Theatre and Performance Studies Commons^™

Redefining The Competitive Dance Indsutry: A Plan For The Dance Competitions Of Tomorrow, Stevie Mack

Honors College Theses

There is an absence of direct focus in the development of a dancer’s education within today’s competitive dance world, as current dance competitions have many holes in providing the proper training and education a young dancer needs. It is clear that dance competitions are for-profit businesses with a focus on making money, but it is time to turn these businesses into opportunities for growth, success, and a place where pure talent can be discovered and then launched into the next generation of professional dancers.

I am a strong believer in education. Therefore, I believe competitive dance should be another form …

American Tap Dance History And Proposed Preservation, Margaret Miller

Honors College Theses

The first form of dance conceived in the United States, tap dance, thrived throughout the era of vaudeville and the movie musical. Today’s society often overlooks tap dance beyond basic or beginner dance education; the history of the art from is even more so neglected. Within these pages, I will address the question of how the history of tap dance can be honored and preserved for generations to come. I feel so grateful to have had a tap mentor that valued the history of tap just as much as the technique and steps. Others in my field may not have …

Flying Closer: The Intersection Of Circus And Dance, Emma Thomas

Honors College Theses

Dancers entering the professional industry must consider whether to be a jack of all trades, able to perform any style and any skill, or a specialized performer who has achieved mastery of one specific technique. Because commercial dancers require a greater variety of skill sets, and jobs for commercial dancers such as cruise ships, backup dancing, and Broadway shows, are increasingly asking their dancers to perform aerial arts - and circus companies such as Cirque Du Soleil, and Circa are blending circus and dance, I am arguing that a dancer entering the commercial industry has to also consider the value …

Playwriting Project [Theater], Celia Braxton

Open Educational Resources

HUT 101, The Art of Theatre, is the entrance level course for the Theatre program. It addresses the integrative learning core competency and the oral communication ability. As a freshman course, it provides a baseline for measurement of this competency and communication ability. It is required of all Theatre majors, and is part of the CUNY Flexible Core in Creative Expression. There are generally more non-majors than majors in the class. This assignment was originally developed during our first mini-grant period (2016-17 the academic year) by Celia Braxton and Abby Gerdts with the global learning core competency rubric and digital …

Rehearsal Injuries In Soft-Soled Character Shoes: Injury Rate Of Female Collegiate Dancers Wearing Soft-Soled Character Shoes With 2.5 Or 3.0 Inch Heels In Musical Theatre Rehearsals, Evelyn Vaughan

Honors College Theses

High-heeled shoes (HHS) have been known to present biomechanical imbalances in lower-leg mechanics at the pedestrian level, but have not been thoroughly studied in the context of highly dynamic movement, such as dance. In order to analyze the effects of 2.5-inch and 3.0-inch soft-soled character shoes (CS) worn by female collegiate musical theatre dancers during rehearsals, selected subjects completed a written questionnaire, the star balance excursion test, and a heel raise test. It was predicted that both heel heights would promote irregularities in subjects’ sense of balance and lower leg stamina, while 3.0 inch CS would cause greater rates of …

Anxiety: An Epidemic Through The Lens Of Social Media, Holly M. Wright

Honors College Theses

Anxiety: An Epidemic was originally inspired by the mental health crisis in my hometown, Palo Alto, California, and evolved to specifically focus on social media-related anxiety. I examined the question: How has social media evolved over the last decade and what effect does the proliferation of social media have on the young adult population? I hypothesized that social media would have a predominately negative effect, especially on young women, and set out to create a theatrical piece inspired by my research. In my meta-analysis of studies conducted, I found that more data needs to be collected on the relatively new …

Bringing Life To Theatre: A Scenic Designer's Role In Creating "The Wild Party", Matthew Carlin

Honors College Theses

The purpose of this paper is to examine the research that goes into designing the scenic elements of a musical. I was the scenic designer for Pace School of Performing Arts’ production of Michael John LaChiusa and George C. Wolfe’s The Wild Party in the fall of 2017. Directed by Roger Ellis, our version of the vaudeville-style musical was done in an immersive, in-the-round style. As the scenic designer for this production I was strongly focused on the research aspect of the design process. We consulted several art movements and architectural styles, as well as mythology, film and literature in …

