Welcome, everyone! I’m really looking forward to seeing how all of you respond to the work in this class. This course is an advanced composition course, through the lens of dance studies. We’ll use this class to study different adaptations of the classical ballet Swan Lake, and how each version of Swan Lake changes the classical story to create commentary on gender, including the popular film Black Swan. As I made clear in the syllabus, you do not need to have a background in dance, to enjoy (or consider yourselves “good” dancers) dance, or to have even given much thought to dance to succeed in this class. All that’s required of you is that you complete the assignments fully and thoughtfully, that you participate in the online forums and turn in your assignments on time, and you treat this course as seriously as you would any other class. Instead of thinking about composition and writing through written texts, we’ll look at the moving body as our texts. You will be required to turn in one short video presentation, which will not be dance related. It will be a short demonstration of the principles we learn in this course. Please write me with any questions. For our first day, I’d like you to write an essay in response to the following prompt: Describe your relationship to dance. Does it hold value for you? What value do you imagine it holds for others? Note some memories regarding the following: learned and spontaneous dance, dancing with others versus dancing by yourself, dancing alone versus dancing socially. Memories of school dances, dances as a child, etc. Dance scenes in movies, tv shows, etc? How has dancebeen a part of popular culture that was particularly memorable and why? If you dislike dancing, why? What genres of music move you to move? What genres of music do not move you to move? Who are your favorite dancers? Why? Have you been to any danceperformances? Describe them and how you felt about them? You can respond to this in any order or style, but I’d like to get a full sense of your relationship and history with dance. You can add on anything else that’s related to this topic that I haven’t included, but these questions are to give you a general sense of what I’d like you to write about. Don’t be afraid to be honest and thoughtful in your response! 3 pages minimum
please write about yourself