Digital Commons Network^™

Interactions Of Dance And Mathematics: A Closer Look At Mathematical Sequences As Scores For Choreography From A Choreographic Lens, Caroline Wolfe

The Transdisciplinary STEAM+ Journal

This paper investigates the embodiment of infinite mathematical sequences through concert contemporary dance, examining how choreography can serve both as an artistic and analytical tool for exploring numerical patterns. Grounded in interdisciplinary literature on mathematical visualization in choreography, the study centers on two original choreographic works presented and performed at Missouri State University: Golden Ratio Sequence (Spring 2025), which maps the Fibonacci sequence and the natural applications of the Golden Ratio onto a spiral floor pattern, and Tetrahedral Numbers (Fall 2024), which employs an accumulation score to embody three-dimensional number growth through layered movement motifs and body created tetrahedra. The …

What Remains, Hailie Adamczak

Honors Theses

What Remains is a balletic contemporary dance work that explores the emotional complexity of growing older, leaving home, and returning to places that no longer feel the same. Rooted in personal experience, the piece examines the tension between memory and identity, questioning whether home is a physical place or a feeling that slowly changes over time. Through movement, music, lighting, and costume design, the work reflects the bittersweet realization that certain people, places, and experiences continue to shape us long after we leave them behind.

The choreography follows a central soloist navigating themes of belonging, conformity, grief, and self-discovery. Structured …

Copyright On Stage: Protecting The Directions Behind The Performance, Eliana Sakin

The Journal of Business, Entrepreneurship & the Law

In this comment, the author argues that theatrical stage directions should be recognized as copyrightable material under the U.S. Copyright Act, primarily by categorizing them as "choreographic works". Sakin highlights that while the 1976 Copyright Act explicitly protects choreography and pantomimes, stage directions—which serve as the "blueprints" for a production's blocking, technical cues, and artistic mood—currently exist in a legal gray area. Through an analysis of historical context and industry disputes, such as the Urinetown and The Most Happy Fella settlements, the author illustrates a growing industry recognition of a director’s staging as a protectable, original contribution, despite the lack …

Stories We Become (April 23, 25, 2026), Lindenwood University

Student Dance Programs & Brochures

Event program for Stories We Become (April 23, 25, 2026), Lindenwood University.

The Boys From Syracuse, Richard Rodgers, Lorenz Hart, George Abbott

Taylor Theatre Playbills

The playbill for Taylor University's performance of The Boys from Syracuse with music by Richard Rodgers, lyrics by Lorenz Hart, and the book by George Abbott.

Performed April 23-26, 2026 in the Mitchell Theatre at Taylor University.

The Boys from Syracuse by Rodgers and Hart is based on the play The Comedy of Errors by William Shakespeare, likely written in the late 16th century. As is common for many Shakespearean plays, he adapted an older story, Plautus' Menaechmi, into his classic farce about two sets of twins, separated by a tragic sea accident, who find each other after many …

Stories We Tell (April 22, 24, 2026), Lindenwood University

Student Dance Programs & Brochures

Event program for Stories We Tell (April 22, 24, 2026), Lindenwood University.

Still Within Reach, Lauren Matz

Honors Theses

For my Graduating Presentation and Honors Thesis, I created a piece based on my two sister and me, as I found myself yearning for our moments together while growing up but recognize that we will never be that age and all together again. The idea of being apart is scary, but inevitable, and rather than dwell on the idea of it, I wanted to create a piece of reflection and growth for all three of us.

During the development of my concept, I revisited old home videos and journaled out a path of how the piece would progress. The first …

Identidad Flamenca: Formation Of And Negotiations With The Flamenco Identity, Kayla Lyall

Theatre & Dance ETDs

The core of this dissertation is an inquiry into belonging in flamenco. Expanding beyond the personal, it examines how flamenco identity is constructed through embodiment and practice. Challenging dominant narratives of purity and authenticity, I argue that identity in flamenco emerges through multiple pathways—including inheritance, training, cultural proximity, and artistic inquiry—and is continually reshaped by social, political, and aesthetic forces. Through phenomenology and practice-as-research, I position the body as an archive of knowledge and a site of meaning-making. My creative project, NUDE, serves as an embodied investigation into vulnerability, lineage, and self-definition, demonstrating identity as something enacted rather than …

