This year-long, team-taught program is intended to familiarize you with two major disciplines: ethnomusicology and ethnochoreology, through the lenses of storytelling, race, class, gender, history, spirituality, and other ways to focus your attention. In Fall Quarter we will be locating ourselves primarily in the diasporic cultures of sub-Saharan Africa: from the United States to the Caribbean to Brazil and ending up in West Africa. Our texts cover a variety of genres (creative nonfiction, short essays, textbooks, and an academic monograph), as do our films. We will ALL be dancing, making music, writing, listening, observing, and talking. Please follow the syllabus closely each week so that you may keep track of your assignments and prepare effectively for class meetings. Your faculty will not carry spare copies of this or any other document, but they are all available online at the program website.
Weekly Schedule
Monday 9:30-11:30 Lectures/Films: Com 107 (Recital Hall)
12:30-2:30 Seminars: Com 310, CRC 323, Com 320
Tuesday 9:30-11:30 Workshops: Com 110, Com 341, CRC 116/117
12:30-4:00 Lectures/Films: Sem II C1105
Wednesday 9:30-1:00 Lectures/Films: Com 107 [and 209, 117]
Week One: Introduction to Ethnomusicology and Ethnochoreology
9/27: 9:30-11:30 The Performance (and the Importance) of Story (all faculty)
12:30-2:30 Seminars
9/28: 9:30-11:30 Workshops: Com 110 (Andy), Com 341 (Sean), CRC 116/117 (Kabby)
12:30-4:00 Film and discussion: The Life and Times of Frida Kahlo [90 minutes]
9/29: 9:30-1:00 Writing, research, and portfolio workshop, with small group work
Preparation for next week
Song of the Week: “St. Louis Blues” by WC Handy
Reading assignment: Finish reading The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks (Skloot). Also, please read “Defining Ethnomusicology” and “The Art of Combining Tones” (Nettl), pp.1-26, and “Looking at World Dance” (Dils/Albright), pp.92-96.
Writing assignment for week two: Tell the story of a physical scar on your body (2 pages, single spaced, with a title and your name), due 10/6.
Week Two: Medicine as a Lens of Inquiry for the Performing Arts
10/4: 9:30-11:30 Power, Healing, and Performance (all faculty)
12:30-2:30 Seminars (bring your seminar pass)
10/5: 9:30-11:30 Workshops: Com 110, Com 341, CRC 116/117
12:30-4:00 Film and discussion: Miss Evers’ Boys [118 minutes]
10/6: 9:30-1:00 Improvisation Workshop (Scar assignment due)
Preparation for next week
Song of the Week: “Hoochie Coochie Man” by Muddy Waters
Reading assignment: Read Harlem Renaissance (Huggins), from the beginning through p.136 (end of chapter 3); “Inspiration and Perspiration: The Creative Process” (Nettl), pp.27-41, and “Stripping the Emperor: The Africanist Presence in American Dance” (Dils/Albright), pp.332-341.
Writing assignment for week three: Creative writing assignment due 10/13.
Week Three: The Harlem Renaissance, part I
10/11: 9:30-11:30 The Harlem Renaissance: Music, Poetry, Movement (Andy)
12:30-2:30 Seminars (bring your seminar pass)
10/12: 9:30-11:30 Workshops: Com 110, Com 341, CRC 116/117
12:30-4:00 Film and discussion: Brother to Brother[90 minutes]
10/13: 9:30-1:00 Poetry and Performance Workshop
Preparation for next week
Song of the Week: “Take the A Train” by Billy Strayhorn (Minnie the Moocher?)
Reading assignment: Read Harlem Renaissance (Huggins), pp.137-309; “I Can’t Say a Thing Until I’ve Seen the Score: Transcription” (Nettl), pp.74-91; and “Simmering Passivity: The Black Male Body in Concert Dance” (Dils/Albright), pp.342-349.
Writing assignment for week four: Integrative Essay due 10/20..
Week Four: The Harlem Renaissance, part II
10/18: 9:30-11:30 Dance in the Harlem Renaissance (Kabby)
12:30-2:30 Seminars (bring your seminar pass)
10/19: 9:30-11:30 Workshops: Com 110, Com 341, CRC 116/117
12:30-4:00 Films and discussion about Katherine Dunham
10/20: 9:30-1:00 Zora Neale Hurston and Folklore (Sean) / Dunham workshop (Kabby)
Preparation for next week
Song of the Week: “Stormy Weather” by Lena Horne
Reading assignment: Read Music of the Hispanic Caribbean (Moore), pp.1-120; “Listen to the Insider” in the chapter titled “In the Speech Mode: Contemplating Repertories” (Nettl), pp.103-112; and “Commonalities in African Dance: An Aesthetic Foundation” (Dils/Albright), pp.144-151.
Writing assignment for week five: Develop an annotated bibliography (see handout online) to turn in on 10/27 during class.
