When someone hears about a college course titled “dance history” the tendency is to think it’s a class that informs students about notable choreographers such as George Balanchine, Martha Graham and Alvin Ailey. Or perhaps it’s about movements in dance, from ballet to modern to hip-hop. Closer examination shows dance provides a window to detailed historical context particularly as it relates to racial, economic and class issues.
An exploration and understanding of different dance genres can provide students of Africana studies, women’s and gender studies, as well as American studies a wealth of information about cultural expression and unearth often overlooked pieces of history.
“Dance historically has been one way — not for all cultures, but for many cultures — of passing down histories and telling stories,” says Dr. Paul Scolieri, assistant professor of dance at Barnard College, who teaches a course in Latin American and Caribbean dance history.
“You look at dance as a pathway to understand those stories, narratives and experiences that don’t make themselves into what we traditionally think of as ‘history,’ ” he says. “We look at dance forms not only as leisure, entertainment and commercial rituals, but sometimes these choreographies also tell histories of imperialism, histories of oppression and histories of resistance.”
Dr. Ann Cooper Albright, professor of dance and theater at Oberlin College, says she always has seen dance as a holistic discipline of the mind and the body.
“When I teach dance history, I really look at lots of different movements on stage, but also social movements,” Albright says. “You can study the world through dance.
“At any historical moment, you can look at what’s happening in dance and really get a lot of information about whose bodies are important. Where are those bodies? What are they doing? How are bodies implicated in certain kinds of cultural discourses?”
Scolieri says his studies in Caribbean and Latin American dance reveal that a lot of social dance forms are born out of oppression.
