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Full-Text Articles in Dance

Dancers Of The Book: Yemenite, Persian, And Kurdish Jewish Dance, Quinn Bicer Jun 2023

Dancers Of The Book: Yemenite, Persian, And Kurdish Jewish Dance, Quinn Bicer

Anthós

Despite the cultural significance of dance in Jewish communities around the world, research into Middle Eastern Jewish dance outside of the modern nation-state of Israel is sorely under-researched. This article aims to help rectify this by focusing on Yemenite, Persian/Iranian, and Kurdish Jewish dance and explores how these dancers have functioned and been received within the societies they have been a part of. The methods that have gone into this article are a combination of analyzing primary source recorded dances and existing secondary source research into the dance of these communities. Through these methods, this article reveals how Yemenite, Iranian, …


Dance/Movement Therapy Used As An Intervention To Heal Racial Trauma Within The Black Community: A Literature Review, Jennifer Noboise May 2023

Dance/Movement Therapy Used As An Intervention To Heal Racial Trauma Within The Black Community: A Literature Review, Jennifer Noboise

Expressive Therapies Capstone Theses

The history of dance within the black community has served an important role while living through a racist and discriminatory society. Dance has been used to express anger, grief, and joy during hardships and moments of rejoicing from the black experience. African American people have endured years of trauma and abuse from oppressive systems. Research has been conducted to demonstrate that dance/movement therapy has been effective in treating those who have experienced a form of trauma since the trauma is stored in the body. Examining trauma symptoms such as anxiety, depression, and substance use, the research found these symptoms diminished …


Fashioning The Flapper: Clothing As A Catalyst For Social Change In 1920s America, Julia Wolffe Jan 2022

Fashioning The Flapper: Clothing As A Catalyst For Social Change In 1920s America, Julia Wolffe

Honors Program Theses

Fashion has been a catalyst for social change throughout human history. Fashion in 1920s America in particular reflects society's rapidly evolving attitudes towards gender and race. Beginning with how corsetry heavily restricted women for nearly four hundred years up until the twentieth century, this thesis explores how clothing has acted as a tool for societal progression following World War I and Women's Suffrage and during the Jazz Age and The Harlem Renaissance. Specifically, this thesis examines how the influence of jazz music and dance that originated from Black American communities led to the creation of the flapper evening dress. The …


The Dances Of Diplomacy: French Social Dance Culture In The United States, 1780-1800, Kaylar Gina Moser Jan 2022

The Dances Of Diplomacy: French Social Dance Culture In The United States, 1780-1800, Kaylar Gina Moser

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports

This thesis explores how social dancing in the United States formed a noteworthy aspect of political, diplomatic, social, and class exchange for U.S. elites both domestically and overseas; and how the cultural dominance over dance that France enjoyed during this period created an informal cultural diplomatic relationship between the United States and France in the 1780s and the 1790s. I argue that U.S. elites utilized this dance culture as a form of upper-class status legitimation that could serve diplomatic purposes. This project increases the purview of U.S. cultural diplomatic studies by centering on the eighteenth century and by utilizing an …


Labanotation Of Latvian Folk Dance: Tracing The Story Of Cūkas Driķos Through The Notation Process, Julie Brodie, Valda Vidzemniece, Hannah Russ, Diāna Gavare Mar 2020

Labanotation Of Latvian Folk Dance: Tracing The Story Of Cūkas Driķos Through The Notation Process, Julie Brodie, Valda Vidzemniece, Hannah Russ, Diāna Gavare

Journal of Movement Arts Literacy Archive (2013-2019)

There are many versions of traditional Latvian dances, so determining what to notate becomes part of the process. Tracing the story of the dance Cūkas driķos [Pigs in a Buckwheat Field] for notation purposes became as valuable as the Labanotation score that resulted. The investigation began with a presentational, newer version of the dance, which led to examining the related contemporary, social versions. These were then compared to descriptions in field notes and historic folk dance publications to try to discern the most traditional version(s). In this journey, Labanotation helped illuminate distinctions between the presentational and the participatory versions, as …


