Methodologies for Dance Research
Code: 43159 ECTS Credits: 6| Degree | Type | Year | Semester |
|---|---|---|---|
| 4313879 Theatre Studies | OT | 0 | 2 |
Contact
- Name:
- Roberto Fratini Serafide
- Email:
- Roberto.Fratini@e-campus.uab.cat
Use of Languages
- Principal working language:
- spanish (spa)
Teachers
- Roberto Fratini Serafide
- Ester Vendrell Sales
Prerequisites
ET
Objectives and Contextualisation
The module applies the wider frame of the master to the specific field of dance. The objective is to provide students with necessary tools of analysis and research to be able to apply them efficiently to the singularity of the dance phenomena. On the one hand, the course will offer a general overview of the possibilities particular to the lines of investigation that are inherent to dance and creative and artistic experimentation, and on the other hand, it will offer an overview on social and pedagogic applications of the different artistic languages. After this introductory phase, the module will unfold by means of approaching different analytical paradigms of current investigations in the field of dance: The history of languages and poetics, choreographic analysis, formal and dramaturgical, cultural theories and trans-disciplinary reflections on dance. Case studies will be proposed with the aim of demonstrating, through acquired knowledge, different methodologies, problematic areas and analytic challenges.
Competences
- Assess the social dimension inherent in the performing arts.
- Continue the learning process, to a large extent autonomously
- Evaluate performance phenomena synchronically and diachronically on the basis of specific theoretical paradigms (specialisation A).
- Examine research methodologies in the performing arts according to international scientific parameters.
- Follow the codes of practice that govern research activity.
- Prepare a scientific paper on an object of study within the performing arts.
- Use acquired knowledge as a basis for originality in the application of ideas, often in a research context.
Learning Outcomes
- Assess the social dimension inherent in the performing arts.
- Continue the learning process, to a large extent autonomously
- Contrast different methodologies for studying dance and their possibilities regarding research.
- Contrast the theoretical paradigms that correspond to the synchronic and diachronic dimension of modern and contemporary dance, including their documentary sources and specific bibliography.
- Detect the technical, dramatic and thematic structures of a modern or contemporary dance performance.
- Follow the codes of practice that govern research activity.
- Prepare a scientifically rigorous paper on an aspect of dance.
- Use acquired knowledge as a basis for originality in the application of ideas, often in a research context.
Content
The module provides students with tools for theoretical and historical research in the field of dance. It consists of a general overview of the possibilities and current lines of investigation in dance, as well as offering an array of more specific analytical paradigms related to dance performances and their theoretical implications. Blocks of content: 1. General overview of the methods, fields, and lines of interpretation that relate to historical research in dance, as well as to the development of theoretical and critical paradigms with regards to recent dance practices or to the creative processes. A methodological map will be provided of the different possibilities and objects of study, as well as the main bibliographic and methodological references in each field. (Teacher for the block: Ester Vendrell)
2. Choreographic and stylistic analysis of dance performance. Case studies aimed at showing how to apply in practice, methodologies and sources that allow to develop a thorough reading, on formal, dramaturgical and aesthetic levels of dance performance, with a special focus on the relations between the different choreographic, physical and poetic languages or underlying theories. (Teachers for the block: Ester Vendrell, Roberto Fratini)
3. Theoretic and conceptual analysis and trans-disciplinary study of dance. Elements of methodological reflection that allow to develop a phenomenological reading of dance as cultural “turbulence”, through a work of interdisciplinary conceptualization aimed at establishing different interaction paradigms between dance and humanistic, scientific or religious reflection, with a focus on the roll of these interactions in the theoretic and dramaturgical paradigms of the more recent movements.
Chronogram
Session 1: General methodological introduction. Presentation of the map of movements and investigative typologies in the field of dance. (Part I). (Vendrell)
Session 2: General methodological introduction.Presentation of the map of movements and investigative typologies in the field of dance. (Part II). (Vendrell)
Session 3: Introduction to choreographic, stylistic and poetic analysis of dance performance. Group reading exercise and analysis of audiovisual material. Assignment of lectures and videography for the independent project. (Vendrell)
Session 4: Group reading exercise and choreographic analysis of audiovisual material. Video commentary. Assignment of independent viewings. (Vendrell)
Session 5: Group reading exercise and choreographic analysis of audiovisual material. Video commentary. Assignment of independent viewings. (Vendrell)
Session 6: Group reading exercise and choreographic analysis of audiovisual material. Video commentary. Assignment of independent viewings. (Fratini)
Session 7: Group reading exercise and choreographic analysis of audiovisual material. Video commentary. Assignment of independent viewings. (Fratini)
Session 8: Group reading exercise and choreographic analysis of audiovisual material. Video commentary. Assignment of independent viewings. (Fratini)
Session 9: Methodological introduction to interdisciplinary study, looking at the interaction between the history of dance and the development of Western thought (Part I). Reading assignments (Fratini)
Session 10: Methodological introduction to interdisciplinary study, looking at the interaction between the history of dance and the development of Western thought (Part II). Reading assignments (Fratini)
Methodology
Master classes.
