As part of our ongoing colloquium series, Dr. Daniel Belgrad will be giving a talk about the expression of environmentalist ideas and thinking in the 1970s through film and dance. After the talk, there will be a Q&A.
Abstract and speaker biography:
Environmentalism in the 1970s was characterized by a new emphasis on empathy with nature. It became widely accepted that animals have feelings, and therefore rights. This came as a result of a new way of thinking about what constitutes “intelligence,” broadening it to include what we would now call affect. In this context, “dance” was an important metaphor for interspecies communication. I will discuss the works of several key figures in this vein, including choreographer Simone Forti, “horse whisperer” Ray Hunt, and filmmaker Carroll Ballard (Rodeo and The Black Stallion).
Daniel Belgrad is an Associate Professor of Humanities and Cultural Studies at the University of South Florida, specializing in American cultural and intellectual history since 1950. He is the author of The Culture of Spontaneity: Improvisation and the Arts in Postwar America (University of Chicago Press), and has taught and lectured in Mexico, Ukraine, and Croatia. He is currently writing a book about ecological thinking in 1970s America, tentatively titled The Culture of Feedback.
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