Moving Blind Spots: Cultural Bias In The Movement Repertoire Of Dance/Movement Therapists, Ebony Nichols May 2019

Moving Blind Spots: Cultural Bias In The Movement Repertoire Of Dance/Movement Therapists, Ebony Nichols

Expressive Therapies Capstone Theses

This thesis explores the need for cultural diversity in the field of dance/movement therapy and the impact of unconscious bias as it relates to cultural rhythmic patterns, movement styles, and music choices in therapeutic practice. This literature review examines the historical context that has contributed to the field of dance/movement therapy while outlining cultural competency and ethical considerations in practice as it relates to cultural and/or race identity. Common themes are summarized notating the effects of oppression, bias, and trauma on populations of statistically marginalized communities with specific emphases on African American cultural identity. With consideration toward action steps, culturally …


Decolonizing Playwriting Through Indigenous Ceremonial Performances, Jay B. Muskett May 2019

Decolonizing Playwriting Through Indigenous Ceremonial Performances, Jay B. Muskett

Theatre & Dance ETDs

This dissertation attempts to express the importance of storytelling within the Indigenous Theater framework. It does so by first analyzing the progression of the writer’s unique upbringing and analyzing the influences of story upon an indigenous identity. I will also attempt to describe the aesthetics of Native Theater along two lines of methodology which includes praxis described and developed by Hanay Geiogamah and Rolland Meinholtz. I will also explain how the script 1n2ian tries to follow those concepts of Native Theater to create a ceremonial performance that uses a blending of both methodologies.


A Written History Of The Western Michigan University Department Of Dance, Amy Russell Mar 2018

A Written History Of The Western Michigan University Department Of Dance, Amy Russell

Honors Theses

This historical, introspective telling of the Western Michigan University’s Department of Dance examines its development in relation to dance in higher education and dance across the United States. An analysis of the development of dance at Western Michigan University in comparison to other universities and the dance field was conducted by studying professional influences in the field and evolving social, educational, and industry trends. Research from texts written by respected dance scholars was collected, and trade journals were consulted for information regarding current trends in the dance field. Archival research at the Western Michigan University Zhang Legacy Collections Center: Archives …


Bodies As Living, Twirling Sacrifices: Performing Black Girlhood, Liturgical Dance, And The Black Church Tradition, Brianna Heath May 2017

Bodies As Living, Twirling Sacrifices: Performing Black Girlhood, Liturgical Dance, And The Black Church Tradition, Brianna Heath

Cultural Studies Capstone Papers

The purpose of this study is to investigate liturgical dance in the black church tradition as a gendered space. I argue that black girls perform their sexuality as ascribed to hetero-patriarchal ideology—as preached within the black church—through liturgical dance. This ideology akin to politics of respectability separates the sacred from the secular which causes a tension. This tension shows up in the hyper-ness of liturgical dancing. This study discusses this by contextualizing liturgical dance within a history of black concert dance and embodied practices of resistance. This study frames liturgical dance within the black dance tradition, black feminist studies, and …


A Rainbow Of Iranian Masculinities: Raqqas, A Type Of Iranian Male Image, Anthony Shay Jan 2017

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 …


Encountering Greek American Soundscapes, Anthony Shay Jan 2017

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 …


Research And Study Of Fashion And Costume History Spanning From Ancient Egypt To Modern Day, Kaitlyn E. Dennis Miss Nov 2016

Research And Study Of Fashion And Costume History Spanning From Ancient Egypt To Modern Day, Kaitlyn E. Dennis Miss

