October 14 - December 8, 2024

Professor: Patricia Cohen

Tuition: $365 member / $440 non-member

8 Weeks; 2 NDEO-Endorsed PDCs

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This course offers a non-linear overview of dance history in cultural and historical context. Global in its perspective, the course seeks equity among cultures and their dance forms. Students will investigate the social, economic and political impact of dance on society, and conversely, the influence of societal values on dance. While challenging the Western gaze as normative, we will query the influence of social and performative dance, notions of technique and classical dance, the impact of geographical migration on people and their dances, appropriation of dance forms, and the effects of globalization and nationalization. Throughout the course and the culminating research project, students may focus on dance genres that are relevant to their individual studies.

Book Required: Dils, A. and Albright, A. (2001). Moving History/Dancing Cultures. Middletown, CT. Wesleyan University Press.

Questions about this Course?  Email opdi@ndeo.org

"I learned the importance of giving historical context of dancing! Dancing is so much more than just movement–there's such rich history and culture behind it and students need to learn that as much as they need to learn choreography. This course has made dance itself more meaningful and powerful to me, and that will certainly rub off onto my students as well."

"I have definitely updated my teaching materials to reflect the teachings of this course. More importantly, I have raised the bar on myself to investigate my own Western normative gaze and NOT pass that on to my students."

"This course helped me to begin the process of refining and creating the way dance history is approached and taught at my school."

"I liked the coordinated exposure to dance forms with which prior to taking the course I was insufficiently informed."

Patricia Cohen, MA is an adjunct faculty member in NYU/Steinhardt’s MA dance education program, where she developed and teaches courses that explore equity in jazz dance, advocate for opportunities through professional development and facilitate culminating internships. Cohen develops and teaches courses for NDEO’s Online Professional Development Institute, including the recently revised dance history course, Dance History: Furthering Equity Through Cultural Awareness, and two mini courses. She presents regularly at NDEO and other national and international conferences. Cohen contributed chapters to the 2014 book, Jazz Dance: A History of Roots and Branches, Guarino and Oliver, editors, and to Rooted Jazz Dance: Africanist Aesthetic and Equity in the 21 st Century, Guarino, Jones, and Oliver, editors. She co-created NDEO’s 2016 and 2019 special topics Jazz Dance conferences, which were based conceptually in rooted jazz dance and contemporary issue. She contributes to and serves on the editorial board of NDEO’s Dance Education in Practice journal. A founding member of NDEO, Cohen has served on the NDEO Board of Directors, and is a Past President of NYSDEA, the New York State affiliate. She received the 2011 NDEO Leadership Award. In addition to this new course, Pat teaches OPDI-M2: Elements of Movement and OPDI-M4: Developmental Domains.

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