DANCE 5010 Dance Composition Laboratory I: Exploring Process and Format

The studio workshop in dance composition for graduate students emphasizes individual artistic development through a combination of structured assignments, independent work, interaction with visiting artists, and participation in a shared workshop environment. Expanding upon previous applicable skills and experience, graduate students are encouraged to explore and develop personal aesthetic in movement vocabulary, genre, method and process. Consultation with the course instructor supports clarification of the student's choreographic intention and general development of the student's artwork. Group critiques by faculty and students contribute analysis and facilitate dialogue regarding both process and artwork. This course may be taken by qualified undergraduate senior dance majors or minors who have completed 203 (or 208) and 303 (or 309), with permission of instructor.

Credit 3 units.

Typical periods offered: Fall

DANCE 5011 Dance Composition Laboratory II: Exploring Alternative Venues and Audience Connections

The studio workshop in dance composition for graduate students emphasizes individual artistic development through a combination of structured assignments, independent work, interaction with visiting artists, and participation in a shared workshop environment. Expanding upon previous applicable skills and experience, graduate students are encouraged to explore and develop personal aesthetic in movement vocabulary, genre, method and process. Consultation with the course instructor supports clarification of the student's choreographic intention and general development of the student's artwork. Group critiques by faculty and students contribute analysis and facilitate dialogue regarding both process and artwork.

Credit 3 units.

Typical periods offered: Spring

DANCE 5021 Approaches to Improvisation and Spontaneous Composition

The graduate studio workshop in dance improvisation emphasizes individual and ensemble performance practice through a combination of structured assignments, independent work, and participation in a collaborative workshop environment. In this course, students learn and create processes for improvising dance/performance art, with an aim toward developing integrated skill in: dance technique, intuitive movement invention, partnered dancing, collaborative process, performance presence/expressivity, and compositional form. Improvised practice develops processes for performance applicable to stage, site-specific and camera-based artistic venues, and refines individual and ensemble performance artistry. Students will review history of aesthetic theory and processes developed by improvisation artists of the 20th century. In-class discussion fosters critical thinking/analysis, facilitates dialogue on process, and supports development of artistry and virtuosic performance.

Credit 3 units.

Typical periods offered: Fall

DANCE 5022 Jazz III

Jazz III is primarily a studio course based on traditional jazz with strong elements of ballet technique, hip hop, Broadway, and street jazz. The main focus of the class will be on increased technical proficiency and development as an expressive performer. The studio work will introduce exercises and movement phrases that challenge the dancer's skill level, and encourage a personal exploration that further enhances the dancer's individual expression and style. Studio work will be supported by individual research on the field of jazz dance. Variable content: may be repeated once for credit. Prereq: High-Intermediate training in jazz dance technique and permission of the instructor.

Credit 2 units. A&S IQ: HUM BU: HUM EN: H

Typical periods offered: Fall

DANCE 5030 Performance Artistry

This course offers the MFA in Dance student an opportunity to receive credit for performing in public in choreography crafted by a Washington University dance faculty, or guest artist choreographers for Washington University Dance Theatre, in choreography presented by WU Dance Collective (the student repertory company), or by the Center for Contemporary Arts' Co-Artistic Directors of Dance, either Antonio Douthit-Boyd or Kirven Douthit-Boyd.

Credit 1 unit.

Typical periods offered: Fall, Spring

DANCE 5032 Introduction to Screendance Composition & Performance

Introductory studio workshop in screendance composition and digital performance. For students with experience in choreography or improvisation, Screendance Composition explores the intersection of dance and digital media. Students will learn basic camera and videography skills to create screendance projects and learn about this emerging dance genre that combines the artistry of dance with the visual art capabilities that cameras offer. Methods for improvisation and site-specific performance will also be explored. Group critiques by faculty and students contribute analysis and facilitate dialogue regarding both process and artwork. Prerequisites L29 203, or L29 3110 or permission of instructor.

Credit 3 units. A&S IQ: HUM BU: HUM EN: H

Typical periods offered: Spring

DANCE 5040 Methodologies of Global Dance Studies

This course introduces graduate students to methodologies of dance studies. In line with current scholarship, the course emphasizes a global perspective, thinking about the practice of dance in a wide spectrum of spaces and places, including the streets of Oakland, California, the milonga dance halls of Argentina, and the temples of India. We will pay attention both to questions of aesthetics and to how political and cultural contexts influence the practice of dance. Students will learn methods of ethnography, history, and practice-as-research as applied to dance; we will also analyze how dance scholars use feminist theory, critical race theory, queer theory, phenomenology, and performance studies in their work. As a final project, students conduct research on a topic of their choosing and present their results as either a written seminar paper or a performance ethnography.

