Theatre and Performance Studies Commons^™

Cota Collaborations: Towards Interdisciplinary Projects In The College Of The Arts, Sarah Joseph

Symposium of Student Scholars

The College of the Arts at KSU is comprised of four departments that offer unparalleled education, artistry, and production. However, they are often function separately from each other. This paper outlines a vision of future collaborations for the college, recommending possible projects to collectively strengthen each of the departments. My research was conducted in a Senior Seminar course, including interviews and survey work within the college. It also stems from my own cross-disciplinary experience as Theatre major and Music minor. Ultimately, the paper will argue that both smaller level (student-lead) and larger level (COTA-lead) are desired and would benefit students …

Stepping Back In Time: Dance In 45 Plays For 45 Presidents, Antwanera Braxton

Symposium of Student Scholars

Stepping Back in Time: Dance in 45 Plays for 45 Presidents

Dances that are specific to their time period, like the minuet, which appears in the play 45 Plays for 45 Presidents, need to be supported with extensive research to ensure that their authenticity is preserved in performance. The play, as a whole, is constructed of forty-five mini plays, one for each of the presidents in America’s history. A few of the plays were musicals, ballets, or just plain dance breaks. Being that the production was done in 2019, and the dances were set in centuries prior, how does …

American Indian Law Students Association (Ailsa) Sponsors A Drum Circle, Roger Williams University School Of Law

School of Law Conferences, Lectures & Events

No abstract provided.

Exploring The Relation Between Musical And Dance Sophistication And Musical Groove Perception, Samantha R. O'Connell

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

Listening to groovy music is an enjoyable experience and a ubiquitous human behavior in some cultures. Specifically, many listeners agree that high-groove songs are enjoyable, familiar, and likable compared to low-groove songs. While the pleasurable and dance-inducing effects of musical groove listening seem omnipresent, what is less known is how subjective feelings towards music, individual musical or dance experiences, or more objective musical perception abilities are correlated with the way we hear music with groove. Therefore, the present online study aimed to evaluate how musical and dance sophistication relates to musical groove perception. One-hundred and twenty-four participants completed an online …

Tendu To Tango Across The Lifespan: An Argument For Prioritizing Fixed Ballet Instruction As A Contemplative Practice For The Adolescent Mind And Social Dance Instruction For Healthy Aging In The Elderly Population, Jenica Barker

Undergraduate Honors Theses

Why dance? This thesis investigates and provides arguments for prioritizing different dance training methods and styles across a person’s lifespan for maximum neurological and mental benefit. Beyond the interpersonal, motivational, and creative skills it delivers, dance training provides significant neural benefits for the developing adolescent brain (ages 10-24). Additionally, there are significant implications for dance’s aid in the prevention or delay of symptoms of healthy aging, dementia, Alzheimer’s disease, and Parkinson’s disease.

According to the synthesis of research provided in this thesis, fixed ballet training is an optimal form of ballet training for adolescents because of its features consistent with …

Review: 'Pragmatist Philosophy And Dance: Interdisciplinary Dance Research In The American South', Aili W. Bresnahan

Philosophy Faculty Publications

Eric Mullis’ Pragmatist Philosophy and Dance is a thoroughly multi-disciplinary and transdisciplinary book that is centered on and deeply engaged in the experimental and lived experience of Pentecostal dance in the American and Appalachian South. The focal point for Mullis’ research is not observation and critique of dance as embodied religious practice from a critical distance (although he does engage it critically and analytically) but from the inside, embedding his own person and body into the environment with all the resources of the unifying self that he has at his disposal to not just understand the form but feel it …

My Body, No Apologies, Maxine Montilus

Theses and Dissertations

“My Body, No Apologies” is a 20 - minute autobiographical dance film, conceived, choreographed and performed by Maxine Montilus, with text from Sonya Renee Taylor’s The Body is Not an Apology: The Power of Radical Self-Love. The supporting paper examines the impact of family, history and societal forces on her Black female body.

