The Dance—as Homer named it—is always an expression of the ideas, traditions, and values of the society that creates it, whether spiritual, recreational, or artistic in form. The body in motion is both the mode of expression and the meaning of the Dance. In this course we explore the correlations between the body image as defined by science, the self image as described by psychology, and the human image as expressed in our dances. In the process we refer to the styles of depicting the human body in motion in visual art and literature through history and view a range of dance styles from Balanchine to Bausch and from ballroom to break dancing. The objective of the course is to enhance our viewing pleasure of the Dance in its thousand forms and styles.
