Theatre and Performance Studies Commons^™

Women Of The Dalit Unrest: Rewriting Bodies, Reinforcing Resistance, Suddhadeep Mukherjee

Tête à Tête: Journal of Francophone Studies

The paper aims to take the scholarship on corporeal feminism and Dalit Studies forward by focusing on the Dalit woman’s body. The body is not treated as an inert surface in this paper but is considered as a transformative medium that can alter its embedded codifications and significations through transgressive performances in the face of systemic and systematized caste violence. In doing so the gendered body not only challenges to rewrite the Dalit epistemology from the vantage of resistance but also initiates a rethinking of Indian feminism. The paper begins with a discursive discussion on the importance of the gender …

Bodies And Expressions: Exploring The Aesthetics Of Disability Performance Art, Jaya Sarkar

Tête à Tête: Journal of Francophone Studies

No abstract provided.

Embodied Digital Storytelling With Ancestral Legacy, Giselle Ruzany

Expressive Therapies Dissertations

Embodied Digital Storytelling with Ancestral Legacy is a study of one's ancestral legacy with a diverse group of professional dancers who were asked to engage in an embodied inquiry. Research questions were: What is the experience of creating embodied digital storytelling when exploring one’s ancestral legacy? What can be learned from identity, sense of belonging, and resilience through this process? The study included an interview about each dancer's ancestral story, the creation of embodied digital storytelling (EDS), a final interview, and a group member checking meeting for the purpose of confirming the transcripts and findings. This meeting also served as …

College Of The Arts 22/23 Season, Department Of Theatre And Dance, John J. Cali School Of Music

2022-2023

No abstract provided.

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 …

A Dancer's Image, Sydney Baker

Undergraduate Honors Theses

Dancers are amazingly dedicated athletes who train for hours a day to try and perfect their craft. In doing so, they can become hyper focused on the details, picking apart every aspect of themselves and their technique. With so much time spent training, it can be difficult to take a step back and analyze the role the mirror plays in a dancer’s training and everyday life. There are many factors that can affect a dancer's body image, including the social environment between educators and peers, social standards and social media, dance clothing, and so much more. This report and creative …

Scaling Up Video Digitization At The University Of Maryland Libraries: A Case Study, Elizabeth M. Caringola, Pamela A. Mcclanahan, Robin C. Pike

Provenance, Journal of the Society of Georgia Archivists

In 2015, a team at the University of Maryland Libraries collaborated on a pilot project to digitize 100 VHS tapes from the Liz Lerman Dance Exchange collection and, in doing so, established organizational workflows for video digitization and access. After completing the pilot phase of the project, staff who worked on the project published a case study in this journal that articulated a question echoed throughout that process: “Is this enough?” Enough descriptive metadata? Enough technical metadata? Enough storage space? This article will reflect on the pilot project, detail how the digitization specifications and workflows established during the pilot project …

Something Rotten!, Otterbein Theatre And Dance Department

2021-2022 Season Production

Something Rotten takes place in 1595 London, England. The Bottom brothers, Nick and Nigel are trying to find success by writing plays, but are outshined by the rock-star playwright of the Renaissance, William Shakespeare. Desperate to find success Nick gets help from a soothsayer for the next big hit.

การใช้อาวุธตัวยักษ์ในการแสดงโขน, สุวรักข์ อยู่แท้กูล

Chulalongkorn University Theses and Dissertations (Chula ETD)

