then begin to learn about the history of modern dance and its development into contemporary dance, linking movement to social movements. Ultimately students will uncover the political potential of dance as a tool for opposition, and the re-imagination of heteronormative structures. Students will physically use their bodies to explore the writings we encounter in class, dedicating a large portion of learning to movement investigation and experimentation.
Who is this class for?
This class is suited for anyone with an interest/background in Critical Theory, Dance Studies, and Social Sciences (Anthropology, Sociology). It is suited for dancers and non-dancers, who are interested in learning about the genealogy of Modern and Contemporary dance movements. Finally, this course is suited for learners who are eager to learn through and with the body.
Who teaches it
Salma Abdel Salam is a dance artist and researcher based in Cairo. She holds a BA in Sociology from AUC in 2012, an MA in Performance Studies from NYUTish 2015, and is a graduate of the Cairo Contemporary Dance Center’s professional dance program 2015. From 2012-2014 she worked as a researcher assistant at AUC and Women Memory Forum. In 2016 she co-founded the dance collective nasa4nasa. Since its inception nasa4nasa has presented works in Next Festival, MDT, Gwangju Biennale, ImpulsTanz, Festival de Marseille, Gypsum Gallery, D-Caf, and Judson. Parallel to her choreographic practice, Salma teaches Performance Studies, Dance History, and movement-based workshops. She has taught at the American University in Cairo and the Cairo Contemporary Dance Center, ImpulsTanz, and independently through her teaching platform. Salma performed with Benoit LaChambre, Tino Sehgal, Yoshiko Chuma, Karima Mansour, and Mohamed Shafik among others. Her writing has been published by Ibraaz, ICI Paris, and Mada Masr, and she is currently working on a book project about Egyptian Dancer Farida Fahmy.
From the fellow Each session will be divided into two parts. Part one of each session will be used to discuss the readings. Part two will be dedicated to visual material from dance history as well as physical exercises allowing us to examine the topics further.
By the end of this course, students will be able to:
- To define performance - To define dance - To define performativity and performance through the lens of: ritual, everyday life, politics, theatre and social constructs - To explore the relationship between movement and philosophy - To examine the connectivity of dance with social sciences and philosophy - To practically use the body to explore and interact with the theory using scores, tasks and improvisation
Introduce the works of: - Isadora Duncan - Martha Graham - Mary Wigman - Merce Cunningham - Judson Church Movement - Adrian Piper - William Pope L - Hijikata Tatsumi - Helio Oitcia - Lygia clark and more during class discussions
Course flow
Sessions without a date
- The Presentation Of Self In Everyday LifeGoffman, E. (1956). University of Edinburgh Social Science Research Center, pp. 8-9, 70, 73.
- The archive and the repertoire: performing cultural memory in the AmericasTaylor, D. (2003). Durham: Duke University Press, pp 19-21, 16.
- Performance studies: an introductionSchechner, R. (2006). New York: Routledge, pp 28-30.
- Bodies that matter: on the discursive limits of "sex"Butler, J. (1993). New York: Routledge, p 12.
- How to do things with wordsAustin, J. L., Urmson, J. O., & Sbisà, M. (1975). Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, p. 6 (speech act, performative utterance).
- Unmarked: the politics of performancePhelan, P. (1993). London: Routledge, pp. 146, 148.
- Techniques of the BodyMauss, Marcel. Economy and Society: 70-88.
- Outline of a Theory of PracticeBourdieu, Pierre. Cambridge, U.K.: Cambridge University Press, 1977, pp. 72-74, 85-90.
- Volatile Bodies: Towards a Corporeal FeminismElizabeth Grosz. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1994), page 47-51.
- What is an ApparatusAgamben, Giorgio, 2009. Recommended reading.
- Discipline and Punish the Birth of the PrisonFoucault, Michel. Translated by Alan Sheridan. 2nd ed. New York: Random House, (1977): 135-149, 170-176.
- NecropoliticsAchille Mbembe. Public Culture 15 no.1 (2003): 11-40.
- Choreopolice and Choreopolitics: or, the task of the dancerLepecki, A. (2013). TDR/The Drama Review, 57(4), page 20.
- Exhausting dance: performance and the politics of movementLepecki, A. (2006). New York: Routledge, page 1-13, 86-106, 106-122.
- Democracy's body: Judson Dance Theater, 1962-1964Banes, S. (1983). Ann Arbor, MI: UMI Research Press, pp. 26-42, 80-83.
- Dance: documents of contemporary artLepecki, A. (2012). London: Whitechapel Gallery, pp 44-47, 59 (Yvonne Rainer), 61 (Trisha Brown).
- Dance Finds a Home in MuseumsSheets, H.M. (2015, January 22). The New York Times.
- The Power of "Co-“in Contemporary DanceLarisa Crunteanu. Revista Arta.
- On the Marionette TheatreKleist, H. Recommended reading.
In class
- DiscussionClass Discussion
- A thousand plateaus: capitalism and schizophrenia (Body without Organs)Deleuze, G., & Guattari, F. (1987). Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, pp. 150-151, 153, 157, 164.
- A thousand plateaus: capitalism and schizophrenia (Becoming Intense Becoming Animal)Deleuze, G., & Guattari, F. (1987). Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, pp. 238, 257-258.
- When species meetHaraway, D. J. (2008). Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, p. 3.
- A cyborg manifesto: science, technology, and socialist-feminism in the late twentieth centuryHaraway, D. J. (2009), p. 3.
- Volatile Bodies: Towards a Corporeal FeminismElizabeth Grosz. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1994), page 166, 173.
- The theatre and its doubleArtaud, A. (1981). pp. 36, 41, 63, 93-94.
- Plucking Off the Darkness of the FleshHijikata, Tatsumi. TDR: The Drama Review, Volume 44, Number 1 (T165) Spring 2000, pp. 51, 53.
- Dance: documents of contemporary artLepecki, A. (2012). London: Whitechapel Gallery, pp. 107-109.
- Cruising Utopia the then and there of Queer FuturityMuñoz, José E. New York and London: New York University Press, 2009, page 91-113.
- On The ActLygia Clark.
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