Reading comp PrepTest 141 · Section 3 · Question 12

Passage SummaryTopic: Humanities

Paragraph 1

• Paragraph note
  • Artist who drove a striking development
• Views, minor Meta-Structures, and the author's attitude
  • Dunham - "more striking" development - intro of dance-isolation (and others) to American/European dance from African/Caribbean/Pacific Islander cultures
  • Cause - Her background as dancer and anthropologist

Paragraph 2

• Paragraph note
  • Why no one had studied dance ethnology before
• Views, minor Meta-Structures, and the author's attitude
  • Dunham pioneered dance ethnology
  • Two reasons no one did before - 1) Dance seen as "not serious"; 2) Anthropologists didn't have dance background

Paragraph 3

• Paragraph note
  • Dunham's research and divergent approach
• Views, minor Meta-Structures, and the author's attitude
  • Study - Caribbean dance forms with origin in African culture
  • Normal approach (no longer used) - Outside observer to collect data (also, dancing hard!)
  • Dunham - Learned dances - saw cultural practices, and also learned techniques to teach and incorporate

Paragraph 4

• Paragraph note
  • Dunham's pioneering work as choreographer
• Views, minor Meta-Structures, and the author's attitude
  • Dunham method - Research-to-performance
  • Combo of Caribbean dance forms with modern styles (Chicago)
  • One of first to incorporate African American themes into dance
  • Paved way for others

Main Point:
Because of her background in both anthropology and dance, Katherine Dunham was able to study and learn Caribbean dance forms and their African history, understand their cultural significance, and pioneer their incorporation into modern dance in American and Europe, working African American themes into the art.

Key Lines:
Lines 11-16 - The Author outlines Dunham's contributions and what allowed her to make them
Lines 17-18 - Dunham is noted as a pioneer in a field
Lines 31-33 - A difference between Dunham's research and the norm is noted
Lines 52-55 - Dunham's pioneering work as a choreographer is described

Meta-Structure:
Artist's Innovation - Many Humanities passages focus on an innovative artist. This passage goes one step beyond that, showing that the artist was innovative in two areas—one artistic, one scientific. Dunham didn't just pioneer a new type of anthropological research, she also used that research to pioneer a new dance form that incorporated African American themes in modern dance. When a passage falls into this Meta-Structure, the artist's innovation(s) serves as the main point, and that main point also frequently includes her influences or background that led to the innovation. That's how we ended up with the main point stated above.

Last Thoughts:
Whenever we can make our paragraph-by-paragraph outline more than just a collection of paragraphs, we should do so. So when there's a logical structure to it, we should be sure to reflect that in how we outline it. Here, we can do so. The opening paragraph introduces the artist/anthropologist and her background in two fields. The second paragraph notes how that background addresses a shortcoming in studying one area. The third paragraph talks about her innovations in one of the fields. The fourth paragraph talks about her innovations in the other. Recognizing how these paragraphs work together—especially the split in content between Paragraphs 3 and 4—is going to help with finding relevant information as we work through the questions.