Arts and Humanities Commons^™

Spring Dance Concert, Jennifer Backhaus

Dance Programs

No abstract provided.

The Cuban Diaspora: Stories Of Defection, Brain Drain, And Brain Gain, Lester Tomé

Dance: Faculty Publications

Since the 1990s, many dancers from Cuba have found work in North American and Western European ballet ensembles. This chapter describes how their international dance careers reflect high-skilled labor migration in the global economy, as well as the decentralizing expansion of ballet’s labor market. Migrant Cuban dancers cite a depressed local economy and the artistic stagnation of the Ballet Nacional de Cuba as fundamental reasons for looking for work in international ensembles. Their exodus is also political—extending into the present practices and discourses associated with the Cold War concept of defection. The numerous departures constitute a detrimental form of brain …

Concert Intime, Julianne O'Brien, Jessica Torres, Amanda Kay White

Dance Programs

No abstract provided.

Works In Progress, Robin Kish, Wilson Mendieta, Julianne O'Brien, Tomas Tamayo

Dance Programs

No abstract provided.

Benefits Of Dance For Geriatrics, Eve Robinson

Dance Department Best Student Papers

Drawing from recent related research, this paper analyzes the cognitive, physical, and social benefits of dance for geriatrics. By comparing studies involving both dance and geriatrics from around the world, as well as collecting original data, this work suggests significant positive effects when people age 65 and older participate in regular dance activity. Given the U.S. Census Bureau’s estimate that the number of people age 65 and older will outnumber children under 18 for the first time in U.S. history by 2034, the need for dance for older people is reaching an all-time high. As more long-term care facilities, community …

Bharatanatyam: A Reflection Of The Past And Evolving Embodiment Of The Times, Tulsi Juhi

Dance Department Best Student Papers

This paper examines the art form of bharatanatyam, which is the pinnacle of Indian classical dance that brings together music, art, and movement through the lens of storytelling. With roots in ancient Sanskrit literature and a foundation in the devotional dancing of the dēvadāsis, bharatanatyam’s training methods, audiences, performance settings, gender norms, and dancers’ status is recontextualized throughout shifting historical contexts of colonialism and the post-colonial era. By showcasing bharatanatyam’s historical progression as both a mirror to past traditions and window into the future of endless possibility, this paper illuminates how this respected global art has developed through its far-reaching …

Fall Dance Showcase

Dance Programs

No abstract provided.

Utilizing Creative Dance Pedagogy And Concepts For Teaching And Learning English As A Foreign Language, Riley Lathorp

Honors Program Theses and Projects

Creative dance/movement pedagogy in an English language learning classroom can help nurture self-identity and build cognition. English language teaching through volunteer tourism is growing along with the expectation for English acquisition. Since English teachers abroad are most often not required to have teacher training, this can lead to teacher-centered classrooms, passive learning for students, and a lack of use of creative processes. Research indicates that creative dance/movement pedagogy and concepts as teaching methodology can aid English acquisition and build self-identity. This research is based in an action research case study (IRB approved) which analyzes and evaluates the use of movement/dance …

Company Management For Dance Space ‘19: A Background And Documentation, Devin Mcmahon

Honors College Theses

The position of Company Manager for Pace School of Performing Arts productions was created for the Fall 2019 semester. I had the privilege of being the Company Manager for the first production of the fall, To Clothe the Naked , and then was asked to fill the role again for the final show of the semester, dance sPace ‘19 . I was excited for this opportunity, as it allowed me to take what I had learned and what had been perfected about the duties of the position and put it into my final show at Pace. Throughout the process, my …

Basics Of Stepping Club, Hana Pham, Yara Madit

Honors Expanded Learning Clubs

Originating in West Africa in the 1500s, step has since evolved into a form of dancing that places emphasis on rhythmic movements and high energy. It is commonly used amongst greek organizations and within schools. This club introduces stepping to older children through activities such as stamina, focus, teamwork, and problem solving.

Tap For The Times: A Study Of Contemporary Tap Dance, Elise Wilham

Mahurin Honors College Capstone Experience/Thesis Projects

Tap dance is an American art form that began with the blending of traditional dance styles from English and Irish immigrants and African slaves. Throughout the 20th century, tap dance developed many styles in response to cultural changes that took place. Contemporary tap dance emerged in the latter half of that century and continues developing today with the fusion of other dance genres and new technologies. This research examines tap dance history to create an understanding of how it developed through a historical lens and analyzes the current approaches applied to the artform along with the characteristics and creative processes …

Préface (English Translation), Jonathan W. Marshall

Research outputs 2014 to 2021

A discussion of the role of pain and suffering in butoh and in the work of renowned butoh photographer and artist Nourit Masson-Sékiné (author of the landmark text Butoh: Shades of Darkness, 1987)

The Philosophy Of Dance, Aili W. Bresnahan

Philosophy Faculty Publications

This encyclopedia entry surveys the field of philosophy of dance both within and beyond Western philosophical aesthetics.