A History Of Dance At The University Of South Carolina: Celebrating A 50-Year Legacy, Olivia Sherman

Senior Theses

Since its founding in 1976, the University of South Carolina’s Dance Program has developed from a small performance initiative into one of the nation’s leading collegiate dance programs. Despite its artistic achievements and community engagement, little scholarly work has traced the program’s evolution or its impact at USC and the broader South Carolina arts community. Existing documentation is largely preserved in departmental archival materials, most notably the Betsy Blackmon Dance Program Archival Binders, which compile decades of newspaper articles, programs, press releases, and commentary that chronicle the program’s first fifty years. This project investigates how the program has evolved in …

Concert Intime

Dance Programs

No abstract provided.

Eurydice, Sarah Ruhl

Taylor Theatre Playbills

The playbill for Taylor University's performance of Eurydice by Sarah Ruhl.

Performed February 20-22, 2026 and February 27-March 1, 2026 in the Mitchell Theatre at Taylor University.

Eurydice, written by Sarah Ruhl, retells teh familiar myth of Orpheus - but this time, the story unfolds from Eurydice's perspective. That shift matters. Instead of centering heroic rescue, the play centers interior experience: grief as it is felt, memory as it flickers, love as it is complicated by loyalty, doubt, and longing. By allowing Eurydice to be the narrative voice, the play asks us to inhabit loss from the inside rather …

Works In Progress

Dance Programs

No abstract provided.

Winter Dance Concert (January 29-31, 2026), Lindenwood University

Student Dance Programs & Brochures

Event program for the Winter Dance Concert (January 29-31, 2026), Lindenwood University.

The Shape Of The Wind: How Our Homes Create Us, And We Create Them, Ava Norris

Dance Department Honors Papers

No abstract provided.

One, And Other, One Another, Another (Again): A Historical And Embodied, Kinetic And Theoretical Investigation Of Otherization, Emily Brankman

Dance Department Honors Papers

This thesis investigates otherization and its use as a tool for power through theoretical, historical, and movement based investigations. Over the course of this academic year, I worked with a group of Connecticut College dancers in weekly rehearsals to build choreography and to hold discussions. This took place alongside external, independent research into thinkers and artists from Jean-Jacques Rousseau to Martha Graham, theories by historians such as Edward Said, and both historical and current events. These elements were not approached sequentially, but simultaneously, with the intention that each element influence and inform the others. I reference this variety of topics …

Competitive Dance And The Adolescent’S Body: Considering Pedagogical Approaches To Teaching Competitive Dancers, Catri E. G. Barba

Dance (MFA) Theses

Diving into the past and researching for the future, this thesis explores the development and perpetuation of hyper-sexualized adolescent bodies through the competitive dance scene. Drawing on dance theorists, educational theorists, and embodied research (i.e., the author’s body archive), this thesis explores how the competition gaze is performed for and by a capitalist patriarchy. Specifically, this thesis critically reflects on the author’s career as a young competitive dancer in the greater Los Angeles, California, area during the 1990s and 2000s, as well as a competition dance instructor and K-12 educator for two decades, and how those personal experiences have shaped …

Dancing With Ghosts: Memory And Melancholy In The Subversive Artist, Caley R. Vancil

Dance (MFA) Theses

This thesis examines how subversive artists use autonomy and memory to imagine new ways of existing beyond systemic violence. Through analysis of theory and performance studies, it highlights the efforts and risks these artists take to challenge representation and the political aspects of embodiment. The interconnected roles of language, power, and imagination are emphasized as essential to creating a more just and liberated world.

Accompanying this research is a dance piece that responds to the sorrows within American society. Developed as an improvisational score, the dance becomes a process of reinvention, employing movement and imagination to seek collective solutions. The …

Ibeji: Screendance As Living Archive, A Manuscript For Live Performance, Quentin W. Sledge

Dance (MFA) Theses

This work is a multimedia live performance that simultaneously moves through a live archival process which captures the essence of the work. It asks: how can dance archives evolve into participatory, user-centered repositories that account for the embodied and ephemeral nature of dance, and how might screendance expand archives into interactive, co-curated spaces that sustain liveness beyond preservation? Grounded in archival theory, Africana Aesthesis over Euro-Western Aesthetics, and auto-ethnographic practice, this project responds to the historic limitations of Euro-Western archival systems, particularly their inability to hold the spiritual, cultural, and embodied dimensions of dance.