The film premiered on the Hunter College Dance Department’s website, www.hunterdances.com/mybody, on Saturday, May 1, 2021.

The Ripple Effect: ‘Training The Trainer’ On The Impact Of Body Image Through A Dance/Movement Therapy Technique, Marina Gearhart

Expressive Therapies Capstone Theses

This thesis describes the capstone project which was a psychoeducation and experiential workshop for fitness trainers. The workshop investigated the impact trainers’ work may have on the body image of their clients through a dance/movement therapy (DMT) technique. The aim was to enhance the trainers’ sensitivity around body image issues of their clients and to create a space for vulnerable movement conversation that may in turn lead to better mental health advocacy for their clients within the scope of ethical practice. The participants of the workshop were six white female identifying trainers ranging from 24 to 35 years of age. …

Double Helix, Katie Patrick

Symposium of Student Scholars

The human body can be an exceptional vessel to interpret and express historical ideas through the art of dance. Rosalind Franklin is the scientist who captured the famous Photograph 51- the first photo taken that revealed DNA’s three-dimensional structure - and made groundbreaking discoveries in the area of molecular biology. This piece will be a study of her life as she fought anti-Semitism during World War II, sexism in her field of study, and ovarian cancer that eventually led to her untimely passing; as well as a celebration of her discoveries on DNA, disease control, and her love for travel. …

El Papel De La Desviación De Normas Tradicionales De Género En El Desarrollo Del Tango Porteño Finisecular, Catherine Hoye

Honors Program Theses and Projects

Estas líneas de Ventura Lynch reflejan parte del poco conocido origen del tango argentino. Como Lynch indica, este baile es el producto de la burla y perversión del candombe – un tipo de baile que surgió entre los descendientes de esclavos libres en Uruguay a principios del siglo diecinueve – que hicieron los compadritos al integrar algunos de sus ritmos y pasos a la milonga rioplatense. La frustración del compadrito al no poder entender las tradiciones africanas dio inicio a un baile que pasó por varios cambios y varios espacios durante los siglos diecinueve y veinte hasta llegar a ser …

A Gap In The Narrative: Exploring The Experiences Of Trans Dancers Today, Erica Best

Dance Independent Study Projects

The scarcity of trans dancers in dance history, dance spaces, and dance research suggests a need for greater understanding of this group and how their needs are and are not being met in dance. This qualitative study explores the experiences of transgender, nonbinary, and otherwise gender-nonconforming dancers in concert, commercial, and social dance forms. Interviews with 10 participants from the US and Australia emphasize dance as a valuable space for gender exploration, but also highlight a lack of media representation for this population and argue that what representation does exist is often objectifying and tokenizing. Participants also shed light on …

Spring Dance Concert, Jennifer Backhaus

Dance Programs

No abstract provided.

Seguiriyas Duo ̈Poesía Flamenca ̈, Adriana Maresma Fois

Chamisa: A Journal of Literary, Performance, and Visual Arts of New Mexico and the Greater Southwest

Baile: Adriana Maresma Fois, Alvise Carbone

Cante: Rocio Soto

Guitarra: Juan Antonio Gómez

The Therapeutic Benefits Of Attunement Through Lindy Hop, Sarah Trowbridge

Expressive Therapies Capstone Theses

Dance/movement therapy (DMT) was developed as a tool to aide in therapeutic healing. A foundational aspect of DMT is attunement, the emotional/kinesthetic connection between two people that allows for meaningful and healing bonds to emerge. Lindy Hop is a partnered dance that fosters an environment of attunement, as it is accessed both subconsciously and consciously. This research explores Lindy Hop as a possible method of therapeutic treatment. The literature indicates the physiological need for attunement and how safety plays a key role in strengthening senses of self-identity, nervous system development, and worldview. Four experienced Lindy Hoppers were recruited to engage …

Stories From Home: Yvonne Montoya And Shannon Parrales In Conversation, Yvonne Montoya

Chamisa: A Journal of Literary, Performance, and Visual Arts of New Mexico and the Greater Southwest

In this conversation, New Mexican contemporary dance artists Yvonne Montoya and Shannon Parrales discuss their dance journeys and their work on Montoya’s current projects: Stories from Home and Stories from Home: COVID-19 Addendum.