Credit 3 units.

Typical periods offered: Fall

DANCE 5050 Guest Artist Residency Workshop

This course is designed as an opportunity for the student to work as an assistant to a guest choreographer during their process of creating new choreography or restaging original choreography. The student will experience the applied nature of critical thinking, problem solving, and collaboration within the choreographic process as the choreographer also administrates the more managerial responsibilities of scheduling and time management. The student will be fully immersed in the unique bifurcated interplay of the dialogic and the corporeal of the choreographic process. The experience should enhance the student's already burgeoning choreographic process. Following the residency, the student will take over the rehearsal process through to tech week and the performances. May be repeated once.

Credit 1 unit.

Typical periods offered: Fall, Spring

DANCE 5060 Research Methods Colloquium

This course is designed around the theory of the everyday work of art, suggested by Eric Booth. The everyday work of art suggests a persistent interest in and the ability to navigate one's art making from the initial impulse of creation to the fully blossomed form. In this course, the art is that of making dance. Indeed, the work of our art both acknowledges the expectations from within our given domain while fully engaging with the daily, open-ended possibilities for dance making.

Credit 3 units.

Typical periods offered: Fall

DANCE 5070 Theories of the Body in Performance

Over the past twenty years, the body has become a popular subject of study across multiple disciplines, including anthropology, philosophy, women's/gender/sexuality studies, religious studies, and the growing field of performance studies. This graduate seminar pairs critical theory readings about embodiment (and its attendant phenomena, including corporeality, kinesthesia, emotions, the senses, etc) with investigation into how specific artists work out such ideas in performance. Identity categories often marked by the body, including race, gender, and sexuality, will be particularly important. For example, we will wrestle with how the black dancing body as a conceptual framework maps (and not) onto the material realities of African American dancers. In addition to discussion of texts, in-class work includes embodied and creative exercises as a way for students to apply theory to practice. Assignments deepen students' artistry, help them develop analytical writing and presenting skills, and prepare them for professional work in both performative and academic arenas.

Credit 3 units.

Typical periods offered: Fall, Spring

DANCE 5080 Final Project I

This is the first of the two Final Project courses (Final project II, Spring semester) for the MFA in Dance student. The student will spend the Fall semester creating and rehearsing original choreography which will be presented in a Final Project Concert, second semester, that represents the culmination of their studies in the MFA in Dance Program. The Final Project, a concert or public presentation largely expressed in Dance, represents an amalgamation of their growth as an artist, enhanced choreographic process, expanded range as a performer, and comprehensive understanding and application of the collaborative nature of the production elements within their concert. The concert, and the research and rehearsals leading up to it noted in a written statement, will be evaluated by a committee.

Credit 3 units.

Typical periods offered: Fall

DANCE 5081 Final Project II

Final project for MFA in Dance.

Credit 3 units.

Typical periods offered: Spring

DANCE 5100 Theory and Technique of Modern Dance V

The course emphasis is on versatility in movement vocabulary and on more complex and intensive technical work with discussion of theory inherent in the studio work, related readings, and projects. Variable content: may be repeated for credit in a subsequent semester. Prerequisite: Dance 302 with recommendation of the student's previous 302 instructor or permission of the 401 instructors.

Credit 2 units. A&S IQ: HUM BU: HUM EN: H

Typical periods offered: Fall

DANCE 5101 Theory and Technique of Modern Dance VI

This course is a continuation of Dance 401 with emphasis on more complex and intensive technical work. Variable content; may be repeated for credit in a subsequent semester. Prerequisite: Dance 401 with recommendation of the student's previous 401 instructor or permission of the 4021 instructors.

Credit 2 units. A&S IQ: HUM Arch: HUM Art: HUM BU: HUM EN: H

Typical periods offered: Spring

DANCE 5102 Modern Dance and the African American Legacy II

This course will focus on works by 2-3 renowned African-American choreographers. The selected choreographers are chosen for their contributions to the field of American modern dance based primarily on their explorations regarding the process and dynamics of building community--the sense of community as experienced through the lens of African-American cultural values and aesthetics and as it pertains to the creative process. Therefore, the course focuses on viewing the body as a site for the exchange of ideas concerning humanity. Students will investigate these choreographers through learning excerpts of their choreography and choreographing personal responses, as well as through related readings, videos, and independent research.

