Dance Commons^™

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 …

Winter's End: Stopping The Rite And Reclaiming Spring, Jessica Wilson

Theatre & Dance ETDs

This dissertation examines intersections of patriarchy, feminist movements, and the recurring theme of women’s sacrifice, through an artistic lens. Using The Rite of Spring as a central subject, I explore the societal expectation of women’s sacrifice and its persistent representation in art. By analyzing two pivotal interpretations, Vaslav Nijinsky’s Le Sacre du Printemps (1913) and Pina Bausch’s Das Fruhlingsopfer (1975), within the chronological context of feminist waves in the United States, I investigate how these works reflect and critique cycles of violence against women. Four core patterns emerge as focal points: tradition, autonomy, witnessing, and betrayal. Additionally, my choreographic reinterpretation …

Student Voice And Choice: Factors Influencing Student Participation In Secondary Arts Classes In An Urban Public School District, Alan D. Lambert Ed. D.

Teacher Education, Educational Leadership & Policy ETDs

The purpose of this study was to capture the student voice regarding the value, importance, and relevance of visual and performing arts education in public schools. The host institution for the study was an urban school district in the southern central United States serving 75,000 students, with 55% students identified as Hispanic, and 52% of students experiencing poverty. Graduating seniors responded via questionnaires with forced choice and open-ended items regarding several topics, including what they do in their free time, how they perceive the value of arts classes at school, access to arts classes and the match of their interests …

How Would Jesus Watch This? An Investigation Into Dance Restrictions In American Protestantism, Rebecca Lynn Huppenthal

Theatre & Dance ETDs

In the United States there has been many disagreements concerning the place of dance within Protestant Christianity. Some denominations have banned dance entirely while other utilize dance as an essential element of worship. At the center of this argument is the understanding, treatment, and use of the physical body. Beginning in the sixteenth century through current times, I analyze specific Protestant denominations including the Puritans, Evangelical Fundamentalists, Southern Baptists, the Shakers, certain African American denominations, and Pentecostals. Additionally, I examine notable liturgical modern dancers, as well as my own choreographic work, a dance film titled Rebirth. This research displays …

Approaching The 'Small Planet': Remain In Light's Starship Road Trip As Metaphor For Theatrical World-Building, Amy Yourd

Theatre & Dance ETDs

Using Elinor Fuchs’ “Visit to a Small Planet” as inspiration, I consider my play Remain in Light as its own small planet, examining theories of world-building, science fiction, and utopian performativity to investigate possible functions of imaginary worlds onstage. In chapter one, I appropriate Fuchs’ script analysis exercise for my own purposes of play development, discovering a world of sensory detail that parallels the characters’ experience in the play. In chapter two, I conceive of the play’s starship as an imaginary world crashing towards this one, its escape a hopeful reflection on the utopian possibilities of alternate worlds. In chapter …

Eccentric: Writing Through The Lens Of Empathy, Steven M. Blacksmith

Theatre & Dance ETDs

In this essay, I detail my growth as a writer through different periods of empathic learning. I examine my childhood struggle to understand many common emotions and the ways in which I began to logically dissect and replicate them in life and in art. I further delve into this examination through my discovery of comedy and the lifelong process of understand the deep connections humans make with humor. I then discuss how my understanding of empathy allowed me to write my dissertation play, The Eccentrics, and create a world in which empathy among the characters can be a catalyst …

The 5th Humor, Stella Maria Perry

Theatre & Dance ETDs

I will be using a self-interview as a method of investigating both the origins of myself, the artist, and the work produced I have produced in and out of the MFA Dramatic Writing program with a special focus on my dissertation play, The Blood Vessel.

The intention is to investigate how my plays have come into existence and how they inform each other. This is done through a series of questions I ask myself under the pseudonym Penelope Hawkins. Penelope guides me through the investigation as a character, thus becoming part of the work of the self-interview and still …

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

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.

