Read this entire section before beginning the assignment. You will need this information for your final presentation.
The Broadway audience plays an important role in the life—or death!—of a musical. The reasons for choosing to see one musical over another may be quite diverse from person to person. The reasons may be emotional or intellectual or a combination of the two. These reasons may also reflect the common interests of a group or community. [In other words, the current social, political and economic issues of a certain period greatly influence the type of musical the general audience wishes to see.]
Imagine I have given you imaginary money, and the amount is just right for purchasing one ticket to 3 individual Broadway shows. Throughout the semester, you will decide which shows you want to see based on a dance from the show.
Pick #1 – Due Sunday by 11:59pm
• View the following three videos.
• Choose your favorite video to analyze for your “Broadway Dance Video Analysis.”
Part 1 – View your video and take notes
A. Watch the dance you chose.
B. Write down notes of your first impressions. (These are just your notes and do not need to be included in your assignment submission.)
C. Use your growing list of dance influences as a resource. Watch the dance a second (3rd? 4th?) time to determine which people, dance genres, dance styles and steps influenced the dance in your video.
[Note: all of the above leads to notes for the written analysis, which begins below…]
Part 2 – Write your analysis of the dance, including the following:
A. Show Information*
- Name of show (year it opened on Broadway) – Show names are always in italics
- “Name of song(s)/dance number(s)” – Song/dance title(s) in quotation marks. IMPORTANT NOTE: If there is more than one dance number in the video, you must name and analyze both!
- APA citation for video. See Writing & Citing Guidelines – APA in your Course Home. To get video info, click on the video, then click the YouTube icon on the bottom right to “View on YouTube.”
- Choreographer(s)
- Dancers – If there is a large company of dancers, list the lead(s) followed by “and Company”, e.g. Dancers: Chita Rivera and Company.
*You may need to do some detective work to find all of the above show info. Here is a GREAT resource: ibdb.com
B. Comments about what makes this dance special – Write a paragraph about why you like the dance you chose. Include details. [“Energetic and upbeat” is great, but not specific enough. “The way the dancers kicked their legs, with such energy, like they were punting footballs…” is much better, more descriptive. Please avoid using “a lot”, which is slang for “many”, “quite a few”, “a large amount”, etc.] Be sure to write about the dancing and what you found interesting, compelling, innovative, etc. A good strategy is trying to “sell” this dance to a friend, with specific ideas to get your friend excited to see the dance.
C. Dance Influences – This is the major part of your assessment… - Write a list of at least 4 influences from our content that you see STRONGLY represented in your dance. All significant influences from our course content should be included.
Influences can include:
People: Are there choreographers, performers, etc. that we have studied who danced or choreographed dance step phrases or styles that you see in the dance? [Again, “energetic” is too general.]
Shows: Does your dance strongly remind you of any of the shows we have discussed so far in the course? Why?
Dance steps/styles: What style(s) or genres of dance do you see in your video? How do you know?
Concepts: Be careful with this one. Sometimes, a dance can really remind you of an influence in a conceptual way. For example, Master Juba is both an influence as a person and Juba could also be used as a conceptual/structural influence for a dance. [Check your notes!] Precision dance is also considered a concept.
Your dance may or may not have influences from all of these areas. List only those influences that are STRONGLY evidenced in your dance. A reader–including me–should be able to see, from your description and your example, a direct connection from the dance influence to your dance. Please do not write up a kitchen sink list. - Next to each influence:
a. Describe characteristic elements of that influence.
b. Connect elements from each dance influence directly to an example of where you notice them in the dance video. Describe the example and include a timestamp from the video.
Part 3 – Check your work
A. Grammar and spelling count for this assignment. Get in the habit of proofreading, or have a friend proofread your work.
B. Check the rubric! Full points are given only for exceptional work. Remember that the depth of your understanding of all course content can be clearly seen in the depth/quality of your work.
Sample Solution