Collaboration In Musical Theatre Writing, John Coyne

Honors College Theses

Good musical theatre writing is generally assessed by how intentional it is in telling its story. Since it is a very difficult thing to tell a story using music, writers must exercise extreme caution in allowing a story to unfold in an effective, economic way. Recently, there has been a trend in theatre for projects to be developed in a way that utilizes less time of writers sitting alone in a room, and more of material being developed on its feet. Devised theatre, as it is often called, is anathema to the traditional practices of musical theatre writing. The results …

Establishing Cultural Identity In American Concert Dance: How Corporate Funding Can Revitalize The World Of Dance, Taylor Rosenberger

Honors College Theses

In a country that has rapidly evolved in many industries, it has always mystified me as to why advancement in the arts, specifically dance, has lagged behind. My hypothesis as to why this is occurring is that concert dance in America is not as synonymous to the cultural identity of the nation as it is in comparison to its European ancestors. I began my research with the creation of ballet in order to determine the cultural roots that were established within particular societies. I then compared the funding models between the nations with this deep attachment to the funding models …

The Director's Role In The Development Of A New Play, Andrew Mullins

Honors College Theses

Over the course of May 2017 - February 2018, I examined the role of a theatre director in the development of a new play. The play that I directed was written by Brandon Adam, and is titled Nice Jewish X. We developed the play using three different forms of performances as guideposts and opportunities for feedback. The three forms of performance were a closed cold reading, a rehearsed open reading, and a fully staged and produced production. Over the course of this process, I worked closely with the playwright and helped facilitate his creative process, as well as explored …

Introduction To “The Movement's Voice", David Callaghan, Ann M. Shanahan

Department of Fine & Performing Arts: Faculty Publications and Other Works

No abstract provided.

Swimming With Shoes On, Juliet Mueller

Honors College Theses

Swimming With Shoes On is a creative writing thesis containing four short stories all revolving around one central character, Lottie. Each story enters the reader into a different chapter of Lottie's life, and we watch as people move in and out of her life, as she learns more about herself and her friends, as she develops certain understandings about the construction of the world she's living in.

Women Of The Future: The Performative Personhood Of Elizabeth Robins, Djuna Barnes, And The Baroness Elsa Von Freytag-Loringhoven, Michelle Feda

Theses and Dissertations

The New Woman is the term used to describe the changing social norms around women's involvement in public life during the fin-de-siècle. New Women were bold and brash, educated and independent, and, importantly young; the term encapsulated any particular woman who stepped outside of her mother's Victorian social norms. The New Woman was as much a construct of the time as it was a description. The playwright and suffragette Elizabeth Robins performs "new womanhood" on the stage, and her play Votes for Women! enacts this struggle between New Women and the older generation. Djuna Barnes started her career as a …

Student Production Manager And Coordinator For Onsite Series, Caitlin Shill, Kori Wakumatsu

Journal of Undergraduate Research

Fine art is entering a new age, the traditional structures that have protected art for centuries are now becoming relics in the face of social, political and cultural upheavals. Over the last twenty years dance has transitioned into the realm of Fine Arts in the world of academia, however it is struggling to find substantial outlets in society while maintaining its integrity as a fine art. This project was centered on two Brigham Young University faculty in their established Onsite Mobile Dance Series, a dance company that has been serving the local arts community for over five years. This production …

A Narrative And Performative Methodology For Understanding Adolescent Cancer Stories, Patrick Mcelearney

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

The field of health communication places considerable attention on coping with cancer, typically using social scientific approaches to investigate uncertainty, information, and/or social networks. Social scientific models of coping with adolescent cancer often measure how behaviors seek to manage cancer’s uncontrollability and/or uncertainty; however, how adolescents cope with cancer has been unclear. Short-term studies show adolescents typically and atypically cope. Long-term studies show a significant portion of survivors exhibit post-traumatic stress. The narrative and performative turns expose the role narratives and performatives play in shaping human subjects as meaning makers rather than merely information sharers. A narrative subject reframes cancer’s …

Mia Park Interview, Justin Fernandez

Asian American Art Oral History Project

Bio: Mia Park is a multidisciplinary artist acting, writing, playing music, producing events, teaching yoga, and volunteering in Chicago, IL. She shares her passion for discovery and self-inquiry with hope and optimism. Mia began professionally acting in 1997 hosting the cult favorite cable access dance show Chic-A-Go-Go. Her acting career has brought her on stage, in film, on television and on the radio. Mia currently plays the recurring character Nurse Beth Cole on NBC's Chicago Med. She has advocated for Asian American representation in acting since 2006 when she co-founded A-Squared Theatre and hosted educational theater workshops for the Chicago …

