Issues in Afro-American Development: Afro-Cuba Hip Hop

The course “Afro-Cuba Hip Hop” is a dance class with a difference. Students will learn key concepts in African Diaspora music and dance through lecture demonstrations, films, and excerpts from texts. Students will explore the relationship between music, movement, and community in African Diaspora cultures. Dance styles will be culled from Cuba, Haiti, Dominican Republic, Jamaica, Brazil and the United States - extending from Afro-Cuban liturgical dance to hip hop. The mutually influencing spheres of sacred and secular dance and music will be discussed and compared as well. By the end of the course students will be familiar with basic concepts in African Diaspora music and dance (e.g., call and response, improvisation, etc.), be able to identify and analyze trends therein, and have learned a choreography based on the movements taught in class.