Module Code - Title:

MD4123 - DANCE STUDIES 1

Year Last Offered:

2025/6

Hours Per Week:

Lecture

2

Lab

0

Tutorial

1

Other

0

Private

7

Credits

6

Grading Type:

Prerequisite Modules:

Rationale and Purpose of the Module:

This module will introduce students to the history of modern dance, from its roots in the classical forms of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries as well as popular forms of the twentieth. Students will be encouraged to see such development in a wider aesthetic, social and cultural context. Embracing the principles of arts practice, students will be given the opportunity to engage contemporary approaches to modern dance.

Syllabus:

This module aims to develop knowledge of social and historical influences in the development of modern dance over the past 300 years and to develop understanding of anatomy in relation to the dancing body. The module also aims to raise awareness of the social construction of dance knowledge, dance practices and their historical contexts and a critical approach to source material. The main focus of the course will be on Romanticism, Classicism, Neo-Classicism, Modernism, Post-Modernism and the twentieth century history of Irish theatre dance. The module will develop students' independent research, library research/source location skills and critical thinking.

Learning Outcomes:

Cognitive (Knowledge, Understanding, Application, Analysis, Evaluation, Synthesis)

Outline the main historical developments in the world of modern dance since the eighteenth century Describe the development of historical approaches to contemporary dance Recognise the interplay of dance, aesthetic and society Relate contemporary dance practices in a wider cultural context identify the major choreographic movements and discuss key dance works and their stylistic and cultural context

Affective (Attitudes and Values)

Demonstrate an engagement with aesthetics of various contemporary embodied practices. Synthesise multiple approaches to dance studies from a number of other academic perspectives Critically enageg with the relationships between theatre dance and other art forms

Psychomotor (Physical Skills)

Display an embodied understanding of various approaches to modern and historical dance practice.

How the Module will be Taught and what will be the Learning Experiences of the Students:

This module will be taught through a mixture of lectures, tutorials and performance based laboratories. It will have traditional academic outcomes supplemented by an arts practice approach, giving the subject area an embodied relevance. As such this module has UL graduate attributes at its core, focusing on knowledge based outputs supplemented with a embodied experience rooted in collaborative creative practice. Students will be able to articulate their understanding of the western dance tradition in a culturally engaged and responsible manner.

Research Findings Incorporated in to the Syllabus (If Relevant):

Prime Texts:

Anderson, J (1992) Ballet & modern dance: a concise history , Princeton, Princeton, New Jersey.

Burt, R. (1998) Alien bodies: representations of modernity, "race" and nation in early modern dance, , Routledge, London.

Carter, A. & O'Shea, J. (2010) The Routledge dance studies reader , Routledge, London.

Fleischmann, R. (1998) Joan Denise Moriarty: founder of Irish National Ballet: material for a history of dance in Ireland , Mercier Press, Dublin

Mulrooney, D. (2006) Irish moves: an illustrated history of dance and physical theatre in Ireland , Liffey Press, Dublin

Other Relevant Texts:

Kirstein, L. (1969) Dance: a short history of classical theatrical dancing , Dance Horizons, New York.

Karina, L. & Kant, M. (2003) Hitler's dancers: German modern dance and the Third Reich, , Berghahn, Oxford;New York

Brown, V.F (2014) , "Impulse: Looking Back and Looking Forward: Perspectives on Contemporary Dance History: RevisitingImpulse1950-1970 , Amherst, New York: Cambria Press, 2013. ISBN 978-1-60497-848-3", Dance Chronicle, vol. 37, no. 2, pp. 272-276

Randall, T. 2012 (2012) "Enlivening Dance History Pedagogy through Archival Projects" , Journal of Dance Education, vol. 12, no. 1, pp. 7.

Programme(s) in which this Module is Offered:

Semester(s) Module is Offered:

Autumn

Module Leader:

grant.mclay@ul.ie