Self-Generated Notations: A Suggested Methodology Of Introducing Movement Literacy, ‪Shlomit Ofer‬‏

Journal of Movement Arts Literacy Archive (2013-2019)

The purpose of this paper is to present a method aimed at enabling the acquisition of movement literacy in a communicative-creative manner that does not require long-term expertise. The paper opens with a brief history and description of Eshkol Wachman Movement Notation (EWMN), followed by a discussion of the notion of Movement Literacy and its defined components–conceptualization, representation and kinesthetic performance, as have emerged within the EWMN system. Two additional educational ideas are also mentioned–the constructionism and the independent development of visual representations by learners. Together, these ideas establish a theoretical background for a non-formal study, in which dance-teaching students …

New Identities New Voices: Introducing The Choreographer-Notator, Beth Megill

Journal of Movement Arts Literacy Archive (2013-2019)

In this practitioner’s perspective paper, the author discusses an experience in which she notated a piece of her choreography using a combination of Labanotation and Motif Notation with the intent of setting the repertory from the score on a group of contemporary dancers, who had never read notation before. She explains her goals as a choreographer and notator proposing a fused creative identity, the Choreographer-Notator. This paper describes how the process of drafting the score and then teaching from the score provided new insights into her work and her identity as a dance artist. The paper concludes with the demands …

Writing Dance: Reflexive Processes-At-Work Notating New Choreography, Valarie Williams

Journal of Movement Arts Literacy Archive (2013-2019)

The experiences of the notator-at-work are a continuous learning event based on personal discovery, reflection, and trial and error. When in the process of notating a newly created work notators often become engaged with the dance on a unique level compared to the times when they are notating works already in existence. This article examines the notator experience alongside the choreographic process of Bebe Miller, from a case study perspective. Using one instance of Miller’s choreographing Prey (2000) and the notator’s documentation of Miller’s dance, the side by side collaborative processes of the notator-at-work and choreographer-at-work are examined providing a …

Processing Emotional Expression In The Dance Of A Foreign Culture: Gestural Responses Of Germans And Koreans To Ballet And Korean Dance, Zi Hyun Kim, Hedda Lausberg

Journal of Movement Arts Literacy Archive (2013-2019)

Artistic dance differs between cultures with regard to the formal movement repertoire and methods to represent dancer's emotions. The present study explores how differently the spectators perceive the dance scenes of their own and foreign cultures. We showed German and Korean participants sad and happy dance scenes of the French ballet Giselle and Korean dance Sung-Mu. To learn the perceived thoughts and feelings of the participant from the dance scenes, we analyzed the frequency of their hand movements and gestures, which were accompanied by verbal descriptions of the participant's appreciation immediately after observation of the dance stimuli. The videotaped …

Notating Dances From Films: A Method In Hungarian Ethnochoreology, János Fügedi

Journal of Movement Arts Literacy Archive (2013-2019)

Achievements of Hungarian ethnochoreology are due in large part to results of processing fieldwork data primarily using dances captured on films. Hungarian dance researchers historically have focused on notation as the primary tool for conducting analysis of traditional Hungarian dances. After a short review of how Laban’s kinetography achieved the status of the appreciated tool in the Hungarian dance research methodology, the author details the advantages of notating dances from films, but also the possible obstacles to which the notator may face when the only means of movement information is the moving picture. Best practices for doing notation analysis from …

The Creation Of Traditional African Dance/Music Integrated Scores, Doris Green

Journal of Movement Arts Literacy Archive (2013-2019)

African dances are among the oldest dance traditions in existence; their structure is uniquely different because the movement therein is inseparable from the music that governs the movements. The music is associated with the spoken language of the people, which makes it virtually impossible for outsiders to comprehend the music of different African countries. In Africa there is no dance that is not accompanied by some form of music from the voice to orchestras of different percussive instruments. For centuries the dance/music of African people has been passed between generations by a mouth to ear process. Any society that is …

Voices Of Notators: Approaches To Writing A Score--Special Issue, Teresa L. Heiland