The objective of this research is …

Theatre And Dance As Divine Purpose: Liberating The Christian Performer In Pursuit Of Artistic Worship, Abby Owen

Dance (MFA) Theses

This study examines the historical relevance of theatre and dance alongside religious forms of worship, with a particular emphasis on their integration into Christian churches of the Middle Ages, in comparison to the current Western era. Beginning with their origin, this research examines the creation of theatre and dance in Ancient Greece as a means of connecting with spiritual deities, tracing their recorded transition into accepted acts of everyday worship by Christian leadership. At the same time, this research scrutinizes contemporary congregations’ lack of artistic incorporation, denouncing the rise of restricted worship in response to present-day condemnation of the female …

Maternal Becoming: Reimagining Transformation Through Reverse Metamorphosis, Terese M. Cardamon

Dance (MFA) Theses

This thesis research investigates how pregnancy and early motherhood reshape identity, agency, and one’s relationship with the body and interrogates the narrative that frames motherhood as inherently joyful. Focusing on matrescence, meaning the process of becoming a mother, the project explores this transformation through the myth of Demeter and Persephone, the author's lived experience, and scholarly frameworks that center feminist perspectives, and includes an embodied exploration that integrates literature, poetry, and movement. Central to this inquiry is the unsettling experience of a transforming body and the visceral, horrific sensation of becoming unfamiliar to oneself. The concept of reverse metamorphosis, a …

My Body Is Bad, Daintry Tennapel

Dance (MFA) Theses

my body is bad is an integrative endeavor that critically examines cultural and theological teachings within the Evangelical Church, focusing on the rise of Purity Culture and its connections to a broader history of patriarchy and white supremacy in America. This work investigates the psychological, emotional, sexual, and spiritual impact on women raised within Purity Culture, analyzing its core teachings and the systems that perpetuate them. By exploring the intersection of political, societal, and religious ideologies, this work interrogates how these forces—manifested through Purity Culture narratives—shape women’s identities, self-worth, and sexual agency. This work combines scholarly research, survivor testimonies, and …

Reflecting Their Gaze: Resisting Distorted Perceptions Of Self And Other As Object, Francesca F. Harman

Dance (MFA) Theses

This thesis is an investigation into ways of seeing, constructions of otherness, objectification, influences on self-perception, and most urgently, how artists can resist objectification through the affirmation of their own subjectivity. Drawing from scholarship in feminist theory, performance studies, visual culture studies, and film theory, this thesis engages the writing of thinkers such John Berger, Jean-Paul Sartre, bell hooks, Rae Langton, Ann Pellegrini, Martha Nussbaum, and Coco Fusco. This thesis critically examines the way in which comparison, perceived lack, and fear of the Other contribute to constructions of identity. Distorted perception is at the root of objectification, and often leads …

Rediscovering The Hidden Nan Yumiao (Mysterious Rain), Katherine E. Nettles

Dance (MFA) Theses

This thesis explores complex themes of becoming, belonging, and how they shape identity through the perspective of transracial adoption. The investigation draws from personal experiences, cultural texts, and nature vs. nurture research. Combining self-reflection with scholarly sources allows for a broader picture of adoption trauma rather than a fixed bias. The author's research considers the circumstances surrounding adoption, including birth parents giving their child up due to social, economic, legal, or political constraints. This thesis examines finding a place of belonging in public, in community, in family, and in society. This concept of belonging has different meanings based on people's …

Servant Leadership: A Directing Approach, Charles Hearn

Theses and Dissertations

When involved with traditional stage directing, the process may feel very hierarchical, and only a few voices are heard when decisions are made; such is the method of the directing approach. Servant leadership, ideals argue that it is more beneficial to rely on others and dismantle unnecessary hierarchies when available, to not just enhance the product but the people and the process itself. Stage directing from a leadership perspective can not only perform the task at hand, directing, but also enhance the people involved with the production using a process like that found in servant leadership. This thesis focuses on …