Cultural, Political, And Choreographic Developments Of Feminism In Classical Ballet, Lydia Mariya Wirth

Undergraduate Honors Thesis Collection

This thesis was an exploration of how the female ballerina can be better represented in the culture, aesthetics, and politics of ballet. Despite the patriarchal and misogynistic traditions that this artform is steeped in, women have made significant strides in reclaiming ballet as a tool of female empowerment, rather than of suppression or objectification. A disparity of leadership positions, a traditionally disempowering training system, misogynistic ballet narratives, and patterns of abuse and harassment all combine to create a world which disempowers female dancers on multiple levels. Despite these realities, women have been at the forefront of narrowing wage and opportunity …

The Vulnerability Of The Acetabulofemoral Joint: Examining Acetabular Labral Tears In Classical Ballet Dancers, Rebecca Tschan

Undergraduate Honors Thesis Collection

The acetabulofemoral joint, more commonly referred to as the hip joint, is an extremely important mechanism of the human body. It plays a crucial role in a person's ability to sit and stand, walk and run, jump and crouch, and more. Not only this, but the hip joint bears most of the weight of the body, making it necessary for the joint and surrounding anatomical structures to be strong and stable. Fortunately, hip joints are built in such a way that allow for an extreme range of motion while simultaneously providing support for the rest of the body. Additionally, the …

Investigating Insensitivity To Prior Probabilities In Merger And Acquisition Decision Making, James A. Mcgaughan

Legacy Theses & Dissertations (2009 - 2024)

In this dissertation I look at the high failure rates of Mergers and Acquisitions (M&As) and why there has been no discernible change in outcomes over the last several decades. Although we have greater access to data, sophisticated business intelligence (BI) and data analytics (DA) tools, and work by industry professionals and academics to improve the process, high failure rates have persisted. I explore the possibility that the representativeness heuristic could play a role, and specifically, the possibility that prior probabilities are being ignored in M&A evaluations. I use a mixed methods approach to explore the hypothesis that decision makers …

Graduating Presentation, Erin Bates

Honors Theses

tethered is a seven minute dance for film that explores the baggage that every individual carries with them on a daily basis. When walking through a crowd, it is hard to imagine the people, thoughts, and experiences others might be connected to, as if by a tether. This graduating presentation thesis is a culminating project which combines the knowledge and experience I have gained as an artist in dance, choreography, costuming, conceptualization, and most recently - film. The full portfolio includes my artist biography, dance and headshots, resume, personal artistic statement, as well as the project elements. These project elements …

“Graduating Presentation: Sunday”, Lauren Smith

Honors Theses

This portfolio fulfills the requirements for both my Department of Dance senior capstone, DANC 4800: Graduating Presentation, titled sunday, and my honors thesis for the Lee Honors College. DANC 4800 requires the senior BFA dance students to collaborate and produce a dance concert, usually held in-person, but was hosted virtually this year due to COVID-19. This capstone is designed for the students to create a portfolio worthy of sharing with the public and to aid in their career post-graduation. Responsibilities during this process include the choreographing an original work, managing production elements, promoting the concert, and coordinating with any personnel …

Graduating Presentation: Stones Beneath A River, Lauren Desmedt

Honors Theses

Stones Beneath a River is an eight-minute collaborative staged work through the eyes of a soloist who is exploring the concept that you are the product of the five people you surround yourself with. The soloist realizes the ebbs and flows of relationships and how to let go of relationships that no longer serve the individual. The graduating presentation is a culminating project of everything I have learned in the past four years. This includes collaboration, performance, choreography, production, conceptualization, costuming, and much more. My final portfolio consists of my dance and headshot, artistic statement, biography, resume, proposal application, essay, …

