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Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons

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Full-Text Articles in Social and Behavioral Sciences

Sarah Mills, Linda J. Hanes Oct 2015

Sarah Mills, Linda J. Hanes

Study Abroad Alumni

Orphanages in Panama are overflowing with kids wishing they had homes and a loving family, and often there’s an unmet need for a creative outlet for these atrisk children. One WMU student spent her summer to help rectify that situation through teaching orphaned children about expression through movement.


Dancing The Numinous: Sacred And Spiritual Techniques Of Contemporary American Belly Dancers, Jeana Jorgensen Jul 2015

Dancing The Numinous: Sacred And Spiritual Techniques Of Contemporary American Belly Dancers, Jeana Jorgensen

Jeana Jorgensen

In this paper, I explore how contemporary American practitioners of belly dance (as Middle Eastern dance and its many varieties are often called in the English-speaking world) conceptualize not only the spiritual dimensions of their dance, but also how the very notion of performance affects sacred and spiritual dance practices. Drawing on interviews with this community, I describe the techniques of sacred and spiritual belly dancers, how these dancers theorize performance, and how the conflicts inherent to patriarchal mind-body dualism are resolved in these practices. My purpose here is twofold: to document an emergent dance tradition and to analyze its …


Paradigms Of Communication In Performance And Dance Studies, Nicoleta Popa Blanariu Jun 2015

Paradigms Of Communication In Performance And Dance Studies, Nicoleta Popa Blanariu

CLCWeb: Comparative Literature and Culture

In her article "Paradigms of Communication in Performance and Dance Studies" Nicoleta Popa Blanariu approaches from an interdisciplinary perspective the measure in which performing arts (theater, music, ballet, Indian classical dance, folk dance, etc.), as well as ritual performance constitute a corpus that may be analysed by means of theoretical and conceptual tools in communication studies and semiotics. Popa Blanariu analyses the relation between signification and communication in performing arts, between different codes and artistic expressions through which these are realized, between verbal and the other artistic "languages," and takes into consideration how "linguistic" functions manifest themselves within "languages" specific …


Choosing The Right Steps: Management Decisions Of Dance Businesses, Jessica B. Rosina Apr 2015

Choosing The Right Steps: Management Decisions Of Dance Businesses, Jessica B. Rosina

Business and Economics Honors Papers

Fundamental dance researchers have found that dancers have some of the lowest Human Capital returns. Today, the average dancer has a median pay of $15.87. Only six percent of public schools offer dance as a part of their curriculum. This situation poses a threat to the transmission of culture in our country and will have negative impacts. Children receive little to no dance education in public schooling, leaving private dance education organizations as the only option left. Using a sample of 100 privately owned studios in the tristate area, business decisions will be analyzed to uncover the impact on enrollment.


Dancing By Numbers: Dance's Expanding Presence In Library Classifications Of The Progressive Era, Dominique Bourassa Jan 2015

Dancing By Numbers: Dance's Expanding Presence In Library Classifications Of The Progressive Era, Dominique Bourassa

Library Staff Publications

Library classifications are artificial systems that use numbers, letters, and symbols to map knowledge as the basis for organizing the contents of libraries. Inevitably influenced by social forces and cultural values, the Dewey Decimal, Cutter Expansive, and Library of Congress classification systems offer a unique perspective to study the status and identity of dance between 1876 and 1930. From the standpoint of library taxonomies, dance evolves during this period from an indoor amusement with moral implications to a recognized art form and discipline.


The Perceived Effects Of Dance For Individuals With Parkinson’S Disease And Healthy Amateurs, Taylor Marie Mastin Jan 2015

The Perceived Effects Of Dance For Individuals With Parkinson’S Disease And Healthy Amateurs, Taylor Marie Mastin

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The objective of the present study was to compare the effects of dance participation on physical and psychological functioning as perceived by two distinct groups of dancers: dancers with Parkinson's disease (PD) and healthy amateur (HA) dancers. Dancers in the Parkinson's sample group were gathered from participants in the Dance for PD® program, while healthy amateur dancers were recruited from university dance departments and through social media. Both groups were administered measures related to affect, self-efficacy, quality of life, and which aspects of dance classes were most helpful and/or challenging. Several open-ended questions for both groups were included, along with …