Dance Cultures and Subcultures
- Course Closed
This intergenerational course brings Fromm Institute students and USF students together in an introduction to dance's culture-making functions. Taking an embodied approach to learning about popular dance in American society, with a focus on current and historical moments in the SF Bay Area, the course illuminates how dance practices inform and are informed by larger national and international values. The course includes historical/scholarly readings, guest lectures by dance professionals, videos, discussions, attendance at live events, and yes, dancing! Areas of study may include ballroom, tango, lindyhop, ballet, street dance, club/drag performance, dance film, Broadway musicals, and dance on social media. Fromm Institute students will meet once a week and are welcome (but not required) to join the USF students who will meet twice a week (M/W 1pm-2:40pm). No prior dance experience required.
Melissa Hudson Bell is a dancer, choreographer and dance researcher based in Berkeley, CA. She has a PhD in Critical Dance Studies and an MFA in Experimental Dance from UC Riverside. Her research and choreographic interests circulate around 21st century strategies for audience engagement, especially those that incorporate food as a means of enlivening the senses, invoking memory, or crafting community. She has recently shown choreography in the SF Bay Area, LA, Florida and New York. In addition, she has taught at UC Berkeley and Santa Clara University, acted as an MFA mentor for students at California Institute for Integral Studies, performed with Erika Chong Shuch Performance Project and Tanya Bello's Project B, worked as an artist in residence at Santa Clara University, and served as a member of the board of RAWDance. In addition to teaching at USF, Bell currently serves as the Vice President of WKB Industries, an entertainment industry venture focused on racial justice and writes for the San Francisco Chronicle.