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 …

Decolonizing Playwriting Through Indigenous Ceremonial Performances, Jay B. Muskett

Theatre & Dance ETDs

This dissertation attempts to express the importance of storytelling within the Indigenous Theater framework. It does so by first analyzing the progression of the writer’s unique upbringing and analyzing the influences of story upon an indigenous identity. I will also attempt to describe the aesthetics of Native Theater along two lines of methodology which includes praxis described and developed by Hanay Geiogamah and Rolland Meinholtz. I will also explain how the script 1n2ian tries to follow those concepts of Native Theater to create a ceremonial performance that uses a blending of both methodologies.

Subverting The Nature Of Thing: Gender Agency In Spiritual Systems And Contemporary Performances Of Zimbabwe's Shona People, Rujeko S. Dumbutshena

Theatre & Dance ETDs

Gender, ritual and performance in the Shona cultures of Zimbabwe, are inexorably linked. They demonstrate how the flexibility of the Shona spiritual systems offers agency to ritual leaders and practitioners. The story of Murumbi Karivara, a Shona rainmaker from the 19th Century, provides the inspirational imagery for the researcher’s Masters of Fine Arts thesis concert DE RERUM NATURA - the way things are (performed on September 2 and 3, 2018). The researcher positions herself among contemporary Shona artists living in Zimbabwe and abroad who negotiate the spaces they occupy during ceremonies, on concert stages, and in institutions; to find autonomy …

The Modern Synthesis Of Josephine Baker And Carmen Amaya, Justice Moriah Miles

Theatre & Dance ETDs

The Modern Synthesis of Josephine Baker and Carmen Amaya explores how flamenco dancer Carmen Amaya and African American performer Josephine Baker utilized modern synthesis in their careers. I define modern synthesis as a synthesis of various ideas and identities that supports a modern fluid identity that points to the idea of an alternative space that is beyond definition and human categorization. Expanding upon the ideas of Brenda Dixon Gottschild and William Washabaugh, I propose that there exists a thread of a tragic/comic dichotomy in African American performance and simultaneous opposition in flamenco and that Baker and Amaya came out of …

Arts Integration In The Public Elementary School General Education Classroom, Norma Quinones

Theatre & Dance ETDs

ABSTRACT

In 2017, the U.S. Department of Education’s Nations Report Card disclosed performance trends among fourth and eighth grade students in New Mexico. Fourth graders were significantly below the national average in math and reading, while eighth graders were also performing below the national average (U.S. Department of Education). How can New Mexico public elementary school students fulfill their learning potential? Extensive research shows that arts integrated instruction is associated with student achievement. It outlines arts integration as a multidisciplinary form of teaching across the curriculum to transform teaching and learning at the elementary school level to change such statistics. …

Lotus: The Subversive In Flamenco And African American Performance, Justice Moriah Miles

Shared Knowledge Conference

A central element to my dissertation research and the MFA performance Ink on Cottonwas ultimately subversive performance, how does one maintain agency when performing for oppressive classes. How does one grow like a lotus flower in a negative oppressive world? Key themes that I will explore are excess, performing the self, simultaneous opposition and fluidity of time. All of this will be discussed in the context of African American and Flamenco performance. Key scholars I will be in dialogue with are Rebecca Kowal, Roland Barthes, Brenda Dixon Gottschild, Meira Goldberg, Brooke Baldwin, Elizabeth de Martelly and more. Therefore, this project's …

Strange Labor: Toward The Non-Expression Of Feelings Themselves, Nevarez G. Encinias

Theatre & Dance ETDs

This essay accompanies the researcher’s Master of Fine Arts thesis concert, Sensaciones y emociones (performed on September 5 and 6, 2017). It describes how he employed his training as a flamenco dancer to choreographically model three non-expressive interactions with three discrete feelings in the performances of this concert. The essay outlines the ways in which the researcher used his art practice to imagine alternative strategies for relating to emotions and sensations, as phenomena that might put a body in motion, but that do not always or necessarily travel from inside of a feeling subject, outward, in an act commonly called …