วิทยานิพนธ์เรื่อง การใช้อาวุธตัวยักษ์ในการแสดงโขน มีวัตถุประสงค์เพื่อศึกษาวิธีการใช้อาวุธของตัวยักษ์ในการแสดงโขน เรื่องรามเกียรติ์ โดยใช้ระเบียบวิจัยเชิงคุณภาพ ด้วยการศึกษาจากเอกสาร การสัมภาษณ์ และการสังเกตจากการแสดง โดยมุ่งเน้นให้เห็นถึงหลักการ ทฤษฎี กลวิธีและแนวทางในการปฏิบัติ การใช้อาวุธลักษณะต่าง ๆ ของตัวยักษ์ในการแสดงโขน เรื่องรามเกียรติ์ โดยศึกษารูปแบบและวิธีการปฏิบัติของครูสมศักดิ์ ทัดติ ผู้เชี่ยวชาญด้านนาฏศิลป์ไทยโขน ตัวยักษ์ สถาบันบัณฑิตพัฒนศิลป์ กระทรวงวัฒนธรรม ผลการวิจัยพบว่า อาวุธของตัวยักษ์ในการแสดงโขน เป็นอาวุธที่มีรูปแบบที่เป็นลักษณะเฉพาะ บางส่วนได้รับอิทธิพลมาจากอาวุธที่ใช้งานจริงและบางส่วนได้นำรูปร่างและลักษณะมาจากภาพจิตรกรรมฝาผนัง อาวุธของตัวยักษ์ในการแสดงโขน สามารถแบ่งตามลักษณะของอาวุธที่ปรากฎในการแสดงโขนได้ทั้งหมด 3 ประเภท ได้แก่ อาวุธสั้น อาวุธยาว และอาวุธพิเศษ วิธีการใช้อาวุธแต่ละประเภทก็จะแตกต่างกันออกไปขึ้นอยู่กับชนิดของอาวุธที่นำมาใช้ ผู้แสดงจึงต้องมีทักษะและความเชี่ยวชาญสำหรับการใช้อาวุธประกอบการแสดง ตัวยักษ์บางตน อาจจะการใช้อาวุธที่มากกว่าหนึ่งชนิด ซึ่งชนิดของอาวุธที่ใช้ก็อาจจะแตกต่างกันไปตามลักษณะหรือประเภทของอาวุธ อีกทั้งการแสดงของตัวยักษ์จะมีลักษณะที่แข็งแรงและคล่องแคล่ว ผู้แสดงตัวยักษ์จึงจำเป็นที่จะต้องรู้จักวิธีการใช้อาวุธในแต่ละประเภท เพื่อสื่อให้เห็นถึงความสวยงาม ความแข็งแรง และความสง่างามของตัวละครที่ใช้อาวุธในขณะที่ทำการแสดง โดยเฉพาะยักษ์ที่เป็นตัวละครเอก การใช้อาวุธในการแสดงของตัวยักษ์ในการแสดงโขนเรื่องรามเกียรติ์ จึงเป็นหนึ่งองค์ประกอบที่สำคัญอย่างหนึ่งสำหรับการแสดง และเป็นกระบวนที่ผู้แสดงสามารถอวดฝีมือการใช้อาวุธของตัวยักษ์ได้อย่างเต็มภาคภูมิ

Women Dancers Of Color Decolonizing Knowledge Production Through Performance, Mio Yoshizaki

All Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Other Capstone Projects

This thesis focuses on how women dancers of color (WDoC) decolonize the process of knowledge production through performance. Through a feminist perspective, this research analyzes the ways WDoC use dance and movement to share their voices as women of color. The American concert dance industry was established based on Western perspectives. When WDoC create performances about their own lived experiences, dance plays a role in decolonizing the process of knowledge production by portraying their unique perspectives and culture through movement. Focus group discussions with women of color who perform in a midwestern metro area were selected as a method for …

Breaking Barriers: Creating Inclusive Dance Spaces For High School Students With Cerebral Palsy, Samantha Michelle Barnewolt

Dance (MFA) Theses

Abstract This thesis explores the power of positive mindsets as it relates to creative movement development in dance for students living with Cerebral Palsy (CP) who also use motorized wheelchairs. This research dives into the development of movement mantras used to break negative mindsets and create thinking strategies that encourage movement development for varied bodies. As a result of collaborative efforts between the researcher, a student living with CP, and students living without CP, this study reveals that through the removal of mental barriers which complicate the accessibility of intentional movement in dance, students with CP may overcome obstacles that …

Honor Thyself, Alonzo O. Williams

Dance (MFA) Theses

The black male experience and identity in America are filled with complexity. We struggle to know ourselves. We work to see the way of love and the peace of an unviolated free spirit. We want to engage with ourselves with the highest degree of freedom and comfort, not to continue to question our identity in a life-threatening white patriarchal masculinity ideal. Honoring oneself from the lenses of the Reconstruction era of the United States is essential. Reconceptualizing this history explores the significance of emphasizing Reconstruction in my life as a black male to go through a process of self-discovery and …

