在线教学:表演的重要性

今天, 舞蹈助理教授青木独自一人在演播室里, 通过网络摄像头向学生讲话. 这是欧洲杯竞猜网址本学期的正常情况, 由于COVID-19大流行实施的限制. 这个类叫做 数字时代的舞蹈创作, one of two courses developed by Aoki this year in response to the challenges of racism and the ongoing public health crisis.

这主要是一个以运动为基础的课程, and Aoki takes the students through some yoga moves as a warm-up. 她还借鉴了后现代舞蹈技巧和即兴创作. 由于课程的远程性质, 舞蹈在多个数字平台上进行探索和分析, 包括TikTok, Instagram, 和YouTube. The course regards this on-screen dance as both art and activism, specifically as an expression of the Black Lives Matter 运动 and as a reflection of popular culture.

Aoki describes the experience of teaching to a group of disembodied students as “radically different” from the norm. “I’ve got up to twenty students moving together across the floor in limited space. 一些一年级新生住在宿舍里, others might be at home 与 family members outside the door or even in the same room looking on. 我们只能在有限的空间里工作.” That, 她补充说, is why yoga moves feel appropriate because the yoga mat is all the space you need. “There’s also more emphasis on watching dance and talking about it 与 this class since we can’t fully ‘do’ dance. Usually, when we’re in a theater or studio, we’re thinking about taking up as much space as possible.“鉴于可用空间有限, Aoki’s homework assignments include asking students to perform a face dance and record it on their iPads.

由于课程的远程性质, 舞蹈在多个数字平台上进行探索和分析, 包括TikTok, Instagram, 和YouTube.

乔伊斯·博尔22岁, 青木的课程“不仅仅是舞蹈课,” which is helping her realize that the dance world is about more than just dance. “It is about identity, unity, expression, and so much more,她解释道. “I really appreciate the fact that Professor Aoki challenges not only our physical, 还有我们的精神自我,博尔说。, 一位来自肯尼亚的国际学生目前住在校园里.

Manuela Velasquez '21 says she added this class at the last minute “to incorporate some 运动 into my online days, and because some close friends in the dance department had very high praise for Aretha.“她住在不伦瑞克的校外公寓里, and the small size of her room (“where I don’t even have space for a desk!”) has prompted her to take classes in the housing’s indoor barn area. “班级不试图发挥作用 尽管 the constraints of remote locations,” 她补充说, “but strives to function 与 他们. It also re-tunes my relationship 与 my body and my space every week, and has encouraged me to think more and more about the interconnectivity of muscle, 运动, 和我生命中的能量.”

执行自由

Visiting Assistant Professor of Theater Lindsay Livingston has put together a class that draws on her extensive research in the field of race and performance in the US. 作为一个部门, we are deeply committed to increasing curricular offerings that expand students’ understanding of power inequities and put performance in the context of the systems that produce and sustain power inequities, 尤其是在身份方面, 因为这是性能的重要组成部分.”

这促使她开始创作 执行自由 (THTR 2508). “It’s a class that looks for ways that people from marginalized groups in the US traditionally used performance to forge spaces of freedom,她解释道. 在一堂课上, 例如, students discussed a reading assignment that highlighted the subtle ways in which slaves asserted their liberty through small acts of rebellion against their masters, 比如种植园生产放缓. 他们也更多地关注诸如奴隶起义之类的行动, 拉科塔鬼舞练习, 1961年的自由乘车运动, 以及1969年的石墙运动.

Livingston says the class overlaps 与 disciplines like history and social sciences. “What makes this a theater class is that we are using performance as a way to interpret and understand the past. 我们怎么把尸体放回历史? How do we think of these people not as names on a page but as living, breathing human beings?这些都是学生们纠结的问题.

The class assignments reflect the performative nature of the course, she says. As well as discussion-based Zoom classes and short written papers, 学生被分配的传统任务较少. “一种叫做‘非随笔’,的课程，学生们可以提出自己的论文, 但我没有写一篇研究论文, 他们可以自由选择任何媒介来表达自己的观点. This leaves 他们 free to tackle subjects in ways that are meaningful to 他们.”

Journey Browne '22, 例如, 制作了一本名为《欧洲杯竞猜网址》的指南,” a “how-to” manual designed to help citizens safely assert their first amendment rights. Another student produced a painting focused on the performance of freedom through the simple act of drinking water—a project prompted by the struggle for purity in places like Flint, 密歇根. 23岁的朱莉娅·詹宁斯选择了一种不同的媒介. “她做了一篇音频报道, 讲述她在贵格会成长经历的口述历史, interviewing members of the congregation about their understanding of freedom and their experience performing it.”

“It’s a class that looks for ways that people from marginalized groups in the US traditionally used performance to forge spaces of freedom.”

The other untraditional project the class is working on is still very much a work-in-progress, 利文斯顿说, and it should result in an online exhibition toward the end of the semester. “Due to the small class size—four students—I thought it a good opportunity to use this moment, 哪里的一切都那么奇怪, 为了有更多的亲身体验.同学们, 她解释说, are currently in the process of selecting different locations throughout the US that have featured freedom performances. “They will make an audio performance that a visitor to the site could listen to on headphones, leading 他们 through the geography of this location and what happened there. 这是一个深度合作的项目.这一点很重要, 她补充说, 因为剧院, 从本质上说, 是一种合作的艺术形式吗, 即使人们分开了.