How Movement Makes Meaning:

Dramaturgy, Dance, and the Development of the Aakash Odedra Company’s  #JeSuis.

Professor: Debra Levine in collaboration with the Aakash Odedra Company and the NYUAD Arts Center

Office: Building A6, Room 129.  debra.levine@nyu.edu

THEAT-UH 1113J   J-term 2018 4 credits

 

This intensive class on dramaturgy and dance takes Aakash Odedra Company’s residency at the NYUAD Arts Center as an opportunity for project-based learning.  We will engage with Aakash Odedra and his company of dancers as he makes a dance about the current refugee crisis with a company of dancers. We will use this event to explore a series of questions about life and art, politics and performance, human behavior, crisis, and expression, both onstage and off. We will study and employ the techniques of dance dramaturgy to investigate how choreography creates meaning through bodies in motion, and to ask how the dramaturg can contribute to that process.  To that end, we will use dance scholar Katherine Profeta’s working definition of the dramaturg as a collaborator who “oscillates between theory and practice, inside and outside, word and movement, question and answer.”  Be prepared to think, to write and to move.

NOTE: Attendance is mandatory for all classes and all rehearsals.  You must be on time. Lateness of any sort is counted as an absence.  Any absence (with the exception of a serious medical excuse with a note from the health center) is a half-grade deduction.

 

Assignments

  • Keyword assignment. In the theoretical, analytical and descriptive texts we will be reading each day, find one keyword/key concept that that helps identify “how movement makes meaning.” Write a three-paragraph essay on that keyword. The first paragraph of the essay should define the word, the second paragraph should expand on how it is used in the particular text, and the third should be why you find it interesting or useful. These short essays should have proper Chicago citations and they need to be posted to the class website by 11pm the day before the discussion of the class readings. (30%)
  • You will keep a daily dramaturgical journal of your observations and thoughts on #JeSuis rehearsals, about the dance workshops in which you participate, and on the trip to Athens. You also may be asked by the company to do research for their production.  If so, all notes must be entered into this journal, as well as forwarded to the company.  THIS IS A HANDWRITTEN JOURNAL.  THERE ARE NO EXCEPTIONS TO THIS REQUIREMENT.  Daily pages will be uploaded to the class website and later to the Tome digital book to which all members of the class will contribute.  Your full personal journal will be submitted for review at the completion of the course on January 18th at 1pm.  (30%)
  • You are required to interview one member of the Aakash Odedra company (choreographer, dancer, dramaturg, manager), compiling a biographical portrait that gives the reader insight into their background in dance and their training, their interest in this particular work and what they believe they add to the piece as singular individuals, a discussion of their professional contribution to the piece, and how this Abu Dhabi residence has affected them. The interview should be VIDEOTAPED (recorded for sound and image), cut to a five-minute video – you don’t have to do a “talking head video – you can use recorded imagery from rehearsals or from other staged encounters if you’d like. The recorded interview should be transcribed in full, edited for clarity and transferred onto a pdf for uploading.  These videos will be uploaded to a digital book that the class authors, which describes what they learned during the course of the residency.  (20%)
  • Co-authored description of the Athens trip. With your fellow classmates, you will collaborate on a series of short essays describing the key events, places and people you encountered on the Athens trip.  This should be a combination of podcasts, photo and video essays, thick written descriptions of the meetings and explanations of the role of the different people and organizations you met during the trip.  A properly signed release form must accompany all written, photographed, and filmed engagements.  You will be expected to organize the division of labor and the modes of collaborating on writing and recording the experiences in Athens among yourselves. Figure out an ethical approach to dealing with your subject matter. (20%)
  • All the above assignments will be compiled into a Tome digital book, to be completed at the conclusion of the course.