Week Five: The Caribbean, part I
10/25: 9:30-11:30 Music and Syncretic Religious Practices in the African Diaspora (Sean)
12:30-2:30 Seminars (bring your seminar pass)
10/26: 9:30-11:30 Workshops: Com 110, Com 341, CRC 116/117
12:30-4:00 Film and discussion: The Buena Vista Social Club
10/27: 9:30-1:00 Axes of Inequality and Body Politics (Kabby)
Preparation for next week
Song of the Week: TBA
Reading assignment: Read Music of the Hispanic Caribbean (Moore), pp.121-206; and “The Most Indefatigable Tourists in the World: Tunes and Their Relationships” (Nettl), pp.113-130; and “Juba and American Minstrelsy” (Dils/Albright), pp.250-255.
Writing assignment for week six: Write out a short (3 minute) verbal presentation of your final essay, to be presented in class on 11/3 (Wednesday).
Week Six: The Caribbean, part II
11/1: 9:30-11:30 The Caribbean Diaspora in Miami and New York City (Andy)
12:30-2:30 Seminars (bring your seminar pass)
11/2: 9:30-11:30 Workshops: Com 110, Com 341, CRC 116/117
12:30-4:00 Film and discussion: Sugar Cane Alley
11/3: 9:30-1:00 Student presentations on upcoming essays
Preparation for next week
Song of the Week: “Sueño con Serpientes” by Silvio Rodríguez
Reading assignment: Read Part I and II of Focus: Music of Northeastern Brazil (Crook).
Writing assignment for week seven: Creative writing assignment due 11/10.
Week Seven: Brazil, part I
11/8: 9:30-11:30 Music and Colonialism in Brazil (Sean)
12:30-2:30 Seminars (bring your seminar pass)
11/9: 9:30-11:30 Workshops: Com 110, Com 341, CRC 116/117
12:30-4:00 Film and discussion: Black Orpheus
11/10: 9:30-1:00 Guest presentation: Angela Gilliam
Preparation for next week
7:30 pm RECOMMENDED PERFORMANCE: The Color Purple (musical)
at the Washington Center for the Performing Arts
Song of the Week: “A Felicidade” by Antônio Carlos Jobim
Reading assignment: Read Part III of Focus: Music of Northeastern Brazil (Crook), and “Headspin: Capoeira’s Ironic Inversions” (Dils/Albright), pp.165-173. Finish your major essay; it is due on Wednesday, November 17, in class, first thing in the morning.
Writing assignment for week eight: Integrative Essay due 11/17.
Week Eight: Brazil, part II
11/15: 9:30-11:30 Passages: Fieldwork in Brazil (Kabby)
12:30-2:30 Seminars
11/16: 9:30-11:30 Workshops: Com 110, Com 341, CRC 116/117
12:30-4:00 Film and discussion: Saudades do Futuro
11/17: 9:30-1:00 Música Popular Brasileiro (Sean) / Dance workshop (Janelle )
Preparation for next week
11/18: 7:30 pm PERFORMANCE: Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane Dance Company at the
Washington Center for the Performing Arts
Song of the Week: “Umbabarauma” by Gilberto Gil
Reading assignment: Read Fela (Veal). This is a much more advanced text than any of the others, so make sure that you take the time you will need to read and understand this book. Take notes on what you read. Come to class on Monday, November 29, having already completed your reading of the book. Also read “Embodying History: Epic Narrative and Cultural Identity in African American Dance” (Dils/Albright), pp.439-454.
Writing assignment for week nine:. Creative writing due 12/1.
[Thanksgiving Week Break, 11/18 – 11/28: don’t come to class because we won’t be there!]
Week Nine: Representing and Understanding West Africa as a Source
11/29: 9:30-11:30 Afrobeat, Black Power, and James Brown (all faculty)
12:30-2:30 Seminars (small group work with focused questions)
11/30: 9:30-11:30 Workshops: Com 110, Com 341, CRC 116/117
12:30-4:00 Film and discussion: Konkombe and Fela
12/1: 9:30-1:00 Rehearsals
Preparation for next week
12/2: 7:30 pm PERFORMANCE: Sweet Honey in the Rock at the Washington
Center for the Performing Arts
Song of the Week: TBA
Reading assignment: Prepare for your collaborative presentations.
Writing assignment: Prepare your self-evaluation and turn in a paper copy of it, together with your portfolio, to the box outside your seminar leader’s door (we all have offices in the Com building, on the 3rd floor) by noon on Friday, December 10.
Week Ten: Collaborative Presentations
12/6: 9:30-11:30 Collaborative Presentations (CRC 117)
12:30-2:30 Collaborative Presentations (CRC 117)
12/7: 9:30-11:30 Collaborative Presentations (E1105)
12:30-4:00 Collaborative Presentations (E1105)
12/8: 9:30-1:00 Final Meeting: Songs, going over the self-evaluation, preparation for next
quarter
Reading assignment for winter quarter: TBA.
Having an evaluation: when you come to your evaluation conference, you have half an hour with your seminar leader to discuss your work. You will have the chance to read what will be written about you in your transcript, compare it with your self-evaluation, and ask questions about your coursework, future plans, and academic advising. Please be on time, bring a pen and paper, and do not leave the evaluation conference without your portfolio.