Reference no: EM132660261

Cultural/Historical Analysis

This 4-5 page paper requires that you research the dances from your culture of origin using both Primary and Secondary sources. The Cultural/Historical Analysis section of your paper will be a good place for Secondary sources, requiring library research which examines the cultural and historical contexts of a dance form. This is your chance to sound scholarly and to make sense of your interview responses and library research. Your analysis will be shaped by the data you have collected and by other issues, such as gender roles, kinship, age distinctions, class status, race, body types, the globalization of dance and the politics of appropriation.

Histories help us contextualize dance by showing where and when it originated, how it developed and how it served its various communities. What was the world like in the early history of the dance form? Why did this dance form develop at that time? From there we can consider its place in contemporary society. Without a historical foundation, we cannot determine how it has changed or why it developed the way it did, when it did. You may want to use one of the following learning objectives, required by the University for Advanced Level GE courses:

HISTORICAL CONTEXT: Identify the historical context of the dance practice. This approach asks that you pay close attention to the social and historical moments in which a dance happens. What social, political, racial, ethnic, or economic forces helped produce this style of dancing?

HOW DANCE CHANGES: Explain how a dance changed in response to internal or external pressures. Emphasize historical continuity and then its change. How did new worlds, new venues, new discoveries, or new social needs change the structures and meanings of dance?

Context and meaning are inseparable. Here are some possible questions to consider:
1) What is the larger historical and cultural context of this dance? Is it a "New World vs. Old World" phenomenon? Has it been recontextualized from earlier or indigenous practice? How do the practitioners feel about the changes?
2) What does this dance tell you about the culture? What does it mean to participants?
3) What are the key cultural or sociological influences that support or drive a dance practice? (Religion, identity issues, socializing of the individual, etc.)

Use pertinent examples from your research and/or interviews to illustrate your points. Be sure to use literary citations only as they pertain to your specific points; explain how these quotes/ideas help you interpret the data. Use at least TWO LIBRARY SOURCES and CITE YOUR REFERENCES IN THE BODY OF THE PAPER. NO WEBSITES ARE PERMITTED.
Our textbook is an excellent resource, including its large bibliography at the back
Dance History books; general histories of dance spread widely over time and place
General histories of an era and/or a culture
Accounts of the emergence of new forms of dance
Accounts of the life and work of notable figures in dance history
Collected writings of choreographers, performers, theorists or dance critics
Anthropological accounts of a specific culture, including its dancing
Well-researched Video Documentaries
Dance Research Journals

This is where you use your Primary sources: interviewees

1) Who are you going to interview and how are you going to find them? Conduct TWO IN-PERSON INTERVIEWS for two different perspectives. Ideally, one interviewee will be a family member or someone who is knowledgeable about your culture, preferably someone older who has a good deal of life memory about your culture. The other interviewee will be someone who is knowledgeable about the dance forms of your culture. If they are geographically distant, one telephone or Skype interview is acceptable. No e-mail interviews are permitted; they lose the essential give-and-take and surprising twists and turns that the energy of a live conversation inspires. These people are your informants. Make sure they are willing to talk freely to you for 30 minutes or so. Ask them whether they mind if you record the interview.

2) Think about what information you are seeking before you meet with them. Are you looking for biographical, cultural, historical, or dance information? Are you interested in why your interviewee practices, or has never practiced, this particular dance form, or what function it plays in their lives?

3) Create a list of 10-20 questions to ask your interview subject. Having specific questions helps to steer the interview towards responses that fit your agenda; they give you something to fall back on if things stall, and makes you look prepared and professional. Here are some ideas:
a) Begin with an easy, specific question to break the ice, ("When did you start dancing?" "Why has no one in our family ever danced?") and then see where that takes you.
b) Avoid asking questions that can be answered with "Yes" or "No."
c) Structured questions: "What are the steps in..." "What are the different kinds of..."
d) Questions can be open-ended, yet specific. ("Tell me about..." "What do you like best/least about...")
e) Concrete: one answer only; ("What is the single most important thing in...")
f) Questions may move from general to specific or vice versa.

4) Record the interview, making sure you test your equipment beforehand. Take abbreviated handwritten notes as well, as these come in handy when you need to locate a quote. Please don't spend the interview with no eye contact, writing down every word they say.

5) If you think it appropriate, sending a thank-you e-mail afterwards is always polite.

INTERVIEWS AND YOUR FINAL PAPER: Include references to, and quotes from, your interviews in your final paper, however do not embed your questions into the paragraph. You are not asked to provide transcripts of your recorded interviews, but please use exact direct quotes whenever possible, trying to maintain the original character of the speaker. These quotes should be relatively short and selected carefully so that they keep to the point of your paper.

Attachment:- Historical Analysis.rar