Embodying Difference: Issues in Dance and Cultural Studies
P1-Explains, in detail, a man and a woman dancing the tango.
P2-Talks about how most people would recognize the tango but less would use it in their scholarly work.
P3-Dance is undervalued.
P4-It talks about if people studied the wide variety of dance they would be able to better understand how social identities are formed through body movement. We can move away from the bias of North American and British dance if we understood this.
P5-Most cultural studies are object based. Dancing is most commonly known as a past time or entertainment. If it is elevated to be called an “art form”, mostly white women are imagined. This shows why such studies are important.
P6-Race and gender are mainly looked at by physicality and not mentality.
P7-Detailed analysis is necessary to study body movement.
P8-Cultural analysts have little interest in dance.
Movement Style and Meaning
P9-Wants to talk about different dance styles and their different meaning.
P10-Movement style is an important distinction between social groups and is mainly learned in one’s own community. Movement can be read as a signal for many things. (gender, race, ethnics, class, national identities, sexual identity, age, illness or health)
P11-Dance is only a part of movement studies.
P12-When movement is called dance, it may be learned informally in the community or formally in an institution.
P13-Dance can how us what is acceptable and specific attitudes toward the body of different cultures.
P14-The last paragraph could provide researchers with further questions much larger in scale.
P15-In history, the waltz was seen as too sexually dangerous.
P16-Nineteenth century dance had posters showing the proper and improper ways of dancing.
P17-The posture and gestures of dancing showed the distinction between different classes.
P18-How the class and gender of the 19th century in dance pushed it to change over time is what this paragraph is about.
Appropriate/Transmission/Migration of Dance Styles
P19-Many different dance styles change from cultural groups and over time.
P20-History of tango goes back to the dock sides of Buenos Aires and to the salons of Paris.
P21-Dance shows the construction and negotiation of race, gender, class and nationality.
P22-Talks about how certain types of dance can change due to gender or class. (Pelvis dancing)
P23-Dances were changed to be more appropriate.
P24-Culture changes the dance to be more suited to them.
P25-Different cultures borrow and refashion dance. The meanings change as well.
Dialects of Cultural Transmission
P26-Slavery affected African and European cultural practices.
P27-Slavery, mixed Africans into different cultures. This resulted in new religious practices, male and female relationships and artistic practices.
P28-Slavery may have created or remodeled cultures.
P29-Cultural specify means ethnic absolutism.
Identity, Style, and the Politics of Aesthetics
P30-Talks about difference between “black” dance and “white” dance. Dance may be different because of a variety of things not just race.
P31-Racialized difference is looked at as white and non-white.
P32-Talks about dance moving from a subordinate to a dominant group.
P33-The view of dancing like “blacks” could change from culture to culture.
P34-Different dancers in different contexts, changed the styles of dance. African American style in the U.S. changed many styles of dance.
P35-There was a huge influence on dance in North America due to black rap music.
P36-Black groups have a very percussive style and move the pelvic area a lot while dancing.
P37-Dance traditions originating in Europe usually show the torso as upright and the pelvic area barely moves. In white groups, there is a toning down of that movement.
P38-Class and gender still are the main things that affect dance.
P39-The dancing style is now classified under more “youth” than just “black” culture.
P40-The Cosby Show, exhibits bilingualism, by being middle class and showing the audience “blackness”.
P41-Senegulese people began dancing “white” like and as they warmed up, they began dancing more risqué. This showed the rural/urban tensions.
“Hot and Sexy Latin Dances”
P42-Significant overlap in Latin dance and black dancing.
P43-Latin dance is stereotyped sexy and fiery.
P44-In North America, both latins and blacks are said to have rhythm.
P45-The latin dance is a safe way to express sexuality in public.
P46-The latin dances sensual lure is what pulls non-latin people into dance. Eventually these dances changed to become less sexual, more sensual and appropriate.
P47-The symbolism of dance sometimes becomes detached.
P48-Miranda, from Hollywood’s, Brazillianess soon became stereotyped as Latinness.
P49-The origins and meanings attached to Miranda’s outfits were lost in the middle class Northern America.
P50-Her image in the U.S., is now recirculated in the male “drag queen” idea of characters.
P51-The styles of dance become generalized as they transport from culture to culture.