Goals and learning outcomes:

  • To comprehend how a contemporary dance company creates a dance performance.
  • To learn the basic components of dance dramaturgy
  • To analyze the methodologies and aesthetics through which art can engage with the political and social effects of the contemporary refugee crisis.
  • To advance analytical and technical skills in reading, writing, speaking about contemporary dance and to embody that knowledge through dance.
  • Outcomes will be assessed through class participation and discussion, short keyword essays, interviews with dancers and refugees, descriptive and critical writing on the state of refugees in Athens, and the creation of a digital book with content in multiple mediums including:  podcasts, photo-essays, video-essays, written contextual essays and dramaturgical observation and analysis.  All this work will be compiled into a final digital book that demonstrates the collaboration between the class and the dance company.

 

Daily Schedule

 

WED. 3

Abu Dhabi Tour (optional) with the Aakash Odedra Company

First eight students to sign up will tour the city and lunch with the company.  To participate, email: Alana.barraj@nyu.edu

 

TH. 4 

9:00-10:00 am. Studio/Theater.    Dance Class with the Aakash Odedra Company

Students will participate in a one-hour dance workshop on warm-ups.

10:00am-12:00pm

Can Art Effect Change?  The Place of Dance in Humanitarian Crises: 

Read: Hannah Arendt: We Refugees. hannah_arendt_we_refugees

Read: Giorgio Agamben: We Refugees.AgambenWeRefugees

Read: Athena Athanasiou. 2006. “Bloodlines: Performing the Body of the ‘Demos’, Reckoning the time of the ‘Ethnos’.” Journal of Modern Greek Studies 24(2): 229–256. Bloodlines

View:  Life In the Jungle. https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/video/2015/jul/27/calais-migrants-jungle-camp-video

View:  “Flight Pattern” rehearsal video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ipnL4TeIbzs

View: Kristy Wark meets choreographer Crystal Pite

In Class:  Introduce class structure (academics/practice/experiential learning/documentation) discuss readings and assignments.

 

Rehearsal Observation Session 1 in the Studio/Theater (two observation sections – you only participate in one. 3-5pm and 7-9 pm)

Students will observe rehearsal (divided into two groups) 3-5pm, 7-9pm
The company will be working through material they have created over the past year.
Assignment: During your two-hour observation time, make notes describing what you see and what it evokes in your mind. Don’t try to find the proper terms for anything – find what interests you about what you are watching – it could be one dancer, the music, the way in which the company communicates to one another, things you think you understand, things that you don’t understand. Write these notes as you watch in your dramaturgical notebook. Sketch if you need to. Take photos/videos if you wish (and if the company allows – but don’t just take a photo of video without putting down in words what interests you in the section you record.

 

FRI. 5   No class

 

SAT. 6  
9:00-10:30am. Dance Class in the Studio/Theater with Aakash Odedra Company: “Building A Phrase.”

Students will participate in a one-hour dance workshop.

10:30am-12:00pm     Classroom. What is Dance Dramaturgy?

Read: Dramaturgy in Motion: “Introduction” and “Text” 3-60

12:00-1:00pm LUNCH

1:00-2:30pm   How to use TOME with Sebastian Grube and Leslie Gray  MANDATORY for the first hour. 

Rehearsal Observation Session 2 in Studio/Theater (two observation sections – you only participate in one. 3-5pm and 7-9 pm)

Students will observe rehearsal (divided into two groups switching what they did on Thursday. The early group takes the later period, the later group, the earlier) in two parts – from 3-5pm, 7-9pm.

Assignment: During your two hour observation time, make notes describing what you see – the notes will begin to reflect the methodology of observation and note-taking proposed by Katherine Profeta in today’s readings.

 

SUN. 7

9:00-10:00 am. Dance Class in Studio/Theater with Aakash Odedra Company: “Building A Phrase.”

Students will participate in a one-hour dance workshop.

10:00am-12:00pm     Classroom. Who watches dance? What information does the artist require?

Read: Dramaturgy in Motion: “Audience,” and “Research” 61-138

12:00-12:50 pm. Pre-departure orientation session for the regional seminar. Location TBA.