Effort Reduction In Articulation In Sign Languages And Dance, Donna Jo Napoli, Stephanie Liapis

Linguistics Faculty Works

Sign languages exhibit the drive for ease of articulation found in spoken languages, particularly in fast and casual conversation, where the methods that reduce effort are shown here to be limited by the need to maintain recognizability. Participatory dance, which uses the same articulators as sign languages plus additional ones, also demonstrates methods of reducing biomechanical effort, analogous to those seen in sign languages, and, again, limited by the need to maintain recognizability of the dance figures/phrases. However, when we look at performance language (here, sign poetry) and performance dance, we find a contrast: sign language poetry uses reduced and …

Moving Through Feelings Integrating Dance And Private Counseling: A Creative Dance Technique Based Curriculum For Children Ages 10-12 Undergoing Talk Therapy, Jessica Bourassa

Honors Program Theses and Projects

According to Private counselors, one of the top reasons children are undergoing talk therapy is because they have experienced a trauma that affects their day to day lives, learning abilities, difficulties with social interactions, and behavioral issues. More than sixty-eight percent of children have experienced a traumatic event by the age of twelve and more than twenty percent of those children develop side effects that can lead to anxiety disorders, depression, suicidal thoughts and other emotional issues (Hamner 1). With these side effects, children often undergo talk therapy in order to work through their experiences and learn to heal from …

Mccartt-Jackson, Sarah, B. 1982 (Fa 1290), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

FA Finding Aids

Finding aid only for Folklife Archives Project 1290. Student collection titled “’Clogging’s Just Clogging’: The Richard McHargue Cloggers and Approaches to Vernacular Percussive Dance Study” in which Sarah McCartt-Jackson conducts an interview with Richard McHargue, a clogging instructor from Richmond, Kentucky. The interview contains McHargue’s early dancing memories, clogging terms, and opinions about the contemporary state of clogging. The collection also contains a partial transcript, fieldnotes, interview questions, content index, photographs, and the recorded audio interview on CD.

“In The Beginning Was Body Language” Clowning And Krump As Spiritual Healing And Resistance, Sarah S. Ohmer

Publications and Research

In the neighborhood of HollyWatts in Los Angeles, dance allows a shift from existing as bodies presented as sites of threat and extinction to sources of spiritual empowerment. Clowning and Krump dancers—their subjectivity and their dancing bodies—negotiate survival from trauma and socioeconomic marginalization. I argue that the dancers’ performances act as embodied narratives of “re-membering in the flesh.” The performance acts as a spiritual retrieval and re-integration of traumatic memories and afflictions into memory through the body. Choreography and quotes from dancers support the claim that Krump and Clowning is “re-membering in the flesh” that enacts self-worth, self-defined sexuality, and …

Year Of Cuba 2019-2020, Nashieli Marcano, Leslie Drost

Research Guides & Subject Bibliographies

No abstract provided.

A Social Dance Intervention To Nourish Sustainable Quality Of Life Outlook In Geriatric Oncology Patients, Luis Alberto Aguilar Montalva

Phase 1

Importance: Social support is a major determinant of health for geriatric oncology patients. Nevertheless, no DMT program utilizes community building as an explicit focus of intervention.

Objective: To design a DMT that fosters a therapeutic approach which relies as much on the interpersonal relationships as on the intrapersonal journey. Design, setting, participants: 12 weeks observational trial of participants, from TJUH geriatric oncology patient population, as they progressed through two series of social dance workshops. The first series of six workshops happened on a weekly basis, with participants filling out a FACT-G survey pre and post involvement. The second series of …

The State Of Dancingness: Staying With Leaving, Jo Pollitt

Research outputs 2014 to 2021

Borrowing from Cixous’ ‘State of Drawingness’ (1993), this article proposes a ‘State of Dancingness’ as method of inhabiting the practice of writing as dancing. Understanding the dancing body as a place of virtuosic attention, the practice of writing is activated as a ‘continuation’ of dancing; neither as creative response or description but as frame for housing (staging) emergent content. The work proposes that the dancer begin on the page from the vantage and experience of entering the stage as solo improvising performer. These words come with this body tucked and pressing inside them. Pressing. The State of Dancingness …

Finding Your Balance: An Investigation Of Recovery–Stress Balance In Vocational Dance Training, Peta Blevins, Shona Erskine, Luke Hopper, Gene Moyle