Credit 2 units. A&S IQ: HUM, SC Arch: HUM Art: CPSC, HUM BU: HUM EN: H

Typical periods offered: Spring

DANCE 5110 Classical Ballet III

Designed for dancers with a solid foundation in beginning and intermediate ballet technique. Related reading, research paper/discussion, video assignments; attendance at 1-2 ballet performnces. Variable content; may be repeated for credit in a subsequent semester. Prerequisite: permission of instructor and B+ or better in Dance 3221 and 415 or 416.

Credit 2 units. A&S IQ: HUM BU: HUM EN: H

Typical periods offered: Spring

DANCE 5111 Classical Ballet IV

A course designed for dancers with a solid foundation in beginning and intermediate ballet technique. Variable content; may be repeated for credit in a subsequent semester. Prerequisite: permission of instructor, and B+ or better in 3221 and 415 or 416.

Credit 2 units. A&S IQ: HUM BU: HUM EN: H

Typical periods offered: Spring

DANCE 5120 Performing the Political in American Dance

This course is an exploration of the politics of performance and the performance of politics through the lens of American dance in the 20th and 21st centuries. Through readings, screenings, and discussions, we will examine the ways in which American dance developed against and alongside political movements in the United States, particularly ones concerning nationalism, race, gender, and human rights. We will also investigate how the lens of dance and choreography offers an expansive means to conceptualize political questions of citizenship and social protest, broadening our understanding of embodied performance. Guided by several key philosophical texts, this course will focus on the concepts necessary for examining the convergence of performance and politics (e.g., representation, ritual, spectacle, body, mimesis, propaganda) while also paying special attention to the politics of funding and censorship that has governed the creation and presentation of dance in the United States. No dance experience is necessary.

Credit 3 units. A&S IQ: HUM, LCD, SC, WI Arch: HUM Art: CPSC, HUM BU: BA, HUM EN: H

Typical periods offered: Spring

DANCE 5130 Dance Pedagogy

In this course students will learn methods of instruction, assessment and how to develop dance curriculum for K-12. Students will design classes based on national standards, grade level expectations and sound dance principles. In the studio they will teach each other sample lessons that they have developed. This class will cover dance competencies required by DESE for beginning teachers of dance. We will pay attention to current trends in arts education. Our discussion will include the diversity of student populations and how to prepare and respond. We will discuss the role of the arts in education and the dance teacher's role as classroom instructor, arts integration instructor, diplomat and arts advocate. Credit may be applied toward the education major and potentially toward state certification. Prerequisite: minimum of two semesters of upper level coursework in dance technique. Prerequisite: minimum of two semesters of upper level coursework in dance technique.

Credit 3 units. A&S IQ: HUM Arch: HUM Art: HUM BU: HUM EN: H

Typical periods offered: Spring

DANCE 5140 Performing Gender and Sexuality in America

This course examines how the performance of gender and sexuality has shaped the social, cultural, and political history of the United States from the early nineteenth century to the present. While performance happens in everyday life, we will primarily focus on how the stage has been a potent space to debate issues about gender and sexuality. This course will put forth the argument that the stage has historically not only reflected broader social concerns, but also actively helped to shape those social dynamics. After an introduction to foundational ideas, we will start the semester with minstrelsy, signaling that the performance of gender and sexuality in America is deeply intertwined with race, class, and national belonging. Reading and viewing assignments bring together feminist theory, queer theory, American social history, and performance texts to build robust seminar discussions.

Credit 3 units. A&S IQ: HUM, SC Arch: HUM Art: CPSC, HUM BU: BA, HUM EN: H

Typical periods offered: Spring

DANCE 5150 Presence in Performance: Alexander Technique and Mindful Movement for Performing Artists

This course provides group and individual instruction in principles and methods from Alexander Technique and other somatic arts for training mindful, embodied presence in performance. Mindful movement techniques are widely used by professional dancers, actors, and musicians to enhance performance skill and to address/prevent injury and chronic pain. Through a workshop process of guided learning, students gain awareness of subtle inefficiencies in coordination and balance that cause pain and limit ability. Students gain ability to self-assess and adjust problematic movement patterns to improve freedom and expression. Alexander Technique works at fundamental levels of movement coordination, and its methods are applicable to all performing art genres. Training is tailored to each individual student's needs, skills and goals. This course involves experiential learning supported with related readings, discussion, personal research projects and presentations. Prerequisites: Graduate standing; also open to undergraduate students studying at the 400 level in their discipline with permission of instructor.

