Warm Up: Sydnie Mosley
**Note: Bring computers, iPads, tablets, smartphones, etc to class.**
This class will include an in-class tutorial in Garageband (or similar), giving students time to engage in hands-on work to create their own soundscape in class, using students’ collected sounds as a starting point. Students will share their collected sounds with all group members, so every member of the group has the same three (or more) recordings to work with. In-class, we will experiment with using these three (or more) sounds — and only these sounds — to create a soundscape. After in-class work on soundscapes, we will screen them in class, and experiment with pairing them with movement in the studio.
ASSIGNMENT (due in class 9/14): Bring collected sounds to class from The High Line (3; 30 seconds each). Bring to class, loaded onto computers.
ASSIGNMENT (due in class 9/21, but important for your Highline topic due 9/20): Highline Readings (Found on A&R Bb site and with links below):
Chapman, Arthur. “Death Avenue,” New York’s Safest Street.” New York Tribune, August 28,1921.
9/15 Tues. (7pm): WK 4 PERFORMANCE—
Tree of Codes @ Park Avenue Armory (643 Park Ave, between 66th and 67th Streets).
Click here for directions.
9/18 Fri. (9:45am–12:15pm): WK 4 A&R CLASS—NYC HISTORY AND DANCE: Five Points, Gangs of New York and Irish Immigration. @ Gibney Conference Room.
Snack: Kelsey & Al
*Ticket Due Money to Sally*
Of all the blended dance forms, American tap dance stands out as the most brilliant example, which emerged from the Five Points. The immigrant translocations in the early 1800s transformed into an eruption of immigrants in the 1840s as the Irish Potato Famine pushed Irish immigrants to the U.S; many never left NYC Five Points. Jacob Riis’ seminal book, How the Other Half Lives, is a devastating photo-journalistic proof of horrific tenement conditions. Free or emancipated African Americans were also in Five Points, cohabiting with Irish, Germans, and Eastern Europeans and igniting new forms of “American” social dancing. (After class we can easily walk together to the meeting point of our tour.)
READINGS: **Note: This is a heavy reading week.**
Sommer, Sally. “Tap Dance,” International Encyclopedia of Dance. Ed. S.J. Cohen. Oxford University Press, 1998, pp. 95-103.
Sante, Luc. Low Life: Lures and Snares of Old New York. New York: Farrar Straus Giroux, 1991, Chap. 2, pp.1-22 (focus on tenement life in more detail).
Riis, Jacob A. “How the Other Half lives.” Skim, Chp. 1, 16, 17.
Malone, Jacqui. Steppin’ on the Blues: The visible rhythms of African American Dance. University of Illinois Press, 1996, pp.70-90.
——Fri. (12:45-3pm): WK 4 EXPERIENTIAL—Big Onion Walking Tour “Immigrant New York” @ City Hall Park (the southeast corner of Broadway & Chambers Street)
We will meet at 12:45pm for 1pm tour. Bring Student ID to check in. Wear comfortable shoes.
——Fri. (
7:30pm): WK 4 PERFORMANCE—Joanna Kotze @ Baryshnikov Arts Center (450 West 37th Street, between 9th and 10th Avenues)
Click here for directions.
9/19 Sat. (5-6:30pm): WK 4 PERFORMANCE—Summer on the Hudson: Dance Safari @ Riverside Park (Hudson River and 66th Street). **Note: there are no tickets to this show, it’s free!**
Click here for map.
9/20 Sun. WK 4 PERFORMANCE—Here whilst we walk @ Red Hook, Brooklyn (Starts at Pioneer Books, 289 Van Brunt Street) Click here for map. **This is often a confusing part of town to get to, leave plenty of extra transit time for walking.**
——(due on Bb by 11:59pm): WK 4 JOURNAL—Part 1) A&R Research Project #1 topics due (75 words) – see A&R syllabus. Part 2) How have you noticed sound in the performances we have attended so far, specifically in Here Whilst We Walk, and Dance Safari? How might your process of working with sound in class inform your choreographic process, either for the High Line performance, or in the future? What other ways are you interested in exploring sound, beyond as the straightforward accompaniment for a dance?