Comparative (and connected) exploration of philosophies of the body. In the west, we have inherited a model of the body as object, opposite to the mind - reinforced by a variety of everyday discourses including medical and health discourses as well as those around beauty, capability, and culpability. While this course will historicize continental European theories of mind-body duality, we will dive into specific other philosophical traditions – embodied as well as textual – which offer very different models for the thinking-feeling-subjective body, with their own complexities and critical possibilities. We will address bodies (in motion), perception/cognition, and power (variously defined). Ultimately, these various approaches force us to question what it means to even talk about “a body”.

This class looks at a series of popular dance and music phenomena coming from Asian and African worlds alongside experimental artists working primarily with movement and media. We see how these phenomena and artists' works circulate while defining specific politics and histories rooted in place and sometimes in coalition or convergence across place- from batik, S. Asian cinema, Afrobeats to K-pop, to experimental media artists and more. We will contextualize precolonial circulations to Bandung Era alliances to contemporary neoliberal economic relations to ask how these dynamics decenter Eurocentric notions of diaspora, the non-west, and global politics. Explore questions of place, identity, connected histories, and decolonial frameworks through bodily and media politics and a range of viewings, readings, and workshops.

An introduction to the interdisciplinary field of arts and health, students will engage in daily movement explorations and discussions as well as participate in on-site creative workshops with health professionals. The principles of this arts & health practice will be further explored as they relate to other disciplines such as education, economics, psychology and the health sciences. As a final project, students will create a personal response to their investigations and experiences in an arts discipline of their choosing (dance/movement, theatre, music, voice, visual art, writing.) This in-depth experience will also include a final critical reflection synthesizing their research, theoretical studies and creative work.

– what is the power of both destroying and building, of rage and/or play? An opportunity to work with CC’s dance faculty and visiting artists by participating in the creation of new work from starting investigation to fully produced work. These works will culminate in the Theatre and Dance mainstage Block 6 production; five public performances in the Norberg Studio Theatre. We will collectively research in our bodies as we create, bring together, and refine movement towards a question or idea - all in collaboration with not only the faculty and fellow dancers but with designers who help us create and stage our worlds. Students will also discover what it takes to translate that work into live performance and hone skills as a performer – how to stay present, discover new nuance, and dive deeper with each iteration of sharing the work. Experience in specific dance traditions is not expected. However, a commitment to rigorous work in and with our bodies is expected as we collectively uncover what each of us has to contribute to ever-emerging dance worlds. To participate in the course, students must agree to participate in the Block 6 performances for which they will receive an additional .25 in Block Six. Professors Herminjard and Sriram Professors Herminjard and Sriram