Posters-at-the-Capitol

Through a generous donation to Morehead State University, research has been conducted on thousands of slides containing images of artwork and artifacts of historical significance. These images span from Egyptian hieroglyphs to the inaugural dress of every first lady of the United States. The slides are in the process of being recorded and catalogued for future use by students in hopes of furthering academic comprehension and awareness of the influence of fashion and costume history through the ages. Special thanks to the family of Gretel Geist Rutledge, faculty mentor Denise Watkins, as well as the Department of Music, Theatre, and …


Perceiving Dance: Examining The Foundations Of American Ballet And Influence Of The Press In Establishing Today's Perception Of Dance, Robyn Jutsum Jan 2016

Perceiving Dance: Examining The Foundations Of American Ballet And Influence Of The Press In Establishing Today's Perception Of Dance, Robyn Jutsum

Undergraduate Honors Thesis Collection

The 20th century for dance brought forth some of the most iconic names and choreographic pieces to date. This time period also introduced the U.S. to the potential for the arts, with attention from the press guiding dance’s way into the public eye. A major focus was the idea of being American and discovering what being part of America meant and could mean in the future. Establishing a uniquely American identity became a goal of early pioneers of dance in the U.S., and the emergence of the Ballets Russes spurred development of American ballet. As American ballet found its footing, …


Digital Expressionism And Christopher Wheeldon’S Alice’S Adventures In Wonderland: What Contemporary Choreographers Can Learn From Early Twentieth-Century Modernism, Kelly Oden Apr 2015

Digital Expressionism And Christopher Wheeldon’S Alice’S Adventures In Wonderland: What Contemporary Choreographers Can Learn From Early Twentieth-Century Modernism, Kelly Oden

Butler Journal of Undergraduate Research

How can classical ballet adapt to a world that is in an ever more rapid state of flux? By uncovering an example of the kind of interdisciplinary artistic collaboration that contributed to the thriving artistic environment of the early twentieth century, a model for artistic success emerges. By examining modernism and Sergei Diaghilev’s Ballets Russes in relation to Christopher Wheeldon’s groundbreaking 2011 ballet Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, a correlation between the success of the Ballets Russes and the success of Wheeldon is exposed. I argue that by applying the modernist practice of interdisciplinary interaction to his own productions, Wheeldon …


Dancing The Fairy Tale, Laura E. Katz Rizzo Jan 2015

Dancing The Fairy Tale, Laura E. Katz Rizzo

Laura E Katz Rizzo

“Dancing the Fairy Tale offers a new historical perspective on the development of the art of ballet, and how women have played pivotal roles as performing artists, directors, and producers. Laura Katz Rizzo uses The Sleeping Beauty as her vehicle and she debunks the prevailing historical narrative that ballet’s evolution has been linear and dominated by male choreographers and directors. She successfully argues that the ballerina is an integral part of the creative process. Well written, and extensively researched, Dancing the Fairy Tale will be a welcome addition to any balletomane’s library, and an excellent text for courses in dance …


Reviving The Reluctant Art Of Iranian Dance In Iran And In The American Diaspora, Anthony Shay Jan 2014

Reviving The Reluctant Art Of Iranian Dance In Iran And In The American Diaspora, Anthony Shay

Pomona Faculty Publications and Research

In this chapter, I look at the various ways in which different individuals--Iranians, Iranian immigrants in the West, Americans, and other non-Iranians--participated in several revival Iranian dance movements, beginning in the 1930s and continuing into the twenty-first century. The new interest in dance that began in this period coincided with a period of incipient modernity and its need to find ways in which to construct a modern national identity. As increasing numbers of Iranians made their way to the West, first as students and ultimately as immigrants and refugees, they discovered that dance as a representational field dovetailed with their …


Preserving Dance Forms In India Through Education And Performance: A Curriculum For Bollywood Dance, Kimberly Martin May 2013

Preserving Dance Forms In India Through Education And Performance: A Curriculum For Bollywood Dance, Kimberly Martin