Journal of Movement Arts Literacy Archive (2013-2019)

In this special issue of Voices of Notators: Approaches to Writing a Score, eight authors share their unique process of creating and implementing their approach to notating movement, and they describe how that process transforms them as researchers, analysts, dancers, choreographers, communicators, and teachers. These researchers discuss the need to capture, to form, to generate, and to communicate ideas using a written form of dance notation so that some past, present, or future experience can be better understood, directed, informed, and shared. They are organized roughly into themes motivated by relationships between them and their methodological similarities and differences. …

The Lab Report, Volume 12, Issue 01, Todd Ristau

Lab Reports

Vol. 12, No. 01 (June, 2018)

• Focus on the Faculty: Art Borreca
• Student Spotlight: Bev Parsons
• Guest Profile: Annalisa Dias
• Kennedy Center Summer Playwriting Intensive
• Gender Equity in the American Theatre
• Gut by Megan Wheelock at CenterPieces
• Students of Hollins Playwright Publish Plays
• No Shame Theatre Returns
• Ben Jolivet, Dramaturg
• Lauren Ellis Leads Audition Workshop
• Unified Local Auditions
• From the Director: Welcome First year Students!

J. Scheidegger Center For The Arts, 2018-2019 Season Program, Lindenwood University

J. Scheidegger Center for the Arts

J. Scheidegger Center for the Arts, 2018-2019 Season Program

2017-2018 Season Brochure, Office Of Arts + Cultural Programming, Peak Performances At Montclair State University

2017-2018 Women Innovators in the Performing Arts

No abstract provided.

Oklahoma!, Otterbein University Theatre And Dance Department

2018 Summer Theatre

Rodgers & Hammerstein's first collaboration remains, in many ways, their most innovative, having set the standards and established the rules of musical theatre still being followed today. Set in a Western Indian territory just after the turn of the century, the high-spirited rivalry between the local farmers and cowboys provides the colorful background against which Curly, a handsome cowboy, and Laurey, a winsome farm girl, play out their love story. Although the road to true love never runs smooth, with these two headstrong romantics holding the reins, love's journey is as bumpy as a surrey ride down a country road. …

Drug Story Theater: Where The Treatment Of One Becomes The Prevention Of Many, Joseph Shrand

Crossroads of Music and Medicine

Drug Story Theater takes teenagers in the early stages of recovery, teaches them improvisational theater, then uses psychodrama to help them create their own scripted shows about the seduction of, addiction to and recovery from drugs and alcohol. They perform these shows for middle schools and high schools so the treatment of one becomes the prevention of many. In between each scene, the cast members come out of character and use power-point presentations to teach the audience about the neuroscience of the adolescent brain. Through the DST program, teens in recovery experience the rewards of positive feedback, personal value, getting …

Dayak Lundayeh: A Report From The Border, Luqman Hakim Zainuri

CLCWeb: Comparative Literature and Culture

In his paper "Dayak Lundayeh: A Report from the Border" Luqman H. Zainuri explores the vulnerabilities and potential of national disintegration coming from indigenous communities in Indonesia. In particular, the paper focuses on one of the communities which has been largely ignored, the Dayak people, who have played an important role in the border between Indonesia and Malaysia in Borneo Island. The Dayak indigenous people which inhabit this highland plateau are known as the Lun Bawang, on the Malaysian side, and the Lun Dayeh (or Lundayeh) in the Indonesian side. Both groups are linguistically and culturally the same. This paper …

Portraits Of Jeju Haenyeo As Models Of Empowerment In The Korean Newspaper Maeilshinbo During Japanese Occupation, Seohyeon Lee, Soon-Ok Myong

CLCWeb: Comparative Literature and Culture

In their article "Portraits of Jeju Haenyeo as Models of Empowerment in the Korean Newspaper Maeilshinbo during Japanese Occupation" Seohyeon Lee and Soon-ok Myong analyze the life of Korean women divers, Jeju Haenyeo, portrayed in the news articles of the Maeilshinbo, the only Korean newspaper during Japanese occupation (1910-1945). In the past, the activities of Haenyeo have been considered the cultural product of Jeju Island. However, within a structure of female repression, Confucian feudalism and colonization, the Haenyeo can be seen as emancipatory pioneers and voluntary economic agents, displaying initiative and pro-activeness and protecting their rights and …