Traces: Embodied Ephemera From Here To There, Alice Svetic

Dance (MFA) Theses

This thesis work explores contemporary queer dance making through the concept of ephemera - what is left after performances "end." Taking heavy inspiration from José Esteban Muñoz's Cruising Utopia: the then and there of queer futurity, the research situates one young queer dance maker’s own past, present, and future choreographies as a site for the extraction of queer embodied experience. The textual and written research culminates in a gallery installation which houses a series of vignettes that act as preserved documents of these queer performance histories. The live performance calls the alive, dancing body into the conversation of the ephemeral. …

Healing Through Mother Earth, Taylor A. Russell

Dance (MFA) Theses

This thesis deals with mental health, with a focus on Black women. Historically, Black women are often so compromised, being constant caregivers and helping everyone else, that they forget to help themselves, not having the time and financial means to do so. If we go back in the time of slavery, many Black women were taking care of slave owners' children and suckling the white women’s babies instead of their own. By the time they got home and after diligently caring for other people’s children they were focused on their own children, who they had been away from for hours …

The Means To Escape, Devonn Mckenna

Dance (MFA) Theses

This research interrogates what it means to utilize escapism, transforming it from passive to active consumption, drawing strong ties between performance and social media. Through audience awareness and participation, this research aims to cultivate a social collective within performance viewing and social media. Framing escapism as a social collective experience resists contemporary notions suggesting that escapism is an individual experience. This work argues that social media and performance have become a space allowing for social collective awareness. Thus, escaping together is the only way to move forward.

Tapping In: A Movement Meditation For Wellness, Victoria Rodriguez

Dance (MFA) Theses

Victoria Rodriguez’s thesis paper and accompanying video explore the somatic movement sequence Tapping In. Tapping In was born to facilitate the mind-body connection, muscular balance, and flexibility as well as implement tools for the physical and mental release of trauma. The written manifestation explores the practices that allowed for the creation of the Tapping In movement sequences such as Pilates, Yoga, Emotional Freedom Technique, Physical Therapy, and more. Each method provides a unique and valuable stance on navigating the previously mentioned goals, but no single technique led to the results Victoria was looking for. As a result, it is through …

Different Versions Of Myself, Anya Smith

Undergraduate Theses, Professional Papers, and Capstone Artifacts

This is a research-informed screenplay exploring the relationship between religion and recreational pole dancing. While the popularity of recreational pole dancing has grown over the last two decades, it remains a controversial topic in some circles. This study employed interviews, autoethnography, and a literature review to examine the tensions between pole dancing and religion. Creative Analytic Practice was employed as a method of evaluating and presenting the research, which culminated in a fictional screenplay.

The story is about Louise, a young woman caught between two worlds. She feels pressured to conceal her recreational pole dancing activities in order to retain …

Choreographing The Line: Exploring The Art/Obscenity Paradox Of Feminine Sexuality Within The Context Of Recreational Pole Dance, Cameron Boucher-Khan

Scripps Senior Theses

This project seeks to explore the relationships between pole dance and pole fitness, art and obscenity and respectability as it relates to work, class, and social systems. It analyzes the way female sexuality is accepted or rejected within society and explores the boundaries between the two through the staging of pole and contemporary dance. The dichotomy between art and obscenity is explored in the relationship between stripper pole dance, and the fast-growing pole fitness community. Within this relationship, strippers are demonized as obscene, while pole fitness dancers' labor is viewed as artistic, despite the sexuality present in both. The difference …

Tap Dance In Post-Secondary Dance Education: Why Is It Disappearing And How Can We Fix It, Natalie Riddick

Dance Department Best Student Papers

Tap dance is an artform that is rapidly declining in popularity in dance training, especially in post-secondary dance education. To answer the questions of how and why a quintessentially American artform has so faded in dance teachings, this paper analyzes the history of tap and its creation by marginalized individuals, the Eurocentric legacies that influence our definitions of 'technique' in dance training, and how tap dance is currently being taught today. Evidence for the conclusions of this paper include current discussions of tap among dancers and dance educators as well as a review of recent scholarship on the history of …

รำโจ๋ง ตำบลท่าโรง อำเภอวิเชียรบุรี จังหวัดเพชรบูรณ์, นิศากานต์ ชอุ่ม

Chulalongkorn University Theses and Dissertations (Chula ETD)

