DANCING CULTURE RELIGION

“Dancing Culture Religion” was an online version I taught only in the summers of the course I regularly taught at the University of Colorado.  When I taught the version of this courses in the classroom I included one hour of dancing for every two hours in the classroom. To adjust for the absence of physical dancing in this online version, I presented all the lectures as video podcasts with ample images and video clips to extend beyond just “talking about dancing.”  Unfortunately the videos were dependent on software no longer active, so they are no longer available. However, complementing PDFs of the lectures are all available. This course has some parallels to my book Dancing Culture Religion (2012). The following is a course that introduces many ideas I believe to be valuable to appreciating dancing as a cultural and religious activity the world over and hopefully might inspire one to find events to learn and enjoy dancing.

DCR Lectures

  1. Intro to Sam & Lecture/Course Overview

Section 1:  Placing Dancing in the Context of Popular Western Cultures

  1. Contemporary American Folk Theories of Dancing—Part 1 (19:04) PDF
  2. Contemporary American Folk Theories of Dancing—Part 2 (36:23)  PDF
  3. Contemporary American Folk Theories of Dancing—Part 3 (32:53)  PDF
  4. Contemporary American Folk Theories of Dancing—Part 4 (37:07)  PDF
  5. Christian and Western “High Culture” Perspectives on Dancing PDF
  6. Dancing in Public Education (39:08)  PDF
  7. Dancing in University Education (22:36)  PDF
  8. Dancing in America … or Not (22:23)  PDF
  9. The Importance of Dancing to World Religions and Cultures (21:25)  PDF

Section 2: Moving

  1. Dancing is Moving, but not all Moving is Dancing PDF  Johnson, Meaning of the Body, pp. 1-15  PDF
  2. Primacy of Movement PDF  Sheets-Johnstone, Primacy of Movement, pp. 131-39, PDF, 232-46  PDF
  3. Kinesthetic Sense—The Dancer’s Sense PDF
  4. Movement and Perception PDF  Johnson, pp. 19-32  PDF
  5. Demanding Self-movement: the Key to Acuity PDF
  6. Movement “In Itself” PDF   Johnson, pp. 113-34   PDF
  7. Movement & Meaning PDF  Johnson, pp. 135-54   PDF
  8. Breakin’ and Ballet PDF
  9. I’d rather Throw like a Girl than Dance like a Guy  PDF
  10. Movement, Plasticity, and Life Cycle  PDF
  11. Moving and Dancing, Dancing and Gesturing PDF

Section 3: Gesturing

  1. Gesture, Visible Action as Utterance PDF
  2. Gesture and Agency, Dancing as Gesturing PDF
  3. Dancing as Techniques of Body:  Marcel Mauss PDF
  4. Dancing the Other: Body as Instrument—André Leroi-Gourhan 1 PDF
  5. Dancing the Other—André Leroi-Gourhan PDF
  6. “They Jump Up of Themselves” Gesture & Identity in Central Australia 1 PDF
  7. “They Jump Up of Themselves” Gesture & Identity in Central Australia 2 PDF
  8. Gesturing and Touching PDF
  9. The Neuroscience of Touching and Gesturing PDF
  10. Dancing and the Survival of Men PDF
  11. Touching & Gesturing:  Dance Contributions to Teen Development PDF  Gill, “Touch and SalsAmigos Dancing”  PDF

Section 4: Self-Othering

  1. Dancing as Self-Othering – 1:  Javanese Wayang Kulit  PDF   Miettinen, pp. 75-87   PDF
  2. Dancing as Self-Othering  – 2:  Javanese Classical Dancing  PDF  Miettinen, pp. 88-91  PDF
  3. Dancing as Self-Othering  – 3:  Merleau-Ponty’s “Flesh Ontology” PDF
  4. Dancing as Self-Othering  – 4:  Understanding Dancing PDF
  5. Dancing as Self-Othering  – 5:  Reflections on Java  PDF

Section 5: Playing

  1. Play – 1: Nataraja Hindu Lord of Dancing PDF   Coomaraswami, pp. 66-78  PDF
  2. Play – 2: Friedrich Schiller PDF
  3. Play – 3: Hans-Georg Gadamer PDF
  4. Play – 4: Jacques Derrida PDF
  5. Play – 5: Lila, Nataraja, and Dancing as Play PDF  Handelman, pp.  1-13   PDF
  6. Go Up Into the Gaps: Play and Native American Religions – 1 PDF
  7. Go Up Into the Gaps: Play and Native American Religions – 2  PDF
  8. Go Up Into the Gaps: Play and Native American Religions – 3  PDF

Section 6: Seducing

  1. Dancing as Seduction – 1:  Bolero PDF   Aparisio, pp. 69-82  PDF
  2. Dancing as Seduction – 2: Baudrillard PDF
  3. Dancing as Seduction – 3: Aura PDF
  4. Dancing as Seduction – 4: Feminine PDF

Section 7: Making

  1. Dancing as Making – 1: Proprioception PDF
  2. Dancing as Making – 2: Seduction PDF
  3. Dancing as Making – 3: Pure Depth PDF
  4. Dancing as Making – 4 PDF

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