Topics in Performance Studies (330-0-25)

Topic

Performing Africa

Instructors

Oladotun Babatope Ayobade

Meeting Info

AM Swift Krause Studio 103: Thurs 4:00PM - 6:50PM

Overview of class

This course invites students to imagine themselves as creators and curators, rather than as passive consumers or critics, of African images. We will engage storytelling, photography, devised theater, and movement as creative strategies with which to probe the idea of Africa; and explore historical and contemporary discourses that underpin ideas about Africa in the West. We will also examine the social and imaginative worlds constructed by African artists themselves, alongside the embodied, creative work they create to capture multifaceted realities of what it means to be African today. As a community of learners, we will collectively engage the possibilities and limits of several performance strategies (i.e., reenactment, play, and revision) in approaching a diverse continent with a lively global image. Over the course of the semester, students will produce multiple performance pieces, while cultivating a critical eye for the works of African artists and engaging in generous critique of one another's efforts.
Previous performance experience is not a requirement.