In the Winter 2021 issue of Inform, we celebrated Professor Valarie Williams winning the Ronald and Deborah Ratner Distinguished Teaching Award. This semester, Dr. Williams is using the award funds to create a project utilizing a selection of global scores and archival materials from inside University Libraries Dance Notation Bureau (DNB) Archives, housed in Special Collections, the largest archive of Labanotated cultural dances and movements in the world. “I am creating a teaching project that builds on students’ desires to understand why something is useful, how dance can change the world, and where students can access materials to aid in their individual growth and research/creative potential,” says Dr. Williams.
When Dr. Williams returned to the dance faculty four years ago, she found ways for dance majors and minors to engage with the DNB archives with existing classes, but now with the curatorial expertise of University Libraries Curator of Dance Mara Frazier, Dr. Williams is creating a new course titled “Special Topics: Embodied Access.” The endeavor aligns with the department’s goal of diversifying course content and focuses on reading, embodying and understanding history and cultures through archival access.
“To achieve a student-centered approach to learning, we will mine the archives and students will select two scores from different regions of the globe, engage in the process of contrasting, comparing, and analyzing movement and utilize supporting artifacts from the collection,” says Dr. Williams. “Students determine items necessary to conduct their research for an embodied understanding of movement within its heritage. Ratner support is allowing students the opportunity to design projects that include interviewing international activists, archivists, artists about cultural/historical events related to their selected scores; engage with historians or critics; invite regisseurs of trusts or dance foundations, specialists in cultural documentation, or expert folk dancers.”
We look forward to the many creative outcomes of Dr. Williams’ new class, including student-designed symposia, podcasts and websites. Instagram posts will highlight student discoveries, creative research will spawn informal lecture-demonstrations/performances, and students will prepare presentations at the International Council on Kinetography Laban/Labanotation and, with the guidance of the curator, contributions to the DNB Archives.
