UMS in the Classroom: Wang Ramirez

By UMS

Interested in using a UMS performance in your university classroom? For each performance on the season, we provide suggested curricular connections, links to contextual material online, citations for scholarly material, and prompts for classroom discussion. For additional resources and individualized curricular support, please contact Shannon Fitzsimons Moen, UMS Campus Engagement Specialist, at skfitz@umich.edu or (734) 764-3903.

UMS is also committed to making our performances an affordable part of the academic experience. Our Classroom Ticket Program provides $15 tickets to students and faculty for performances that are a course requirement. Please email umsclasstickets@umich.edu to set up a group order.

Connect:

This performance may connect meaningfully with courses in the following schools and disciplines:

Afroamerican and African Studies
American Culture
Comparative Literature
English Language and Literature
Global and Intercultural Studies
Intergroup Relations
Political Science
Sociology
Women’s Studies
Composition
Theatre & Drama
Dance
Performing Arts Technology
Education
Kinesiology
Public Policy
Social Work

Explore:

Watch Wang Ramirez instruct a workshop on Madonna’s Rebel Hearts Tour, and watch them perform a duet at Breakin’ Convention.
Read an interview with Wang and Ramirez about their shared body of work.
Sebastian Ramirez is a world-renowned breakdancer, or b-boy. Learn about the origins of this performance form in 1970’s New York City in Joseph G. Schloss’s Foundation: B-Boys, B-Girls, and Hip-Hop Culture in New York (2009, Oxford University Press).

Reflect:

Wang and Ramirez’s performance background includes dancing on Madonna’s Rebel Hearts Tour. How do you see popular dance forms being interwoven with modern concert dance in Borderline?
Rigging and cables are used in this piece to making it seem as though the dancers defy gravity. How do these mechanical elements of the work aid in expressing the piece’s meaning?