Masters Theses

This project is a practical curriculum of Bollywood dance that can be used to assist in the preservation of dance forms in India through education and performance. The goal of this curriculum is to systematically equip dancers of all ages with the basic knowledge and experiences needed to excel as dancers and choreographers of Bollywood dance. This will be achieved through practical experience that is built from the basics of Bollywood dance and founded in classical tradition and theory as presented in Bharat Natyam. This curriculum is broken up into four sixteen-week semesters and covers a series of steps, basics …


West Virginian Dancers: The Creation And Development Of The West Virginia Ballet Festival/West Virginia Dance Festival Community, Lauren Angel Jan 2012

West Virginian Dancers: The Creation And Development Of The West Virginia Ballet Festival/West Virginia Dance Festival Community, Lauren Angel

Theses, Dissertations and Capstones

This thesis examines the West Virginia Ballet Festival (WVBF), which began in 1968 and became the West Virginia Dance Festival (WVDF) in 1981. This work studies the four groups that made up the festival community, including the West Virginia performance dance teachers who founded the festival, the West Virginia performance dance students who attend the events, the out-of-state professional guest artists who taught and performed at the festivals, and the nonartistic professional administrators who organized the WVDF. The WVBF/WVDF was part of West Virginia regional culture and the national performance dance boom. I argue that performance dance must be incorporated …


Red Detachment Of Women And The Enterprise Of Making ‘Model’ Music During The Chinese Cultural Revolution, Clare Sher Ling Eng Jan 2009

Red Detachment Of Women And The Enterprise Of Making ‘Model’ Music During The Chinese Cultural Revolution, Clare Sher Ling Eng

Music Faculty Scholarship

Artworks produced with official sanction during periods marked by turmoil and human suffering are challenging subjects for scholars who would like to discuss them in a fair and responsible manner. If they aestheticize the works’ form and political affiliation, how would they be doing justice to these works whose creation and content are so meshed with the politics of their time? On the other hand, can an approach that takes ideology into account be developed that does not appear to ignore, condone or support the odious acts of violence associated with those periods? This article explores the latter question with …


Dance And Human Rights In The Middle East, North Africa, And Central Asia, Anthony Shay Jan 2008

Dance And Human Rights In The Middle East, North Africa, And Central Asia, Anthony Shay

Pomona Faculty Publications and Research

In this essay, Islam itself is first examined in order to determine how individual Muslims justify to themselves and to others the banning of dancing in various contexts. Following a brief discussion of Islam as it relates to dance, some of the myriad dance genres and contexts found in the Middle East, North Africa, and Central Asia are discussed. Finally, I consider the many ways in which many Muslims perceive dance, and then describe and analyze the local reactions to dancing in its complexity. This approach elucidates multiple meanings that create a pattern of behavior within specific cultural contexts.


Dancing Boys, Anthony Shay Jan 2000

Dancing Boys, Anthony Shay

Pomona Faculty Publications and Research

The informal, and occasionally formal, institution of the dancing boy--the term used by most Western writers in their descriptions of the Islamic world--has been attested for centuries by European observers throughout the Middle East, North Africa, and Central Asia, as well as the Indian subcontinent and throughout the Islamic areas of Southeast Asia such as Indonesia and the southern Philippines. These individuals have been called by a variety of names: bachchec [batcha], literally "child" in Persian and some Turkish languages, luti (itinerant performer), raqqas (dancer) in many regions, kocek (little) and tavsan (rabbit) in Ottoman Turkey, khawal in …


Danse Du Ventre, Anthony Shay Jan 1998

Danse Du Ventre, Anthony Shay

Pomona Faculty Publications and Research

Danse du ventre (also called belly dance or danse orientale) most probably derived its name from one or both of two sources: (1) a corruption of the Arabic raqs al-baladi, meaning "dance from the countryside," and (2) a reference to the highly developed movement articulations of the torso and abdomen, which are the most characteristic movement practices of this widespread dance genre. Arabs outside Egypt often call it raqs al-sharq ("Oriental dance") or raqs al-misri ("Egyptian dance"), underscoring the widespread notion that this dance tradition originated in ancient Egypt. No historical documentation exists for the origins of …


