FEXP 120 Big Chicago: Dance, Sex and Popular Culture This class explores how Chicago's rich dance history and contemporary practices--from the Savoy to Soul Train--circulate throughout and influence popular culture. Readings, discussions, performances and close viewings reveal dance in popular culture as texts that reflect culturally held ideas about sexuality, race, class and gender. The class introduces students to Chicago through and exploration of Chicago's house, footwork and stepping dance cultures, as well as its contemporary concert dance scene. Popular television dance shows Bring It!, Dance Moms and So You Think You Can Dance, and popular performances by artists in music videos, film and television such as Beyoncé, Katie Perry, Nikki Minaj and Taylor Swift are also interrogated to see how they articulate contemporary socio-political ideals through their dancing bodies, or the bodies that dance for them. Social media sites including Twitter, Facebook and Tumblr are critically engaged as pertinent sites of public discourse.