Holding On/Letting Go: Situating Trauma And Memory In Theatrical Spaces, Caroline T. Graham

Theatre & Dance ETDs

In this essay, I review my development as a playwright in the MFA Dramatic Writing program and examine the shifting, overlapping goals of playwright-as-educator and playwright-as-entertainer. In Part One, I position my academic exploration of trauma in relation to ethics in journalism, embodied knowledge, and intersectional feminism and outline my creative experiments in staging trauma through the process of witnessing, retelling, and abstraction. In Part Two, I detail the artistic and personal roots of my dissertation play, The Great Maverick Adventure of 2007, and the structural and dramaturgical tools I employed to rebuild a sense of play and theatricality …

Because We Have To: Flamenco As Survival Strategy Against Detrimental Effects Of Post- Traumatic Stress Disorder, Dolores Garcia

Theatre & Dance ETDs

Can daily practice in flamenco training help mediate the effects of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) on the brain and body? This thesis focuses on the inner-workings of the brain and how it processes stress and trauma. This is discussed through the idea of the Fear Circuit, which is a habitual response to reminders of the original trauma; the review of a current therapy for PTSD patients-Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR); the theory that throwing (skill in speed and precision –based throwing activities), music, and dance can all work to increase strength in areas of the brain that atrophy …

Movement As The Driving Force: Empowering Live Dance Performance Through The Integration Of Film, Kelsey Victoria Mary Paschich

Theatre & Dance ETDs

Dance and film are two distinct mediums of expression. Movement drives both of these art forms and is the commonality that serves as the thread that connects them. These mediums serve as modes of discovery, thinking, and representation. Time and space are shared components between dance and film. Over the past century, there have been many different relationships on and off the stage between the two and as a result of this, new genres like screendance, dance for film, and multimedia performance have emerged. Live dance performance has been strengthened by the possibilities and uses of multimedia elements in real …

Teaching Choreography In A University Setting: Experiencing Collaboration Through Dramaturgical Thinking, Ariel Burge

Theatre & Dance ETDs

I began my research with the intent of finding a way for student choreographers in university dance programs to become more involved in their peers work. In addition I hoped to find a teaching model that would provide the experience of peer collaboration. I found in my own training that I wanted to have more interaction with my peers through working creative relationships. I felt that choreography classes were the ideal place to implement a working collaborative experience. Through my research I discovered the concept of dance dramaturgy. I realized that choreography students engaging in the practice of dramaturgical thinking …

Fascism, Flamenco, And Ballet Español: Nacionalflamenquismo, Theresa Goldbach

Theatre & Dance ETDs

The nationalist regime of General Francisco Franco (1936-1975) dramatically and forcefully reshaped every element of Spanish culture including dance and flamenco. Many flamencologists derisively refer to the resulting product of this system as nacionalflamenquismo or national-flamencoism. The bureaucratic mechanics that created nacionalflamenquismo evolved throughout the first three decades of the regime to fit with changing economic and political realities. As Spain re-entered the global community following its Civil War (1936-1939), flamenco and Spanish dance proved useful tools for international public relations as well as domestic propaganda. By discerning the various factors that linked the art of flamenco to the political …

Identidad And Mejicanidad: Dance Transference Through Mexican Folklórico, Azteca, And Flamenco Dance, Erica Ocegueda

Theatre & Dance ETDs

Identidad and Mejicanidad examines cultural identity and dance through the lens of 'owners,' 'borrowers,' and 'renters'. I examine how non-professional participants of these dance forms are beacons for cultural expression and serve to explore the fringe of the sense of cultural knowing through Mexican Folklórico, Azteca, and Flamenco dance. Through these dance forms I interrogate how cultural identity frames questions of authenticity and identity. Ownership of cultural identity and issues of authenticity are a source of ire for many underrepresented groups of people. Maintaining who is 'in control' of a cultural expressions' evolution is a common dispute. The legacy of …