P52-Our general ignoring of the meaning of different dances causes generalizations.
Theatrical Dance
P53-Theatrical dance is less likely to be changed through the media.
P54-Ballet can be mixed between European and Chinese cultures.
P55-Chinese ballet is different between American and European cultures in its syntax and choreography.
P56-The importation of ballet from china happened during the cultural revolution.
P57-other factors, such as foot binding, caused a decline in Chinese ballet.
P58-Chinese cultures showed their women as warriors dancing with swords so, America showed their dancers with guns.
P59-Now, there is more non narrative ballets.
P60-Chinese cultures are also generalized in North America like latin dance.
P61-Japanese dance is not a dance form that North America tries to adapt, this may be due to them being our competitors.
P62-Some rituals are set as timeless and magical.
P63-Thatrical dance styles do not always work from traditional styles.
P64-Some dance choreographers are served as a purpose or political statement.
Concluding Thoughts
P65-Takls about how they argued the continuing changes of form in dance.
P66-Also argued about how their should be an increase attention in body movement.
P67-To study movement it will require special tools.
P68-All movement is affected by a variety of things. (history, culture, gender, race, etc.)
1. The introduction is more appealing and story like. The lit review informs the reader about the author’s arguing points.
2. It talked about a woman and a man doing the tango. It made the reader want to understand why that was important to the research.
3. a) The purpose was to persuade the reader why studying body movement is important and should be studied more.
b) To show how dance is transported from different places and changed to fit that certain culture.
c) What is the significance in studying bodily movement?
d)Researched different famous dancers to show the generalization of dance.
e) Body movements are adopted and changed by different cultures.
f) The conclusion explained what the arguments were that they made in their article.
Work Cited:
Desmond, Jane C. “Embodying Difference: Issues in Dance and Cultural Studies.” Cultural Critique (1993-1994): 33-63. University of Minnesota Press. Web. 8 Feb. 2010.
Dance Reveals Symmetry; Especially in Young Men
P1-Darwin was the first to state that dancing had a hand in courtship. A persons bodily asymmetry is correlated with attractiveness.
P2-There is no study on dance quality with genetic quality. The author used motion-capture technology to capture the complex movements of dance. In 2004, in Jamaica, 183 human dancers were motion-captured. Each individual danced to the same song in a minute at the same place.
P3-There were dancers described as asymmetrical and symmetrical. The researchers studied the dancers elbow, wrist, knee, ankle, foot, and third, fourth and fifth digits. Males recognizing the sex of the dancers was 62%, females were a little better at this task.
P4-Fathers less invested into their children than mothers produce females who are more selective in mate choice and males who are more invested in courtship.
P5-There is a significant effect of symmetry and sex. Symmetrical males are considered better dancers than asymmetrical males. Females symmetry only accounts for 23% of dance ability.
P6-Female evaluator of the dancers had a higher relative preference for symmetrical male dancers.
P7-They want to keep trying to figure out what the correlation is between different patterns of dance and the quality or different levels of symmetry of the dancer.
Methods
P8-Fluctuating asymmetry
Morphometric measurements were collected for each dancer.
P9-Motion Capture
Large sample of dancers were filmed with the same music, and same space. Also, in front of the same group of people.
P10-Stimuli Presentation
Forty dance animations were selected to be studied.
P11-Statistical Analyses
Tested primary hypothesis that symmetrical individuals are better dancers.
1. The introduction starts out with an interesting fact about the topic. Then, it states the hypothesis and what will be discussed in the article. The lit review is more formal and discusses all of the actions taken to provide for the article.
2. The attempt to hook the reader’s interest was by using an interesting fact about Darwin.
3. a)To show the correlation between dancers and symmetry.
b)The importance is the attractiveness dealing with symmetry.
c) Are dancers who show more summetry better dancers?
d) Took measurements of dancers. Used mortion-capture tools to view difficult techniques of dancers. They used 40 out of the 183 dancers in the study.
e)Females had more preference than males for symmetry in dancing. Symmetrical dancers are technically not better dancers.
f) It ends with a methods section whcih helpts the reader understand where the writer is recieving their information.
Work Cited:
Brown, William M. “Dance Reveals Symmetry Especially in Young Men.” Nature 438 (2005): 22-29. Web. 8 Feb. 2010.
