Lecture Notes: Dance Analysis Skills Lecture Three

Week Two: Dance Analysis Skills Lecture Three

Introduction

  • Topic: Dance criticism and its relationship to dance scholarship.

  • Text Discussed: "On Your Fingertips: Writing Dance Criticism" by Sally Baines, published in 1994 in the book Writing Dancing in the Age of Postmodernism.

  • Sally Baines: Dance historian, writer, and critic who passed away in 2020.

  • Focus of the Lecture: Understanding the nuances between dance criticism and dance scholarship and the criteria for writing about dance, particularly relevant to the course's multimedia assignments.

Overview of Dance Criticism vs. Dance Scholarship

  • Similarity between Critic and Scholar:

    • Both roles involve deep engagement with dance and require strong analytical skills.

    • Both contribute to the broader discourse surrounding dance.

    • Both can impact and influence dance communities.

  • Differences:

    • Audience: Critics write for the general public, while scholars target academic audiences.

    • Purpose of Writing: Critics evaluate and provide opinions on performances; scholars conduct out-of-time research and rigorous analyses rooted in methodologies.

    • Knowledge Focus: Critics often have generalized knowledge and mainly cover Western dance forms while scholars possess specialized knowledge and engage with diverse dance genres and contexts.

Sally Baines' Four Criteria for Writing About Dance (Acronym: DICE)

  • D - Description:

    • What the dancers did and how the dance looks and feels.

    • Quality descriptors may include “light,” “heavy,” etc., though subjective feelings of the dancer are often inferred rather than directly known.

  • I - Interpretation:

    • The meaning of the dance, including layers of connotation within movements and designs.

    • Interpretation is subjective; readers must be aware of varying perspectives on meanings derived.

    • Dance scholars substantiate interpretations with evidence from the dance and context.

  • C - Contextualization:

    • Historical or aesthetic origins of the dance and the social or political implications surrounding it.

    • Context includes awareness of the performance environment and social narratives in relation to the dance.

  • E - Evaluation:

    • How remarkable or effective the dance is, traditionally focused on aesthetic judgement.

    • Baines notes the importance of supporting evaluative claims with substantial descriptions and contextual understanding, which can differ from personal taste.

Implications of Dance Criticism

  • Critics' Work:

    • Operate within tight journalistic deadlines producing short, informed, and subjective pieces for newspapers, magazines, and online platforms.

    • Primarily assess artistic and emotional impact, effectiveness, and artistic intent of performances.

  • Scholarly Perspective:

    • Scholars focus on the broader narrative surrounding the dance including social meanings and ideological frameworks.

    • They analyze dances through lenses informed by anthropology, sociology, and performance studies, emphasizing their significance in societal contexts.

Shift in Dance Criticism and Scholarship

  • Historical Context:

    • In the 1960s, there was a shift from evaluation to description in arts criticism to accommodate avant-garde and postmodern styles, redefining dancers' movement as purely aesthetic.

    • Shift was driven by socio-political changes (civil rights, women's rights movements).

    • Emphasis on social contexts and identities transformed dance practices and articulate them through interpretation in criticism and scholarship.

  • Essential shift in evaluation:

    • Pure evaluation without supportive description, interpretation, or context fails to provide rigorous understanding of the dance work.

    • Evaluation is not simply liked or disliked; it encompasses deeper implications surrounding the performance in relation to societal narratives.

Summary of Sally Baines' Arguments

  • Role of Description:

    • Description is crucial but must be intertwined with interpretations and contextual understanding to enrich comprehension of the performed work.

    • Audiences need credible grounds for trusting interpretations.

  • Impacts of Critique:

    • Baines highlights that both pure evaluation and pure description are inadequate omissions in understanding a dance piece.

  • Future Coursework Applications:

    • Students will develop dance analysis through journal entries and collective projects by employing the DICE framework aimed at uncovering identity, history, and cultural implications surrounding dance performances.

Assignments & Learning Activities

  • Multimedia Assignments:

    • Assignments will involve applying dance analysis rather than traditional research assignments.

  • Videos Assignments:

    • Watch This Is America by Childish Gambino (content warning for violence).

    • Watch the analysis video hosted by Dr. Lori Brooks detailing the thematic layers achieved through DICE analysis.

    • Engage in understanding how the analysis reflects course goals of interpretation, contextualization, and evaluation.