Rehearsal Observation Session 3 in Studio/Theater (everyone observes from 4-6pm)

Students will observe rehearsal from 4-6:00 pm.

COMMUNITY DINNER:  TORCH CLUB  7-9pm

Assignment: During your two hour observation time, make notes describing what you see – the notes should begin to question how the rehearsals do or don’t consider “audience” and “research” in the composition of the piece and the assemblage of the company –proposed by Katherine Profeta in today’s readings.  At the dinner, you should try and figure out who in the room you’d like to interview and use the communal time to approach that person and set up the interview in case you haven’t yet done so.

 

MON. 8  

9:00-10:00 am. Dance Class in Studio/Theater with Aakash Odedra Company

“How to teach the phrase you just learned to others”

Students will participate in a one-hour dance workshop on the methodology of teaching a one-hour dance workshop using the phrase they learned in the past two classes.

10:00am-12:00 pm. Classroom. “Movement” and “Movements”

Read: Dramaturgy in Motion: “Movement” 139-167

Read: I Want to Be Ready: Improvised Dance as a Practice of  Freedom. Introduction (p1-28) Chapter 3: Contact Improvisation and Techniques of Nonviolent Protest (94-111) and Conclusion: Exquisite Dancing—Altering the Terrain of Tight Places (139-end).

Rehearsal Observation Session 4 in Studio/Theater (two observation sections – you only participate in one. 5-6pm and 7-8pm)

Students will observe rehearsal (divided into two groups switching what they did on Sunday. The early group takes the later period, the later group, the earlier) in two parts – from 5-6pm, 7-8pm. From 6-7pm Students will meet in C3-144 to work on the phrases learned in the morning class.

Assignment: Continue journaling.

 

TUES. 9

9:00-10:00 am. Dance Class in Studio/Theater with Aakash Odedra Company

“How to teach the phrase you just learned to others”

Students will participate in a one-hour dance workshop on the methodology of teaching a one-hour dance workshop using the phrase they learned in the past two classes.

10:00am-12:00 pm. Classroom. “Interculturalism”

Read: Dramaturgy in Motion: “Interculturalism” 168-216

Read:

About the Port of Pireaus: https://www.theguardian.com/cities/2016/apr/26/athens-under-pressure-city-port-refugee-camp-tourists

About the Eleonas Refugee Camp: https://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/inpictures/2015/09/greece-refugees-camp-150928101923759.html

Interview with Anis Barnat, founder El Sistema Greece: https://www.sistemaengland.org.uk/anis-barnat-from-el-sistema-greece/

Melissa Network, Center for Migrant Women: https://nytlive.nytimes.com/womenintheworld/2016/06/06/a-greek-refuge-for-women-migrants-spreads-love-amid-a-sea-of-hatred/

 

People and Places to know for our trip:

El Sistema Greece: Anis Barnat, Dimitra Raftopoulou

Melissa Network: Nadina Christopoulou

Piraeus Open School of Immigrants/The Hope School: Nikos Agapakis

Notara 26

Acropolis & the Acropolis Museum

 

Assignment: Continue journaling.

 

WED. 10 – SUN 14   TRAVEL TO ATHENS

 

Read:  Natalie Zervou (2015) Bodies of Silence and Resistance: Writing Marginality. Congress on Research on Dance Conference Proceedings, 2015, p 174-101 doi:10 1017/cor2015.27 https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/congress-on-research-in-dance/article/bodies-of-silence-and-resilience-writing-marginality/321B66A9F1027010D75F0A07A6B5F404

Read:  Natalie Zervou (2017) Fragments of the European Refuge Crisis: Performing Displacement and the Re-Shaping of Greek Identity. project_muse_661382

Read through El Sistema Greece website: https://elsistemagreece.com/

View: https://www.thisamericanlife.org/greece/#

 

WED: Etihad 91 – leave Abu Dhabi at 8:50 am– arrive in Athens at 12:20pm.