Arabian Peninsula, Anthony Shay Jan 1998

Arabian Peninsula, Anthony Shay

Pomona Faculty Publications and Research

The regional dances of the vast but sparsely populated peninsula that includes Saudi Arabia, the Gulf states and emirates, and Yemen are--due to political, religious, economic, and other reasons of access--among the least studied. Historically, the gulf region is one of the most ancient marketplaces, with traders from India, Mesopotamia, Africa, and the Arabian hinterland meeting here for centuries. Influences from all these groups may be discerned in the dancing.


Afghanistan, Anthony Shay Jan 1998

Afghanistan, Anthony Shay

Pomona Faculty Publications and Research

A very conservative Islamic country, Afghanistan lies on the eastern edge of the Middle East, to the west of Pakistan and India. Afghanistan is at the confluence of Iranian, Central Asian, and Indian cultural currents, and most groups within Afghanistan have ethnic ties across the borders. Indian elements are the least felt, but the rhythmic footwork of some solo dancing is highly reminiscent of classical Indian traditions. A variety of ethnic and linguistic groups, each with its own choreographic tradition, reflects Afghanistan's enormous cultural diversity. Its dance traditions, however, are scarcely documented. As in most Islamic countries, dancers are paid …


Lebanon, Anthony Shay Jan 1998

Lebanon, Anthony Shay

Pomona Faculty Publications and Research

In many respects, Lebanon is unique among the Arab states of the Middle East, and this uniqueness is reflected in its dance traditions, particularly in the number of professional performances given. Lebanon is a country more urban than rural, although most residents of Beirut, its capital, have some village relations or associations. Because the nation is small, no village is more than a few miles from Beirut or from such urban centers as Sidon or Tripoli. Lebanon's population is highly educated, and nomads (bedouins) account for only a miniscule percentage. The country's many religious groups and sects--mainly Christian and Islamic--seem …


Kurdish Dance, Anthony Shay Jan 1998

Kurdish Dance, Anthony Shay

Pomona Faculty Publications and Research

The Kurds are a nomadic people whose homeland (Kurdistan) and population (of some 10 million) are now divided among mountainous rural regions of Syria, Turkey, Iran, Iraq, and Armenia; small numbers live in Israel and the Republic of Georgia, (and a separatist movement is headquartered in Paris, France). They speak an Iranian (a Persian) language, and some believe them to be the descendants of the ancient Medes. Without a state of their own, the Kurds place great importance on such cultural forms and identity markers as dancing.


Iran, Anthony Shay Jan 1998

Iran, Anthony Shay

Pomona Faculty Publications and Research

As the locale for one of the oldest continuing cultural, linguistic, and ethnic entities, Iran provides archaeological evidence for dance portrayed on Mesopotamean pottery dated to 5000 BCE (Zoka', 1978). Evidence for continuing choreographic activity is documented in the historical writings of foreigners, from biblical times to ancient Greece to the Persian and Ottoman empires. Iconographic artworks showing dance also exist, such as silver objects from the Sasanian period (224-650 CE) and Persian miniatures from the twelfth century. Iran is, and most likely has always been, a place of immense ethnic and linguistic diversity, a continental crossroad open to influences …


Dance In The Church Of Jesus Christ Of Latter-Day Saints 1830-1940, Karl E. Wesson Jan 1975

Dance In The Church Of Jesus Christ Of Latter-Day Saints 1830-1940, Karl E. Wesson

Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to compile a history of dance in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints from 1830 to 1940.
The following subproblems have been investigated:
1. What was the history of dance in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints?
2. What was the philosophy of dance in the LDS Church?
3. What were the dance forms, music, and attire in dance within the LDS church?
4. What was the contribution of the LDS Church towards the preservation of folk dances in America?