critical-analysis-paper-dance-on-screen-1
Thoughtfully choose two scenes (from a movie, two music videos, two ads, etc) in which dance is central. Analyze the dance contained within the film/music video through a sociocultural and historical lens. Make a clear, incisive argument as to how the dancing contained within the film/music video celebrates/participates in or subverts/challenges a hegemonic ideology. For example, you could discuss gender binaries, heteronormativity, racial stereotypes, gender stereotypes (males as the stronger sex, women as sex objects), consumerism, or any other ideology that is common/dominant in U.S. culture. Your thesis should be a well-written sentence that argues whether and how the hegemonic ideology is either contested or propagated through your chosen dance on screen, and why this is important to analyze.
In your introduction, give some historical examples that support the fact that the chosen ideology is in fact hegemonic. If your ideology is black racial stereotypes, for example, you might mention black face minstrelsy, historic examples of the Jezebel, Sapphire, Uncle Tom, or Sarah Baartman and Josephine Baker as examples of black exoticism. Then, using rich movement description, analyze the dance as well as the movement of the camera in two specific scenes in your chosen film. What do the movements look like? What metaphors or narratives do the movements convey? How are the movements in conversation with your chosen hegemonic ideology? What is the deeper meaning and purpose of the dancing, beyond the surface level narrative that encompasses the dance? Include at least two theoretical concepts from class in your analysis. For example: the male gaze, fetishism, liminality, appropriation/borrowing, whitewashing, the booty video formula, etc. These concepts should be used to DEEPEN your analysis.
Use the dance piece itself as one of the primary texts for your paper. Choose and unpack two specific scenes where dance is central. GO DEEP. Don’t try to tell the whole history of racism or the whole biography of the choreographer in your paper. Focus on the deconstruction and analysis of movement in the music video/film. You should cite at least two scholarly sources from outside research, in addition to two sources from class and the dance “text” (video/film) you are analyzing. Websites DO NOT COUNT as scholarly sources. You may use websites to supplement your research, but the bulk of your research should come from scholarly sources such as books or journal articles. Please include a separate works cited page, in MLA format.