วิทยานิพนธ์ หัวข้อ รำโจ๋ง ตำบลท่าโรง อำเภอวิเชียรบุรี จังหวัดเพชรบูรณ์ มีวัตถุประสงค์ เพื่อศึกษาความเป็นมาของการละเล่นรำโจ๋ง และศึกษากระบวนท่ารำ องค์ประกอบของการละเล่นรำโจ๋ง ตำบลท่าโรง อำเภอวิเชียรบุรี จังหวัดเพชรบูรณ์ ผู้วิจัยใช้กระบวนการวิจัย จากการศึกษาข้อมูลเอกสารงานวิจัย การสัมภาษณ์ และการลงพื้นที่สังเกตการณ์การแสดง ผลการวิจัยพบว่า รำโจ๋ง มีพัฒนาการมาจากรำโทน ประมาณหลังสงครามโลกครั้งที่ 2 โดยนายธวัช ธูปมงคล ได้นำการละเล่นรำโจ๋ง เข้ามาแสดงในหมู่บ้าน เป็นที่นิยมสืบต่อกันมา แสดงในเทศกาลวันสงกรานต์ ประมาณปี พ.ศ. 2562 คุณกาญจนา ทองมา ผู้บริหารโรงเรียนอนุบาลกาญจนา ได้นำการละเล่นรำโจ๋ง เป็นหลักสูตรการอบรมให้กับนักเรียน และปี พ.ศ. 2564 ถึงปัจจุบัน วัฒนธรรมอำเภอวิเชียรบุรีได้จัดสรรงบประมาณ โครงการอบรมการแสดงรำโจ๋งให้กับตัวแทนนักเรียนใน ระดับอนุบาลถึงชั้น ประถมศึกษา ในเขตอำเภอท่าโรง อำเภอวิเชียรบุรี จังหวัดเพชรบูรณ์ ได้เรียนรู้และสืบทอดการแสดง จากผู้เชี่ยวชาญการแสดงรำโจ๋งให้อยู่สืบต่อ ลักษณะการรำโจ๋ง แบ่งผู้รำเป็น สองฝ่าย ฝ่ายชาย สมมุติเป็นวัว รำอยู่วงใน ฝ่ายหญิง เป็นผู้ต้อนวัว รำอยู่วงนอก รำเป็นวงทวนเข็มนาฬิกา ท่ารำ คล้ายกับการต้อนวัวเข้าคอก ประกอบการตีโทน เป็นจังหวะ การแต่งกายผู้แสดงชายสวมเสื้อคอกลม นุ่งโจงกระเบน ผ้าขาวม้าคาดเอว ผู้แสดงหญิงสวมเสื้อแขนยาว ห่มสไบ นุ่งโจงกระเบน การละเล่นพื้นบ้านรำโจ๋ง ปัจจุบันมีการถ่ายทอด และสืบทอดท่ารำ เป็นหลักสูตรในโรงเรียน เพื่ออนุรักษ์ให้การแสดงท้องถิ่น ตำบลท่าโรง อำเภอวิเชียรบุรี จังหวัดเพชรบูรณ์ ให้คงองค์ความรู้สืบทอดต่อไป

So You Think You Know Dance?: Fundamentals Of Dance, Mary Francis “Cissy” Whipp, Roshanda Spears, Susan Perlis, Vanessa Kanamoto, Peter Klubek (Editor)

Open Educational Resources

No abstract provided.

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

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

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 …

Mindfulness, Recovery-Stress Balance, And Well-Being Among University Dance Students, Peta Blevins, Gene Moyle, Shona Erskine, Luke Hopper

Research outputs 2014 to 2021

Dance students face many physical and psychological stressors in their training and daily lives, therefore methods for coping with stress are essential for performance enhancement and general wellbeing. This study aimed to investigate the relationships between mindfulness, stress, recovery, and wellbeing among university level vocational dance students. Seventy-two dance students at two Australian universities completed online self-report measures of mindfulness, recovery-stress states, and affect. Correlation coefficients indicated a significant positive relationship between mindfulness and positive affect, and significant negative relationships between mindfulness and stress, and mindfulness and negative affect. MANOVA revealed differences between high mindfulness and low mindfulness groups on …