            Hotel:  Athens Studios 3A Veikou St, Makrigyianni, 117-42 Athens

 

Wednesday afternoon:  lecture/overview UNHCR: Philippe Leclerc,

Wednesday evening: Acropolis Museum

Thursday: Scaramangas refugee camp, Piraeus Open School, evening performance TBA

Friday: Scaramangas refugee camp, Melissa Network, evening lecture by Iliana Fokianaki, State of Concept (art/migration)

Saturday: either Elleonas or Scaramangas, talk by Yonous Muhammadi, Greek Forum of Refugees, visit to Notara 26.

Sunday: Acropolis (am),

 

SUN: Etihad 90 – Leave Athens at 13:40—arrive in Abu Dhabi at 20:25

 

MON. 15

10:00am-1:00 pm. Classroom

Readings TBA (in consultation with Aakash) – on influential dance forms for this piece.

In Class: Organize and compile digital book

View in Theater: evening rehearsal as necessary.

Assignment: Complete interviews with company and transcriptions.

 

TUES. 16  

10:00am-1:00 pm. Classroom

Lecture/Discussion: Aakash Odedra, choreographer; Lou Cope, dramaturg

From Aesthetics to Politics. A talk on Aakash & Lou’s collaborative process.

In Class: Organize and compile digital book

View: evening rehearsals as necessary.

 

WED. 17

10:00am-1:00 pm. Classroom

In Class: Organize and compile digital book

View: evening rehearsal as necessary.

 

THURS. 18

10:00am-1:00 pm. Classroom

11am: Present Digital book to the Aakash Odedra Company.

2 pm: In the theater: Aakash Odedra Company showing of work to date (invited audience). Students will videotape and add to the final digital book.

 

Texts:

Giorgio Agamben.  1995. “We Refugees. Giorgio Agamben Symposium; Summer 1995; 49, 2; Periodicals Archive Online pg. 114.  Online: https://thehubedu-production.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/1836/1e788430-c11e-4036-8251-5406847cd504/AgambenWeRefugees.pdf

Hannah Arendt. 1943.  “We Refugees.” In Marc Robinson (Ed.), Altogether Elsewhere: Writers on Exile,  New York and London: Farber & Farber.  Retrieved from https://www-leland.stanford.edu/dept/DLCL/files/pdf/hannah_arendt_we_refugees.pdf

Athena Athanasiou. 2006. “Bloodlines: Performing the Body of the ‘Demos’, Reckoning the time of the ‘Ethnos’.” Journal of Modern Greek Studies 24(2): 229–256.

Ramsay Burt. 2016. Ungoverning Dance: Contemporary European Theater Dance and the Commons.  Oxford University Press.

Danielle Goldman. 2010. I Want to Be Ready: Improvised Dance as a Practice of Freedom. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press.

Katherine Profeta.  2105. Dramaturgy in Motion: At Work on Dance and Movement Performance (Studies in Dance History). University of Wisconsin Press.

Natalie Zervou Fragments of the European Refugee Crisis: Performing Displacement and the Re-Shaping of Greek Identity. TDR: The Drama Review, (Summer 2017) 32-47. project_muse_661382

–2017b  “Rethinking fragile landscapes during the Greek crisis: precarious aesthetics and methodologies in Athenian dance performances.”  Research in Drama Education: The Journal of Applied Theatre and Performance. Vol. 22, Iss. 1, 2017.

–2015.  “Bodies of Silence and Resistance: Writing Marginality.” Congress on Research on Dance Conference Proceedings, 2015, p 174-101 doi:10 1017/cor2015.27  https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/congress-on-research-in-dance/article/bodies-of-silence-and-resilience-writing-marginality/321B66A9F1027010D75F0A07A6B5F404

 

Digital Resources:

https://www.theguardian.com/cities/2016/apr/26/athens-under-pressure-city-port-refugee-camp-tourists

https://www.thisamericanlife.org/greece/#