Credit 3 units. A&S IQ: HUM Arch: HUM Art: HUM BU: HUM EN: H

Typical periods offered: Spring

DANCE 5161 High Intermediate Ballet I

A course designed as preparation for the advanced level. Emphasis on vocabulary review and individual technique assessment, including placement, movement quality and musicality. Related readings and video assignments; attendance at and critical analysis of 1-2 ballet performances. Variable content; may be repeated in a subsequent semester. Prerequisite: B+ or better in 221, 222, 321, 322 and/or permission of instructor.

Credit 2 units. A&S IQ: HUM BU: HUM EN: H

Typical periods offered: Fall

DANCE 5170 High Intermediate Ballet II

A course designed for the high intermediate dancer in preparation for 4281/429. Emphasis on placement, movement quality and musicality. Related readings and projects supplement the classical vocabulary. Prereq: B+ or better in 221, 222, 321, 322 and/or permission of instructor.

Credit 2 units. A&S IQ: HUM Arch: HUM Art: HUM BU: HUM EN: H

Typical periods offered: Spring

DANCE 5180 Variations in the Ballet

Introduces classical choreography within various ballets. Prerequisites: Dance 321 or 4281 with some pointe training, and permission of instructor.

Credit 1 unit. A&S IQ: HUM Arch: HUM Art: HUM BU: HUM EN: H

Typical periods offered: Spring

DANCE 5181 Pointe Technique

Designed for dancers with a basic foundation in pointe work. Variable content; may be repeated for credit in a subsequent semester. Prerequisite: concurrent registration in Dance 321 or 4281 and B+ or better in 221, 222, 321, 322 and/or permission of instructor.

Credit 1 unit. A&S IQ: HUM BU: HUM

Typical periods offered: Fall

DANCE 5190 Topics in Dance Technique

Explores a variety of special interest topics in dance techniques. Consult the course listings for the semester topic.

Credit 3 units. A&S IQ: HUM BU: HUM EN: H

Typical periods offered: Spring

DANCE 5300 Contemporary Ballet

For intermediate and advanced dancers, this course presents a dynamic fusion of classical ballet technique and the expressive, innovative elements of contemporary dance. We will build upon the foundational ballet principles rooted in an art form dating back to the seventeenth century, during the reign of Louis XIV in France. While ballet traditionally prides itself on classicism, the past forty years have seen the emergence of the genre known as contemporary ballet. This genre pushes the classical ballet vocabulary into new thematic and aesthetic territories, placing emphasis on abstraction, complex rhythms, and movement invention. Many of today's leading dance companies focus is on contemporary ballet, making this course a valuable preparation for entering the evolving world of dance. The course places a strong emphasis on practical, embodied work in the studio to foster the development of technical skills, musicality, and artistry. Prerequisites: Successful completion of L29 Dance 321 or permission of the instructor.

Credit 2 units.

Typical periods offered: Fall

DANCE 5500 The Line of Least Resistance: Embodying Postmodern Dance

This graduate level studio course explores concepts of Postmodern dance from the 1960s up to the present day. Course readings and viewings will be explored through a physical, embodied approach. To accompany our viewings, we will learn seminal works by Postmodern choreographers (for instance, Set Reset by Trisha Brown), explore improvisational methodologies, and develop our own choreographic projects in our own voices. Historical and theoretical readings will include topics such as Judson Dance Theatre, African-American dance, European Tanztheater, and beyond. Course concepts will be presented mostly chronologically and be explored through varied lenses including historical and cultural context, artistic and social upheavals, cultural hybridity, and performance and aesthetic theory. Prerequisites: Modern technique III or higher, or permission of instructor. Students interested in taking this course should sign up for waitlist. Enrollment will be determined by instructor.

Credit 3 units.

DANCE 5901 Independent Work

Prerequisite: senior standing and permission of the coordinator of the dance division.

Credit 10 units.

Typical periods offered: Fall, Spring

DANCE 5910 Independent Choreography Project I

This course is designed to assist the MFA students in the development of their craft as choreographers prior to committing to their final projects. The point of entry for each student may depend on his or her previous study of composition or experience within the profession. Each student composes a study or work-in-progress, a dance or dances which culminates in a public showing or concert of the work, on or off-campus, or with WU Dance Collective, the student repertory company. The ongoing work is to be shown 3-4 times a semester to the instructor of record and/or adviser, and any other Performing Arts Department faculty and/or Antonio Douthit-Boyd or Kirven Douthit-Boyd of the Center of Contemporary Arts (COCA) that the student wishes to invite for the viewing and response session.

