How does a movement become a message? How can a single gesture carry histories of culture, politics, and resistance? This course examines how text, movement, and meaning intersect in contemporary art, performance, and choreography. Students will explore how spoken word, embodied action, and viral dance function as powerful tools for producing and transforming cultural value, and how bodies communicate beyond language. The course critically engages the choreographies of platforms such as TikTok and Instagram, examining how gestures circulate, accrue visibility, and become commodified within algorithmic economies. Students will analyze how platform politics and recommendation systems privilege certain bodies and movements over others, asking what happens when movement becomes data or when gesture becomes a form of authorship. The course also addresses questions of copyright, ownership, and the ethics of reproducing and reinterpreting choreographic work in both digital and live contexts. Prompts such as “Whose body writes copyright?” encourage students to articulate their own positionality and accountability regarding authorship, appropriation, and circulation. Readings and viewings may include Walter Benjamin, Giorgio Agamben, Martine Syms, Adrian Piper, Butch Morris, Maya Deren, and Will Rawls. Through theory, discussion, and creative research, students will reflect on what it means to move, communicate, and be seen in contemporary culture.