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ARTH 009-301
Art and Dance: Reframing the Body
Instructor: Juliet Bellow
T 2-5



Ever since Louis XIV's court artists portrayed the king wearing ballet slippers, the histories of art and dance have been intertwined. In this course we examine intersections between visual art and dance from the 17th to the 20th centuries, including images of dancers by artists such as Edgar Degas and Georges Seurat; and collaborations such as Isamu Noguchi's designs for Martha Graham, and Robert Rauschenberg and Jasper Johns' work with the Judson Dance Theater. Discussions will be based on short readings, and on viewings of work in class, at the Philadelphia Museum of Art, and (if possible) at the Annenberg Center. We will analyze changing representations of the body; the mutual influence of art and dance throughout the early modern and modern eras; and broader definitions of art, dance, and visual culture. We will experiment with writing about art and dance using a variety of techniques, from visual analysis to critical reviews. In addition to short writing assignments, we will develop and write research papers with an initial proposal, first draft and oral presentation at the end of the semester. These projects, and the content of the course, are designed to give you a foundation for further study in these fields.


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Last update: October 19, 2003

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