1.What is the name of the first film you will be comparing in your essay?
Save the last dance (2001)
2. What is the name of the second film you will be comparing in your essay?
Street dance (2010)
3.Which of the following themes or concepts will you be addressing in your comparative essay? A maximum of two themes is recommended. Possible combinations include: "race and class," "gender and sexuality," "authenticity and appropriation," "class and social mobility," "agency and identity" and "representation and commercialization." Choose your first theme here. You will choose your second them in Question #4.
Race
4. Please select your second theme here.
5. Please provide your intended research question. Here are a few examples of possible research questions that students have crafted in previous years:
Thinking about issues of gender and sexuality, to what extent are the characters Billy in Billy Elliot (2000) and Adam in Magic Mike (2012) affected by homophobia and fears of the male dancing body?
In what ways does ballet training transmit ideas about perfection and a lack of agency as portrayed in the films in Black Swan (2010) and Center Stage (2000)?
How is the commercialization of hip hop portrayed in the films Honey (2003) and You Got Served (2004) and does this make the performances more or less authentic?
How is class portrayed in the films Flashdance (1983) and Step Up (2006) and how do the characters achieve social mobility through dance?
You may want to draft your research question in a Word document and then cut and paste your text below.
How race and class are illustrated in the films “Street Dance” and “Save the Last Dance” and can they be considered authentic?
6. For this assignment you are required to provide five scholarly articles or book chapters that you will be using in your comparative essay. You will use quotes from each article you choose to support your points or arguments.
You may use up to two articles covered in the course. The other three articles must be ones that you find yourself. Follow this link to the York Libraries website for assistance with finding journal articles: http://researchguides.library.yorku.ca/journalarticles
TIP: When searching for articles, do not enter the name of the film you are writing about. Instead type the dance style and/or theme you are planning to write about. For example, "ballroom and social class," or "ballet and perfection" or "hip hop and race."
Articles should appear in the following format:
Book chapters should appear in the following format:
Below please enter the name of your first article using MLA citation.
Arzumanova, Inna. It’s sort of Members Only: Transgression and Body Politics in “Save the Last Dance”. The Oxford Handbook of Dance and the Popular Screen, 2014. Print.
7. Please provide a quote from your first article that you intend to use in your essay.
Quotes should be a maximum of three sentences long and appear with " at the beginning and end.
After the second " please provide the name of the author and the page number in brackets. For example:
"Dance films reflect current issues and beliefs about the dance techniques they portray" (Smith 29).
“As the film demonstrates, however, racial transformation is restricted to non-black characters only” (Arzumanova 3).
8. Below please enter the name of your second article using MLA citation. Articles should appear in the following format:
Book chapters should appear in the following format:
Boyd, Jade. Dance, Culture and Popular Film: Considering Representations in “Save the Last Dance”. Feminist Media Studies 4.1 (2004): 67 – 83. Print.
9. Please provide a quote from your second article that you intend to use in your essay.
Quotes should be a maximum of three sentences long and appear with " at the beginning and end.
After the second " please provide the name of the author and the page number in brackets. For example:
"Dance films reflect current issues and beliefs about the dance techniques they portray" (Smith 29)
“Ballet is a representation of the dominant classes, and therefore, is ascribed to be a high art” (Boyd 69).
10. Below please enter the name of your third article using MLA citation. Articles should appear in the following format:
Book chapters should appear in the following format:
Jun, Grace Shinhae. Moving Hip Hop: Corporeal Performance and the Struggle Over Black Masculinity. University of California, San Diego, 2014. Print.
11. Please provide a quote from your third article that you intend to use in your essay.
Quotes should be a maximum of three sentences long and appear with " at the beginning and end.
After the second " please provide the name of the author and the page number in brackets. For example:
"Dance films reflect current issues and beliefs about the dance techniques they portray" (Smith 29).
“Many will agree that hip hop’s authenticity is represented by the young black male” (Jun 10).
12. Below please enter the name of your fourth article using MLA citation. Articles should appear in the following format:
Book chapters should appear in the following format:
Sachs, Aaron Dickinson. The Hip-Hopsploitation Film Cycle: Representing, Articulating, and Appropriating Hip-Hop Culture. University of Iowa, 2009. Print.
13. Please provide a quote from your fourth article that you intend to use in your essay.
Quotes should be a maximum of three sentences long and appear with " at the beginning and end.
After the second " please provide the name of the author and the page number in brackets. For example:
"Dance films reflect current issues and beliefs about the dance techniques they portray" (Smith 29).
“There is pressure to ensure that the product reaches the largest possible audience, which, in the case of the US, is white people” (Sachs 96).
14. Below please enter the name of your fifth article using MLA citation. Articles should appear in the following format:
Book chapters should appear in the following format:
Sanchez, Tani. Understanding Black American Aspects in Hip Hop Cinema. Sentia Publishing, 2015. Print.
15. Please provide a quote from your fifth article that you intend to use in your essay.
Quotes should be a maximum of three sentences long and appear with " at the beginning and end.
After the second " please provide the name of the author and the page number in brackets. For example:
"Dance films reflect current issues and beliefs about the dance techniques they portray" (Smith 29).
“Her talent in urban expressive culture eventually enables her to find success with in larger white environments” (Sanchez 52).
