Smith College's Moodle

This lab is a graduate level seminar and writing workshop addendum to DAN 272 Dance Anthropology: Performed Identities and Embodied Cultures. The seminar situates and integrates ethnographic study with regards to the needs of the artist-scholars of the MFA in Dance program. In its focus on autoethnographic method, the lab is designed to deepen consideration of the positionality of the artist’s practice within the contemporary dance world by placing it in dialogue with current conversations in the field of dance studies alongside an excavation of personal cultural influences. In the lab we address such questions as:

• What is autoethnography?

• What is the positionality of my dancing/teaching/making within a broad contemporary discourse?

• How might autoethnographic research influence my dancing/teaching/making  and how might my dancing/teaching/making be material for autoethnography?

• How is autoethnography similar to ethnography and what makes it distinct?

• Which critical theories am I drawn to and how might I apply them to my work?

• How might I incorporate first-person discussion of my dancing/teaching/making  within my scholarly writing?

As we read about autoethnographic methods and study examples of them throughout the semester, students identify autoethnographic definitions, strategies and styles, as well as a critical lens to apply to their 15- to 20-page dance-based autoethnography (AE), due at semester’s end. This is an autoethnography, it’s about you and your process! Here is an opportunity to weave your personal and scholarly voice, and to take charge through individualized research to continue developing skills and potential approaches toward your final MFA thesis and production.