Credit 3 units.

Typical periods offered: Fall

DANCE 5911 Independent Choreography Project II

Independent study

Credit 3 units.

Typical periods offered: Spring

DANCE 5912 Independent Choreography Project III

This course is designed to assist the MFA students in the development of their craft as choreographers prior to committing to their final projects. The point of entry for each student may depend on his or her previous study of composition or experience within the profession. Each student composes a study or work-in-progress, a dance or dances which culminates in a public showing or concert of the work, on or off-campus, or with WU Dance Collective, the student repertory company. The ongoing work is to be shown 3-4 times a semester to the instructor of record and/or adviser, and any other Performing Arts Department faculty and/or Antonio Douthit-Boyd or Kirven Douthit-Boyd of the Center of Contemporary Arts (COCA) that the student wishes to invite for the viewing and response session.

Credit 3 units.

Typical periods offered: Fall

DRAMA 5071 Theater for Social Change

Drawing upon the principles and teachings of Brazilian director Augusto Boal, students will explore ways of effecting positive social change in a theatrical context. Students will study the aesthetic of Boal's Theatre of the Oppressed and learn various games and exercises designed to mine issues of social (in)justice. Using Boal's techniques of image and forum theatre, students will then create and perform plays focused on these issues. This public performance will be an interactive event offered for and with the university community. No prior performance training or experience is required for this course.

Credit 3 units. A&S IQ: HUM, SC Arch: HUM Art: CPSC, HUM BU: HUM EN: H

Typical periods offered: Fall

DRAMA 5080 Topics in Contemporary Arts Practice Research

This course offers graduate students an opportunity to engage and conduct contemporary arts practice research. Taught by a member of our arts practice faculty (e.g., in dance/movement, acting/directing, design), this course introduces students to contemporary research on a topic that the faculty member is currently conducting (e.g., reconstructions of historic choreographies, global applications of Boalian technique, robotics and performance). Through these graduate-level courses, students are invited to enter into and contribute to the broader scholarly conversations that have shaped and are shaping our knowledge of that topic through their own research. Assignments will include reading and discussing contemporary scholarship on the topic, writing papers, and participating in arts practice research (often by designing their own performance-oriented work).

Credit 3 units.

Typical periods offered: Fall

DRAMA 5081 Feminist Performance Methods

In our current political and social climate in which battles for representation, autonomy, and recognition for humanity are heightened, it is critical that scholars remain vigilant of the politics undergirding how we gain access to knowledge and the conclusions we impart. In this course, we will study the works of feminist-identified scholars and performers to examine how they use different mediums to excavate, stage, and theorize lives that place, front and center, the relationship between (P)olitics, embodied knowledge, and the methods used to gain access. The course will be divided into three units-oral history, theater, and ethnography-in which we will explore scholarship from various disciplines and fields (English, anthropology, theater, dance, queer studies, and history). Doing so familiarizes students with different research methods, as well as illustrating feminism and performance as contested styles and approaches. Consequently, a major aim of this course is to expose students to an arsenal of research techniques and explore how such techniques impact the creation and trajectory of research questions, our engagement with subjects (both living and not) and objects, and the final product of our research. Students will also engage in practice-based workshops during class to gain practical tips and experiences that will enhance their research capabilities.

Credit 3 units.

DRAMA 5090 Topics in Contemporary Theoretical and Historical Research

This graduate-level seminar is designed to introduce students to contemporary scholarly debates in the field of theatre and performance studies. Addressing rotating topics that faculty members are currently engaging in their own historical/theoretical research, the course offers students an advanced introduction to the topic at hand, asking them to consider how recent scholarly conversations have shaped and are shaping our knowledge of it. Assignments are designed to invite students to contribute to these scholarly conversations through their own research by helping them hone their skills of analysis, synthesis and argumentation.

Credit 3 units.