Symbolism And Choreographic Practice: Exploring The Application Of Symbolism To Dance Through The Creation Of A Solo Choreographic Work, Ruby Brazzalotto

Theses : Honours

This research project explored the significance of symbolism as a communicative tool within dance theatre. The project drew upon Symbolist theory and Pina Bausch’s choreographic approaches, in an attempt to understand how the symbolic use of props and gestural movement can communicate and elevate meaning within dance performance. This project involved the creation of a new solo dance work, self-reflexivity, and analysis of how Bausch’s and Symbolists’ modes of presenting ideas overlap. The project sought to document how symbolic props can be chosen, developed and combined with theatrical choreography to convey meaning to audiences.

Alejo Carpentier’S Ballet Librettos: Eclectic Avant-Gardism And Vicarious Spectatorship, Lester Tomé

Dance: Faculty Books

Book Abstract:

This book is for scholars and students of Latin American and Caribbean literature, and for a general audience familiar with the major novels of Alejo Carpentier. It contributes new perspectives on the marvelous real, magic realism, the Baroque, the international avant-garde, the Afro-Cuban movement, and Latin American music and dance

Creativity Through Thought Exercises: Developing A Personal Heuristic For Choreographic Decision-Making, Jalisa R. Johnson

Dance (MFA) Theses

This thesis explores the development of a personal set of heuristics, or accessible thought tools, that can be used in choreographic or creative decision-making. Through an in-depth study of the visual art of Romare Bearden paired with an evaluation of patterns of the author’s personal history, three tools or “dials” emerge: derealization, contextuality and inversion. A close study of Bearden’s work demonstrates a pattern of repurposing and distorting ideas in ways consistent with the three dials. The author found similar patterns emerge in an excavation of her personal narrative, indicative of a cyclical and prophetic re-imagining of previous life experiences. …

The Divine Feminine Reframed: Dogma And Doctrine, Icon And Flesh, And The Sacred Embodiment Of Reclamation, Natasha Keckley

Dance (MFA) Theses

This thesis interrogates Marian iconography and its role in constructing a moral binary that marks female bodies as either sanctified or sinful. Drawing on feminist and postcolonial theory, iconographic analysis, and historical case studies, the research analyzes how Christian symbology established the Marian Mold: a theological aesthetic apparatus that exalts feminine sanctity through ideals of virginity, obedience, and maternal receptivity while constraining feminine expression. This paradigm, propagated through the British Empire’s colonial regimes, shaped the regulation and reinterpretation of embodied traditions. The thesis investigates these dynamics through two case studies: the Devadasi tradition and Bharatanatyam’s reformulation in South India, and …

The Travelling Dancer: The Exploration Of Strength And Conditioning And Lifestyle Strategies To Mitigate The Risk Of Posterior Ankle Impingement Whilst Dancing Abroad, Emma Tucker

Theses : Honours

Ballet dancers commonly experience posterior ankle impingement (PAI), and while there is research regarding the biomechanical risk factors for PAI in ballet dancers, and mitigation and rehabilitation strategies for this type of injury, there is little research conducted surrounding further barriers posed by international travel. This study investigated the implications of international travel on the risk mitigation and rehabilitation of posterior ankle impingement in ballet dancers, exploring barriers posed by international travel to regular strength and conditioning and lifestyle practices. Three ballet dancers and two physiotherapists were interviewed and shared their lived experience with, or treating, posterior ankle impingement in …

Behind The Curtain: A Literature Review Of Personal And Ecological Risk Factors And Current Multi-Level Interventions For Performing Artists, Christopher A. Robles

Social Work Theses

Performing artists experience psychological distress, including anxiety, depression, burnout, and substance use disorders, at rates significantly exceeding those of the general population. Guided by Bronfenbrenner’s Ecological Systems Theory (EST) and the Person-in-Environment (PIE) perspective, this structured literature review synthesizes research published between 2010 and 2026 to examine individual personality traits, environmental stressors across meso- and macro-systems, and existing multi-level mental health interventions for performing artists. Findings reveal that while traits such as high openness to experience, sensory processing sensitivity, and perfectionism foster artistic expression, they also heighten vulnerability to occupational stressors, financial precarity, social isolation, and venue-based substance exposure. Current …