Put On Your Dancing Shoes: Boosting Divergent Thinking In Older Adults, Megan Itagaki

Scripps Senior Theses

This thesis will explore the influence of two dance modalities (dance improvisation and Zumba dance) on divergent thinking (i.e., an aspect of creativity) in older adults using a quasi-experimental design. Given the existing research on dance as a creativity intervention in the younger half of the population, this study may address a gap in the literature by extending these findings to older adults. Once prescreened to ensure cognitive competence and adequate physical mobility, participants will complete a divergent thinking task before their designated 20-minute dance intervention. After the intervention, participants will complete a divergent thinking task. It is hypothesized that …

A Renaissance: The Absurd Retelling Of Mostly True Events, Erica R. Hitzman

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Throughout the following you will be taken on a fantastical retelling of the exhibition A Renaissance, and some of what lead up to it. Through the eyes of various shifting perspectives you will explore the relationships between the artist, her art, and the viewer in the hopes of unveiling how the work plays into feminist theory, its place in the Zeitgeist, and the motivations behind it. Each perspective is formatted differently, to visually mirror the shift in perspective. Presented in the first person and aligned to the right, the account of the artist discusses the process, emotion, and inspiration behind …

Perceptions Of Strength Training For Dancers At A Midwestern University, Abigail Boenig-Dombek

Williams Honors College, Honors Research Projects

The purpose of the research is to gain a deeper insight into the perceptions of strength training within the dance community. The research aimed to receive feedback from individuals over the age of 18 who are currently studying, practicing, or teaching dance. METHODS: The survey utilized was replicated among a convenience sample of adult dancers associated with The University of Akron’s dance program from the research of Farmer and Brouner (2021) in their scholarly article, “Perceptions of Strength Training in Dance.” The survey contained 14 questions requiring the individual to assess their personal involvement in strength training. The questions were …

How Screendance Embraces What Cannot Be Done On Stage, Maya Reddy

Theatre and Dance Honors Projects

Due to the recentness of the field of dance filmmaking, little research exists on the difference between dance films designed to be watched as films (referred to as screendance) and dance videography (videos of performances created to be viewed by a live audience). This paper contends that what separates screendance from dance videography is the unique appeal screendance has for the viewer. Through the use of instantaneous location changes or inaccessible locations, unusual camera perspectives (such as a birds’ eye shot) that allow the viewer to feel as if they or the dancers are defying gravity, and technology-mediated changes to …

Our Sheep To Slaughter, Courtney Collado

Dance (MFA) Theses

This thesis paper and accompanying film explore the reality of mothering a school-aged child in America. The written document describes the creative manifestation and explains the stalemate at which American parents and gun sense advocates find themselves: over the past four decades of documented school rampage shootings in America, precious few laws have been enacted to protect American schoolchildren from gun violence. By June of 2021, a year in which many children were taught virtually, nine children have been murdered by gunfire on school grounds. Rampage shootings are a distinctly American issue, with little to no action being taken on …

A Mexican American’S Introspective On Identity And Embodiment Of The Lester Horton Technique, Fernando Carrillo

Dance (MFA) Theses

In this thesis, I analyze the cultural complexity I embody as a Mexican American. By revealing and naming the invisible power dynamics of white supremacy through a multiplicity of perspectives, I explain and give examples of stereotypes imposed on me and how it benefits whiteness. Having adapted to American culture, I have created a cultural multiplicity that has steered me away from my Mexican culture. I express the conflict of my consciousness when I feel I do not belong in specific spaces because of my heritage or tokenism. The embodiment of the Lester Horton Technique is my passport to navigate …

Beginnings, Elizabeth Becker

Dance (MFA) Theses

Researcher Elizabeth Becker uses personal experiences of pregnancy alongside scholarly research on the developmental movement patterns of the human embryo, fetus, and newborn’s first year of life to explore the multiplicity of these movement patterns within and outside the womb. Becker explores the relationship between the fertilization, germinal, embryonic, and fetal stages in relation to a newborn and its mother. These movement patterns within the beginning stages of life are valuable to research because they simulate neurodevelopmental patterns, which help wire the central nervous system in early childhood. These movements also help lay the foundation for sensory-motor development and life-long …