Typical periods offered: Fall

DRAMA 5109 Acting Styles: Realism to Nonrealism

This course builds on skills in character development and scene study, beginning with psychological realism and then shifting into various forms of nonrealism. Through written analysis and performance, students apply acting techniques that address a variety of playwriting styles. Prerequisites: Drama 240E/2401 and Drama 341/3411. The semester begins with a deepening understanding of psychological realism through the exploration of Anton Chekhov's plays. Focus then shifts to nonrealism with Harold Pinter. The second half of the semester is solidly rooted in nonrealism. Students hone their skills by exploring two more scenes from classical and/or contemporary texts. Additionally, in the final scene, students are encouraged to explore applicable considerations of gender-identity, race, and ethnicity in play and character selection. Prerequisites: Drama 2401 Fundamentals of Acting, Drama 3411 Intermediate Acting This course is open exclusively to seniors and graduate students

Credit 3 units. A&S IQ: HUM BU: HUM EN: H

Typical periods offered: Fall

DRAMA 5110 Stage Lighting

This course will place an emphasis in the aesthetic practice of lighting design through the understanding of technology as it relates to time and space. Early on the student will learn how to properly use and apply designer's tools and then through reading, research and experimentation explore the limitless boundaries of color and texture. This will culminate in a stage design in collaboration with directing or dance class. Upon completion of the course, the student will be able to speak eloquently on design theory and be able to move on to further design study in Advanced Lighting Design: L15 410.

Credit 3 units. A&S IQ: HUM Arch: HUM Art: HUM BU: HUM EN: H

Typical periods offered: Spring

DRAMA 5120 Intro to Graduate Study in Drama

An introduction for the beginning Performing Arts graduate student to theoretical approachesm as well as practical methodoloties and resources, currently employed in professional theatre history, dramatic literature, theory criticism research. The course places equal emphasis on grasping theoretical issues and mastering graduate-level research and writing skills. Students will initiate, design and conduct a research project to the point of a completed first draft.

Credit 3 units.

Typical periods offered: Fall

DRAMA 5140 Embodied Communication: Listening

This course is about listening. We will begin by mediated and unmediated listening with the human auditory system and continue into an exploration of multi-modal listening, focusing on vibration and on somatic attention. We will work in the studio, which will include a music studio, a dance studio, and the environment. Our investigation will include the study of sensing in more-than-human organisms as well as theoretical perspectives from sound studies, critical improvisation and history of science. The course will encourage the perspective that the practice of listening is a political act of tending to the invisible, the non-normative, and the incomplete.

Credit 3 units. A&S IQ: HUM BU: HUM EN: H

Typical periods offered: Spring

DRAMA 5160 Graduate Public Speaking: Embodied Multimodal Communication

The class helps students develop their ability to communicate effectively in professional contexts in and beyond academia. It is designed with the needs of scholars in the humanities and humanistic social sciences in mind. Students will receive group instruction in verbal and non-verbal expression, voice, and physical movement, and individual coaching on a series of practiced communication tasks. Assignments will replicate situations in twenty-first century information professions: research presentations, video-conference interviews, and podcast production. Students will develop capacities that help them convey complex ideas clearly and present themselves confidently as colleagues and collaborators.

Credit 3 units.

Typical periods offered: Fall

DRAMA 5180 Graduate Seminar

Seminar for Graduate students

Credit 3 units.

Typical periods offered: Fall

DRAMA 5190 Prefiguration and Performance

Prefigurative politics describes activists' creation of a desired future world in the present. The term has been used to describe social movements (from Occupy to Tahrir Square to the Movement for Black Lives); Black and interracial intentional communities pursuing racial justice (including the Harlem Ashram and the Highlander Folk School); and experiments in radical pedagogy (such as Freedom Schools). Prefiguration takes many forms: in staging a new world, activists might establish systems of mutual aid or other models of care; promote a model of participatory democracy; challenge the relationship between the state and its citizens; establish new histories and myths; reimagine economic models; and/or create new aesthetic forms. Political theorists and sociologists have much to teach us about prefigurative politics and the many debates that surround it. For example, what is the relationship between prefiguration and political strategy? Are the two at odds, or compatible? Students enrolled in this course will work assiduously to assess this literature. We will then put the contemporary scholarship on prefigurative politics into conversation with a set of conversations emerging from performance theory that traverse similar terrain, among them debates about performance, utopia, and futurity; explorations of rehearsal and simulation; and the performativity of assembly. We will use our work to make sense of our contemporary moment, consider the performance and performativity of politics, and draw inspiration from those who have worked and continue to work to build a new world in the shell of the old.

Credit 3 units.