Case studies (with textual or audiovisual documents)
Group work: Oral exercises on analysis and debate.
Led work: Written and oral text commentary
Independent work: written exercise of analysis.
Annotation: Within the schedule set by the centre or degree programme, 15 minutes of one class will be reserved for students to evaluate their lecturers and their courses or modules through questionnaires.
Activities
| Title | Hours | ECTS | Learning Outcomes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Type: Directed | |||
| Master classes, solving of cases / exercises | 30 | 1.2 | 6, 3, 4, 5, 7, 2, 8, 1 |
| Type: Supervised | |||
| Debates, tutorials, work development | 60 | 2.4 | 6, 3, 4, 5, 7, 2, 8, 1 |
| Type: Autonomous | |||
| Personal study, reading of articles, work development | 60 | 2.4 | 6, 3, 4, 5, 7, 2, 8, 1 |
Assessment
Besides the independent work students carry out daily during the module (which includes independent viewings, readings and commentary development), students will have to realize and write at the end of the module, a unique research project (the object of which will be agreed with the teacher) that meets the academic and formal requisites (APA protocol), and that consists of 7 pages (without counting bibliography and annexes). Thus, each student will have to choose and communicate in which field of content and with which of the teachers of the module they wish to develop their research.
Evaluation activities
Continued evaluation: written and oral commentaries of critical texts and audiovisual documents (week 1-5) 25%
Continued evaluation: written and oral commentaries of critical texts and audiovisual documents (week 6-10) 25%
Continued evaluation: Oral group exercise of critical-analytical debate (week 1-10) 15%
Synthesis project: written essay of an analytical-comparative focus on applied research methodology to one or more titles of secondary literature that appears in the bibliography of the course (To be handed-in on 3 June) 35%
Revision of qualifications: 15 June
The process of recovery implies a second essay on the synthesis project that allows for the amending of the formal and content defects in the first handed-in version. Hand-in of recovery project: 27 June
ADDITIONAL REMARKS
1. At the time of each evaluation activity, the teacher will inform the students of the procedure and the date for reviewing the grades.
2. In the event of a student committing any irregularity that may lead to a significant variation in the grade awarded to an assessment activity, the student will be given a zero for this activity, regardless of any disciplinary process that may take place. In the event of several irregularities in assessment activities of the same subject, the student will be given a zero as the final grade for this subject.
3. In the event that tests or exams cannot be taken onsite, they will be adapted to an online format made available through the UAB’s virtual tools (original weighting will be maintained). Homework, activities and class participation will be carried out through forums, wikis and/or discussion on Teams, etc. Lecturers will ensure that students are able to access these virtual tools, or will offer them feasible alternatives.
Assessment Activities
| Title | Weighting | Hours | ECTS | Learning Outcomes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Attendance and active participation in class. | 40 % | 0 | 0 | 6, 3, 4, 5, 7, 2, 8, 1 |
| Attendance at tutorials | 20 % | 0 | 0 | 6, 3, 4, 5, 7, 2, 8, 1 |
| Delivery of the Works of the module | 40 % | 0 | 0 | 6, 3, 4, 5, 7, 2, 8, 1 |
Bibliography
Works of general reference
At least one of the texts of general history of dance will be recommended to students, before the beginning of the lectures.
Abad Carlés; Historia del Ballet y la danza moderna (2a ed.), Alianza Editorial, 2012.
Boisseau, R., Sirvin, R. (ed.), Panorama des Ballets Classiques et Néoclassiques, Textuel, 2010.
Bourcier, P., Historia de la danza en occidente, Blume, 1981.
Sachs, C., World History of the Dance, Norton, 1965.
Sorell, W., Dance in its time, Doubleday, 1981. Ed. It. Storia della danza. Arte, cultura, società (trad.Falletti, C.), Il Mulino, 1994.
Adshed, J.; Briginshaw, V. (Ed.), Teoría y práctica del análisis coreográfico, Centre Coreogràfic de la Comunitat Valenciana, 1999.
Borgdorff, H. “El debate sobre la investigación en las artes “. Cairón 13. Revista de Estudios de danza. en Pérez Royo, V.; Sánchez, J.A. (Eds.) Pags.34-40, Universidad de Alcalá, 2010.
