Humanity

Screendance Assignment - Reading and Viewing

First, I would like you to read the following essay on screendance: https://www.academia.edu/1575346/Does_screendance_need_to_look_like_dance (Links to an external site.)Links to an external site.. Please look up people and names she mentions you aren't aware of, just for context. To give you a basic idea to go into this piece, you can think of screendance as film that includes movement that most agree exists on the continuum of dance in someway. For our larger purposes, let's think of dance as stylized movement most often set to music.

Please read the essay, taking notes on any thoughts you have, any media that comes to mind, etc. And after doing so, watch the following:

1. Ellen Page in Lucky: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=84fYHDEVM2E (Links to an external site.)Links to an external site.

2. King Kunta, Kendrick Lamar: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hRK7PVJFbS8 (Links to an external site.)Links to an external site. 

3. May I Have This Dance?, Francis & the Lights': https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bhtoDhlffsE#action=share (Links to an external site.)Links to an external site. 

4. The Serpentine Dance: https://www.nowness.com/picks/the-serpentine-dance-lumiere-brothers?utm_source=FB&utm_medium=SM&utm_campaign=FB20217 (Links to an external site.)Links to an external site.

5. Want You Back, Haim: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yPQfcG-eimk (Links to an external site.)Links to an external site. 

As you watch, please take notes. Is this dance? How would you describe it? How does the movement express the music, either from a tonal point of view (just expressing the qualities of the music) or a thematic view (reflecting the lyrics). How does it intersect with what Kappenberg is saying about the need for "screendance" to be extended to include more varieties? Are there other artistic elements that are integrated? What do they do for the entire work? No need to turn in these notes just yet, but keep them as we may use them later.

Please write an essay focusing on one of the videos you watched in which you argue that it is screendance (based on what we read) or isn't (i.e. film, etc.). Prove your ideas, using sources, one way or the other. Finally, give your suggestions as to what you would do as the filmmaker to make it film (if you argue it is dance), or make it dance (if you argue it is film).

3 pages minimum, double-spaced, MLA format.