The Tempest 2021, Otterbein Theatre And Dance Department

2020-2021 Season

Abducted and set adrift to die by her power-hungry sister and a jealous king, Prospera and her daughter, Miranda have survived 12 long years shipwrecked on a lonely island. When Prospera learns though her magical arts that those whose sought her child’s death are within her reach, she is consumed by rage. Conjuring the greatest of storms to break their ship upon her shores, Prospera brings her enemies to her feet. But when the opportunity to wreak her final vengeance is upon her, Prospera can no longer recognize the thing she has become, and she is forced to choose between …

An Annual Training Plan For Collegiate Dance, Ashley R. German

Honors Thesis

The focus of this thesis is on developing an annual resistance training plan for collegiate dance with no test subjects. This project provides biomechanical, physiological, and injury analysis of collegiate dance. Based on the analysis, a research-based, linear resistance training program for the University of South Dakota Dance Team was created. The resistance training program follows basic strength and conditioning principles including specificity, overload, and periodization. Additionally, exercise selection, order, volume, and intensity were prescribed based on standards set forth by the National Strength and Conditioning Association. Generally, from off-season to in-season, exercises moved from general to specific, along with …

Le Poème | La Danseuse, Karen Fleming

Arts & Sciences Student Symposium

le poème | La Danseuse is a piece that explores the relationship between historical, often male-created representations of the female dancer and the possibilities that exist for female dancers to claim their own identities in the twenty-first century. Drawing on modernist poetry and early modern dance, the film component of the piece emphasizes the ways in which the poetic image of the female dancer as an ideal, ethereal figure is a mere projection, or something unreal. Once the dancer on stage emerges, she begins to push back against the trappings of the historic gaze and ultimately breaks out of its …

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 …

Unfreezing The Flamenca: The Stereotype Of The Sensual Bailaora Through The Lens Of Hollywood Film Noir, Amy Schofield

Theatre & Dance ETDs

This essay accompanies my Master of Fine Arts thesis project, a dance film entitled Haunted (premiered online March 12, 2021; made in collaboration with Jenny Serrano as Director of Photography), that employs themes and aesthetics from film noir to an exploration of the stereotype of the sensual female flamenco dancer. By combining concepts from dance studies with feminist and postcolonial theories, I trace the legacy of the bailaora (female flamenco dancer) presented as sexualized, Orientalized Other from the nineteenth century to the present day. An overview of film noir and neo-noir bolsters a thorough description and analysis of select scenes …

Into A Lamplit Room, Otterbein Theatre And Dance Department

2020-2021 Season

The life of Composer and Social Activist, Kurt Weill, is celebrated in this cabaret-style compilation of his work. The production includes more than 30 songs, ranging from his life in Berlin during the Weimar Era during which he was a voice against the Nazi regime, to his emigration to the U.S. where he was a supporter of the American war effort in the 1930’s, and finally his contributions to the American Musical Theatre canon. Audiences will particularly recognize his collaborations with Ira Gershwin, Bertolt Brecht, and Maxwell Anderson in the songs written for Broadway including Tschaikowsky, Mack the Knife, Pirate …

Spring Dance Concert (April 29-30, 2021), Lindenwood University

Student Dance Programs & Brochures

Program for the Spring Dance Concert (April 29-30, 2021).

The Psychology Of Dance Medicine: Self-Perception Of Dancers, Karina Desai

Senior Theses

Derived from sports medicine, dance medicine is a subcategory that focuses on the health and well-being of dancers on a scientific and medical level. Dancers are considered “elite” athletes and artists, which requires this specific niche of medicine to study the injuries and other health-related issues that develop as a result of dancers’ unique movement. Studies show that in addition to physical injuries, dancers are also susceptible to mental health issues. There are many factors of the dance environment, such as the instructor, peers, and mirrors, that alter the self-perception of dancers. Due to dancers being required to train in …

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

Dance Programs

No abstract provided.