Typical periods offered: Spring

DRAMA 5200 Contemporary Issues in Education and Society: Project-Based Learning in Performing Arts Pedagogy

This seminar introduces students to curriculum development and teaching strategies for theatre and performance studies in high school and undergraduate classrooms. Students will explore skills-based and theoretical approaches to developing critically reflective, equity-minded, and project-based pedagogical practices. Over the semester, students will prepare a teaching portfolio with a syllabus, lesson plans, assignments, and a statement of teaching philosophy.

Credit 3 units.

Typical periods offered: Fall, Spring

DRAMA 5204 Directing II

Credit 3 units. A&S IQ: HUM Arch: HUM Art: HUM BU: HUM EN: H

DRAMA 5303 Performance Theory

This course introduces students to contemporary theories of performance, with performance understood as both metaphor and event. From a multi-disciplinary perspective, students will consider how cultures produce meanings-and, indeed, perform those meanings-to create and/or disrupt their own social coherence. Theories likely to be studied include: J. L. Austin's speech-act theory and its engagement by John Searle and Jacques Derrida; Victor Turner's analysis of ritual as social process and Richard Schechner's use of it to transform theater studies into performance studies; Erving Goffman's sociology of the self and its relation to a post-structuralist model of subjectivity; Michael Fried's screed against minimalist art and its relation to Happenings, Body Art, Fluxus, and other mid- to late-20th century examples of performance art; and Judith Butler's influential revision of Austin's performative in her theory of queer performativity.

Credit 3 units. A&S IQ: HUM BU: HUM EN: H

Typical periods offered: Fall, Spring

DRAMA 5304 Race, Memory, and Performance

This course takes as its starting point the vexing questions of history, memory, and identity that activists, scholars, artists, and others have posed in recent years. What is to be done with the commemorative landscape of monuments and memorials? How do we account for the silences and erasures in archival records? How should histories of racial violence be commemorated? These are questions that have been taken up in many arenas of civic life, including public art, "living history" tourism, museum studies, and urban planning. They have also been taken up by theater artists and performance artists who use their bodies, narrative, historical fact and, sometimes, fiction to bear witness to the past and to imagine new futures. In this course, we will examine the role of theater and performance in constituting-and challenging-the historically contingent meanings of "race;" we will also explore how performance of history shapes national narratives. Artists to be explored might include Branden Jacobs-Jenkins, Mary Kathryn Nagle, Dread Scott, Quiara Alegria Hudes, Simone Leigh, and Heidi Schreck. Artistic and/or performance experience is not required. Students will have the opportunity to propose their own commemorative projects; together we will explore whether and how performances of the past can do a certain kind of reparative work necessary for a more equitable future.

Credit 3 units. A&S IQ: HUM, SC Arch: HUM Art: HUM, VC BU: BA, ETH, HUM EN: H

Typical periods offered: Fall

DRAMA 5305 Seminar in Dramatic Theory

This course is an in-depth exploration of core works of dramatic theory from the ancient world to the present, and it will introduce texts that enunciate what theater is, has been, and should be. We will study authors' expressions of theater's role in society, their articulations of and responses to anti-theatrical prejudice, and their negotiations of the contradiction of putting the real on stage. Other significant themes include accounting for the aesthetic pleasures of drama and theater; theater as a means of educating the citizen; and the relationship between dramatic form and social and political revolution. Moving chronologically, we begin with foundational documents of the ancient world, including Aristotle's Poetics, Bharata's Natyasastra, and Horace's Ars Poetica. The course then progresses through the Middle Ages, the Neoclassical and Romantic eras, and the explosion of fin de siecle avant-gardes. We will also read key texts from beyond the European tradition, including works of dramatic theory written in medieval Japan (Zeami), postcolonial Nigeria (Soyinka), and the millennial, multicultural United States (Parks). Along these same lines, we will also be attuned to transnational exchange and influence, particularly as it appears in the 20th-century theories of Bertolt Brecht, Antonin Artaud, and Konstantin Stanislavsky. Although the course will be focused on efforts to describe and prescribe theories of drama, dramatic genre, and theatrical pleasure, it will also position play scripts alongside the theoretical treatises that guide or are guided by them.

Credit 3 units. A&S IQ: SSC Art: SSC EN: S

Typical periods offered: Spring, Summer

DRAMA 5307 Topics in American Drama: Tennessee Williams

Topics in American Drama.

