Sociology of Dance 2

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Contents

Learning objective:

The aim of the lesson is to develop dance theoretical thinking. The course focuses on the application of selected sociological issues and concepts to dance phenomena, while utilizing historical and theoretical knowledge acquired during undergraduate and graduate studies in choreology (dance history, theory and methods).

Thematic areas:

1. Institutions and organizations - general sociological characteristics. Examples of dance institutions and their development - educational institutions; the ball/banquet; dance performances (ballet de cour, dance performances in the context of travelling companies, ballet in the theatre, dance concerts in the modernistic context).
2. Social functions. Social functions of dance, the relationship between microstructure and macrostructure (example of the dance Deutch/Tajč), eufunction and dysfunction with examples.
3. Traditional and modern society. Representative and bourgeois society and dance in their context (representation - ballet de cour - Fairies of the Forest of Saint-Germain; intimate and public spheres – public and house balls).
4. Public opinion. Dance as part of the literary debate in the 18th and early 19th centuries: correspondence and diaries, journals, encyclopaedias, literary works, salons, theatrical publications (librettos and almanacs). Audience. Surveys and sociological questionnaires (qualitative and quantitative research). Research on the perception of music. Pilot attempts at dance audience research - questionnaire surveys.
5. Sociogenesis of the waltz. Changes in inner structure and their relation to external conditions. Social discourse on waltz and its development - 18th-20th centuries.
6. Profession from the sociological point of view. „Dance“ professions and their specific problems. The dancer as an example - organizational framework, social status; the dance and ballet master, job description, its conditions and perception, organizations and their activities, examples of specific personalities.
7. Social roles. Dance in human life in relation to gender, age, social status. Old age and dance.
8. Space and dance from the point of view of sociology. Proxemics. Spatial behaviour in dance. Space for dance - public, private; longitudinal, square; buildings for dance and their social status. Establishing spatial relations in dance.
9. Dance in relation to the human body. Dance and health, perception of connections over biological time. Fitness and the application of dance in it today. Dance and leisure.
10. Commodification of dance, dance and the cultural industry. Dance and mass culture, history and present.

Learning outcomes

Students deepen the ability of theoretical reflection of dance in a sociological perspective, linking historical and theoretical knowledge, applying new interpretative approaches to them, understanding the phenomenon of dance in terms of its social aspects as a means of social communication.

Prerequisites and other requirements

none

Literature

Required reading:

ARCANGELI, Alessandro. Dance and Health: The Renaissance Physicians' View. Dance Research: The Journal of the Society for Dance Research 18, 2000, č. 1, s. 3-30. ISSN 0264-2875.

BARON, John H., ed. Les Fées des Forêts de Saint-Germain, ballet de cour, 1625. Dance Perspectives 16, 1975, č. 2. ISSN 0011-6033.

BAUMAN, Zygmunt. Postmodernity and its Discontents. Cambridge: Polity Press, 1997. ISBN 0-7456-1790-5.

BRINSON, Peter. Scholastic Tasks of a Sociology of Dance I a II. Dance Research: The Journal of the Society for Dance Research 1, 1983, č. 1, s. 100-107; č. 2, s. 59-68. ISSN 0264-2875.

GIDDENS, Anthony. Consequences of Modernity. Cambridge: Polity Press, 1990. ISBN 0-7456-0923-6.

GREMLICOVÁ, Dorota. Graduation ball as a multifunctional festivity. In: DUNIN, Elsie Ivancich a FOLEY, Catherine E., eds. Dance, Place, Festival: 27th Symposium of the ICTM Study Group on Ethnochoreology 2012, University of Limerick July 22-29 2012. Limerick: The Irish World Academy of Music and Dance; University of Limerick, 2014. s. 234-241. ISBN 978-1905952533.

GREMLICOVÁ, Dorota. The role of the dancing/ballet master in the transfer of the dances through the different social environments. In: DUNIN, Elsie Ivancich a WHARTON, Anne von Bibra, eds. Proceedings 23rd Symposium of the ICTM Study Group on Ethnochoreology 2004, Monghidoro (Bologna) July 11-18 2004. Zagreb: Institute of Ethnology and Folklore Research; Association “e bene venga Maggio”; International Council for Traditional Music - Study Group on Ethnochoreology, 2008. s. 208-212. ISBN 978-9536020508.