Research outputs 2014 to 2021

Professional dance careers require years of intensive training. Stress experienced during training must be balanced with adequate recovery to prevent overtraining and burnout. Little is known, however, about how dancers achieve recovery–stress balance. This study examined dancers’ recollection of stress and recovery during their vocational dance training to identify potential stressors and recovery behaviors in vocational dance training. Twelve current and ex-professional ballet (n=4) and contemporary dancers (n=8) participated in the study. Four general dimensions, based on the extant overtraining literature in athletes, were identified: dance culture, intrapersonal, interpersonal, and situational factors. Cultural norms, health factors related to injury and …

Flying Closer: The Intersection Of Circus And Dance, Emma Thomas

Honors College Theses

Dancers entering the professional industry must consider whether to be a jack of all trades, able to perform any style and any skill, or a specialized performer who has achieved mastery of one specific technique. Because commercial dancers require a greater variety of skill sets, and jobs for commercial dancers such as cruise ships, backup dancing, and Broadway shows, are increasingly asking their dancers to perform aerial arts - and circus companies such as Cirque Du Soleil, and Circa are blending circus and dance, I am arguing that a dancer entering the commercial industry has to also consider the value …

Women On The Floor: A Study Of Feminism In Modern Dance History, Hannah Mccarthy

Mahurin Honors College Capstone Experience/Thesis Projects

Modern dance evolves everyday with new movement ideas, styles, and teachings. Not only can modern dance be new and innovative, but it can also be a mirror reflection of the current time period. It is an art form often used to make a social statement. It can become a discussion of the past, present, or future. Modern dance informs its audience through an intent chosen by the choreographer or dancers. The intent varies depending on time, space, emotion, and myriad other conditions. My studies will examine how the different periods of modern dance aligned with the waves of the feminist …

Spring Dance Concert (April 19-21, 2018), Lindenwood University

Student Dance Programs

No abstract provided.

Winter Dance Concert (February 22-24, 2018), Lindenwood University

Student Dance Programs

No abstract provided.

Mountain Dance: A Transdisciplinary Exploration Of Environmental Dance As An Autopoietic Expression Of Ecological Connectivity And Synthesis, Dianne Eno

Antioch University Full-Text Dissertations & Theses

This research explores the complexity of the human-nature relationship through the emergent arts-based lens of environmental dance. The work is guided by a transdisciplinary mission—to actively create bridges and connections between and among disciplines typically thought to be independent bodies of knowledge in their own right: here they merge and become synergistic partners, producing a new way of knowing that is greater than the sum of two independently-partnered disciplines. A transdisciplinary approach opens us to know a multiverse where a holistic perspective expands the traditionally singular viewpoint of the existing predominant Cartesian paradigm. The study allows space for “environmental dance” …

2017 Spring Dance Showcase, The University Of Maine School Of Performing Arts

Cultural Affairs Distinguished Lecture Series

The Spring dance showcase is our yearly event that celebrates dance on the University of Maine campus. This is the culmination of the work of over 80 student dancers and technicians. It plays to three packed houses, and has the highest attendance of any event sponsored by The Division of Theatre.

A Rainbow Of Iranian Masculinities: Raqqas, A Type Of Iranian Male Image, Anthony Shay

Pomona Faculty Publications and Research

In this essay, I will explore the male dancer in the Iranian world, and how he came to occupy this abject position (dance, according to Zainab Stellar, being regarded by many conservative elements in Iranian society today as "the worst possible behavior of an undisciplined body in public, and symbol of all vice" (2011, 235)). Lotfollah “Lotfi” Mansouri, the renowned opera director and producer, recounted at a dinner that I attended (January 27, 2002 Peyvand Organization, San Jose), how one day as a student at UCLA, he entered Schonberg Music Hall and heard opera for the first time. He was …

Wrapped In Greek Robes Of Spirituality: The Historic Context For Isadora Duncan's Dance Performances, Anthony Shay

Pomona Faculty Publications and Research

In this paper I want to address Craig and Duncan’s shared interest in ancient Greek art, which is the context within which Isadora Duncan developed her art, the various influences that inspired her choreography, and the historical time period that influenced the decisions that she made. I want to make several preliminary comments before proceeding to the main claim that I am making, which is that Isadora Duncan, Ruth St. Denis, and other “barefoot” dancers were not the mothers or grandmothers or inventors of modern dance, as is repeated as if it were a religious tenet of faith in dance …

Encountering Greek American Soundscapes, Anthony Shay

Pomona Faculty Publications and Research

For this chapter I will look at Greek American music making through the eyes of a non-Greek, my younger self, who enjoyed and sought out this musical tradition for over fifty years, primarily as a folk dance enthusiast. For the international recreational dancer of the 1950s, 1960s and 1970s, Greek music has rich melodic lines and many different rhythmic patterns (5/8; 7/8; 9/8, etc.) that attracted many individuals of Anglo American background like me to learn these dances, especially in the 1950s, 1960s, and 1970s when recreational and performance folk dance constituted a major leisure-time activity for hundreds of thousands …