Credit 3 units. A&S IQ: HUM Arch: HUM Art: HUM BU: HUM EN: H

Typical periods offered: Spring

DRAMA 5309 Shakespeare and Performance

How were Shakespeare's plays performed in their own day--in the Globe theater, with boy actors, and with very short rehearsal times? How, for the actor, did performance work on the outdoor stage, with the Globe's wide and deep acting platform and its intimate relationship to the audience? How might one stage Shakespeare today in an outdoor environment without lighting and with minimal sets, and with the capacity to move easily from one outdoor venue to another? From what social types in Renaissance England-such as merchants, prostitutes, aristocrats, constables, beggars, and princes-did Shakespeare draw? How can evolving ideas about race, gender, and sexuality inform the way we perform Shakespeare today? Addressing these questions and others, the course weaves together performance and literary, critical, and historical study. Topics include blank verse, performing Shakespeare's prose, playing with figures of speech, working the Globe stage, engaging an outdoor audience, acting from a written part rather than an entire script, performing types, exploring Shakespeare's sources as performance alternatives, making Shakespeare new-and more. Students will rehearse and perform sonnets, scenes, and monologues based on social figures from Shakespeare's England. The course assumes a willingness to perform but not specialized acting training.

Credit 3 units. A&S IQ: HUM BU: HUM EN: H

Typical periods offered: Spring

DRAMA 5310 Borders and Boundaries

This course will draw from the work of performance theorists, playwrights, anthropologists, historians, and geographers to write critically about and devise artistic work that opens up foundational theories, debates, and genealogies in the study of borders and boundaries. This course will use North America as its primary reference point, but it will also draw our attention to border and boundary dynamics elsewhere to think about global challenges such as forced migration and climate change.

Credit 3 units.

Typical periods offered: Fall

DRAMA 5401 Advanced Playwriting

This course explores the tendencies and relationship between each individual student writer and the page. Exercises dispel any lingering doctrine that presupposes a certain style of writing. A large part of the class centers around collaborations. The writers write scenes as a final project for an acting class, and also work with two professional actors in an extended writing project that culminates in a script-in-hand presentation. The informal moments between collaborations look at the process beyond the first draft -- i.e., the playground of language, non-verbal options, and the maintaining of the work through rewrites, readings, workshops, and productions. Prerequisite: Introduction to Playwrighting, Drama 227.

Credit 3 units. A&S IQ: HUM Arch: HUM Art: HUM BU: HUM EN: H

Typical periods offered: Spring

DRAMA 5402 Advanced Theater for Social Change

This course is a continuation of exploration begun in Drama 4081, Theater for Social Change: a prerequisite for this advanced course. Students will expand from exploring their own experience with oppression to facilitating that exploration with others. Students will be introduced to the Joker system, developed by Brazilian director Augusto Boal. The Joker is the director of a forum theater event. He leads both the exploration and play-making phases of the process. In preparation for stepping into this role, students will read Paulo Freire's Pedagogy of the Oppressed which will give them a foundation in the power and efficacy of collaborative educational techniques. In addition, students will read Theatre for Living, Canadian director David Diamond's book detailing his application of Boalian techniques in a less overtly oppressive society. Students will begin their practical exploration by first working with one another, learning how to lead exercises and games, followed by an exploration of play making and the facilitation of an interactive forum theater event. The course will culminate in an outside project in which each student is placed with a St. Louis area school or social organization. The student will apply skills he has acquired throughout the semester by serving as the Joker of the workshop. In this role, the student will lead the entirety of the workshop process with a selected group exploring ways of effecting positive social change in a theatrical context. He will facilitate exercises with the group that mine a chosen area of oppression with which the group is grappling. The student will guide play-making with the group that highlights this area of oppression. The resulting plays will then be presented to the larger school or organization community. This culminating event will be an interactive forum theater presentation that the student will lead as Joker.

Credit 3 units. A&S IQ: HUM, SC Arch: HUM Art: CPSC, HUM BU: HUM EN: H

Typical periods offered: Spring

DRAMA 5960 Master's Research

Credit for advanced research on a scholarly essay in Theater and Performance Studies.

Credit 3 units.

Typical periods offered: Fall, Spring

DRAMA 5970 Independent Work

Students may contract with a faculty supervisor for credit for their work on theatrical productions or research. Contracts must be signed by the student and the coordinator of Drama 500 before the student's work on the project commences. Credit and grade option to be determined in each case. In order to enroll for this course, students must complete a contract and submit it to the Performing Arts Department office.

Credit 6 units.

Typical periods offered: Fall