Carter, A. (Ed.) Rethinking dance History. A Reader, Routledge, 2004.
Fraleigh S., Hanstein P. (ed) . Researching in Dance. Evolving modes of inquiry, University of Pitsbrug Press, 1999.
Franco Susanne and Nordera Marina; Dance discourses. Keywords in dance research, Routledge, 2007.
Garcia Alvarez , Ercilia; “Aproximación a la danza desde una perspectiva cualitativa. Enfoques teóricos, metodológicos y nuevas tendencias.” A La Investigación en danza en España 2012, Mahali, 2012.
Preston –Dunlop, Valerie; Looking at dances, Verve, 1998.
Albarrán, J.; Estella, I., Llámalo performance: historia, disciplina y recepción, Brumaria,2015.
Badiou, A. (ed.), Danse et pensée. Une autre scène pour la danse, GERMS, 1993.
Banes, S. (Ed.) Dancing women: Female bodies on stage, Routledge,1999.
Benjamin, W., Libro de los pasajes (trad. Fernández Castañeda, L.; ed. Tiedemann, R.), Akal, 2005.
Boisseau, R., Panorama de la Danse Contemporaine, Textuel, 2006.
Bremser, M., Fifty Contemporary Choreographers, Routledge, 2000.
Burt, R., The male dancer. Bodies spectacle,sexualities, Routledge, 1995.
Copeland, R., Merce Cunningham. The Modernizing of Modern Dance, Routledge, 2004.
Deleuze, G.; Guattari, F., Mil mesetas. Capitalismo y esquizofrenia II, Pre-Textos, 1997.
Didi-Huberman, G., La imagen superviviente. Historia del arte y tiempo de los fantasmas según Aby Warburg, Abada, 2009.
Dixon, S., Digital Performance. A History of New Media in Theater, Dance, Performance Art, and Installation, MIT Press, 2007.
Fanti, S., Corpo sottile. Uno sguardo sulla nuova coreografia europea, Ubulibri, 2003.
Fischer-Lichte, E., Estética de lo Performativo, Abada, 2011.
Franko, M., Dancing Modernism/Performing polítics, Indiana University Press, 1995.
Fratini, R., A Contracuento. La danza y las derivas del narrar, Mercat de les Flors, 2012.
Fratini, R., Escrituras del silencio. Figuras, secretos, conspiraciones y diseminaciones de una dramaturgia de la danza, Paso de Gato, 2019.
Fratini, R., Polo, M. (eds.), El cuerpo incalculable. William Forsythe, Gerald Siegmund y los diferenciales de la danza, Mercat de les Flors, 2018.
Gombrich, E. H., El sentido del orden. Estudio sobre la psicología de las artes decorativas, Phaidon Press, 2010.
Greene, B., El tejido del cosmos. Espacio, tiempo y la textura de la realidad, Crítica, 2007.
Guilbert Laurence; Danser avec le III Reich. Les danseurs modernes sous le nazisme, Ed. Complexe, 2000.
Izrine, A., La danse dans tous ses états, L’Arche, 2002.
Joy, J., The Choreographic, MIT Press, 2014.
Kozel, S., Performance, Technologies, Phenomenology, MIT Press, 2008.
Lepecki, A., Agotar la danza. Performance y política del movimiento, Mercat de les
Flors, 2008.
Lepecki, A.; Joy, J.(Ed.), Planes of composition. Dance, Theory and the Global, Seagull, 2009.
Leigh Foster, S., Choreography and Narrative. Ballet’s staging of story and desire, Indiana University Press, 1998.
Louppe, L., Teoria de la Danza Contemporánea, Universidad de Alcalá, 2012.
Manning, S., Extasy and the Demon. The dances of Mary Wigman (2n ed.), First University of Minnesota Press, 2006.
Midgelow, Vida L., Reworking the ballet. Counter- Narratives and alternatives Bodies, Routledge, 2007.
Ross, J., Anna Halprin. Experience as Dance, University of California Press, 2007.
Sánchez, J. A.; Conde-Salazar, J. (Ed.), Cuerpos sobre blanco, Universidad de Castilla-La Mancha, 2003.
Sibony, D., Le corps et sa danse, Seuil, 1995.
Siegmund, G., Abwesenheit, Eine performative Ästhetik des Tanzes, Transcript Verlag, 2006.
Sloterdijk, P.¸ Esferas I. Burbujas. Microsferología, Siruela, 2014.
Spier, S. (ed.), William Forsythe and thePractice of Choreography, Routledge, 2011.
Software
4 Lessons on Methodoogy in Dance Research
6 lessons in analytical exercises