HALL, Edward Twitchell. A System for the Notation of Proxemic Behaviour. American Anthropologist 65, 1963, č. 5, s. 1003-1026. ISSN 0002-7294.

INGLIS, David a HUGHSON, John, eds. The Sociology of Art: Ways of Seeing. New York: Palgrave MacMillan, 2005. ISBN 978-0333962664.

THOMAS, Helen. The Body, Dance and Cultural Theory. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2003. ISBN 978-0-333-72432-3.

Recommended reading:

BAXMANN, Inge. Mythos: Gemeinschaft. Körper-und Tanzkulturen in der Moderne. Mnichov: Wilhelm Fink Verlag, 2000. ISBN 978-3770533664.

BEK, Mikuláš. Konzervatoř Evropy? K sociologii české hudebnosti. Praha: KLP - Koniasch Latin Press, 2003. ISBN 80-85917-99-8.

BEK, Mikuláš. Vybrané problémy hudební sociologie. Olomouc: Vydavatelství Univerzity Palackého, 1993. ISBN 80-7067-318-4.

BULÍNOVÁ, Karolína; BUREŠOVÁ, Lucie; GREMLICOVÁ, Dorota; KAZÁROVÁ, Helena a ZILVAROVÁ, Daniela. Profese tanečníka: mezi obdivem a odsouzením. Praha: Nakladatelství Akademie múzických umění, 2013. ISBN 978-80-7331-241-1.

BURT, Ramsay. Alien Bodies. Representations of Modernity, 'Race' and Nation in Early Modern Dance. Londýn; New York: Routledge, 1998. ISBN 978-0415145947.

GREMLICOVÁ, Dorota. Sociální funkce tance v moderní době. Menuet kontra valčík. Praha, 2004. Disertační práce. Akademie múzických umění v Praze. Hudební a taneční fakulta AMU. Katedra tance.

GREMLICOVÁ, Dorota. Tanec jako předmět literární debaty v Čechách na přelomu 18. a 19. století. Nad spisem Ueber Anstand, Grazie und Schönheit im Tanz. Živá hudba 5, 2014, s. 118-128. ISSN 0514-7735.

HABERMAS, Jürgen. The Structural Transformation of the Public Sphere: An Inquiry into a Category of Bourgeois Society. Cambridge: Polity, 1989. ISBN 0-7465-0274-6.

MACHOVÁ, Daniela. Český fenomén tanečních. Proměny podob a účelu kurzů společenského tance pro mládež. Praha, 2019. Disertační práce. Akademie múzických umění v Praze. Hudební a taneční fakulta AMU. Katedra tance.

MCGOWAN, Margaret Mary. Ballets for the Bourgeois. Dance Research: The Journal of the Society for Dance Research 19, 2001, č. 2, s. 106-126. ISSN 0264-2875.

PANOVA, Gergana. The Bulgarian Folk Dance at Home and Abroad. Studia choreologica 4, 2002, s. 101-117. ISSN 1508-1354.

SCOTT, Sue a MORGAN, David, eds. Body Matters. Essays On The Sociology Of The Body. London; Washington, D.C.: Falmer Press, 1993. ISBN 978-1850009429.

SKILES, Howard. The Politics of Courtly Dancing in Early Modern England. Amherst: University of Massachusetts Press, 1998. Massachusetts Studies in Early Modern Culture. ISBN 978-1558491441.

THOMAS, Helen. Dance, Modernity and Culture. Explorations in the Sociology of Dance. London; New York: Routledge, 1993. ISBN 978-0415087933.

TURNER, Bryan. The Body and Society. Explorations in Social Theory. London: Sage Publications Inc, 2008. ISBN 978-1412929868.

WEGNER, Kurt. Der Tanzlehrer. Strukturanalyse eines Berufes als Beitrag zur Soziologie des Tanzes. Kolín nad Rýnem, 1962. Disertační práce. Universität zu Köln.

Evaluation methods and criteria

Oral examination (question headings, elaboration of the given topic).

Other requirements: attendance of at least 75%, study of required literature.

Further information

No schedule has been prepared for this course

The subject is a part of the following study plans

• Choreology (MA) - from 2023/24 (required subject with the possibility of repeat registration)