Dance Commons^™

Masters At Chapman, Julianne O'Brien, Ido Tadmor, Dwight Roden

Dance Programs

No abstract provided.

Dancers Of The Book: Yemenite, Persian, And Kurdish Jewish Dance, Quinn Bicer

Anthós

Despite the cultural significance of dance in Jewish communities around the world, research into Middle Eastern Jewish dance outside of the modern nation-state of Israel is sorely under-researched. This article aims to help rectify this by focusing on Yemenite, Persian/Iranian, and Kurdish Jewish dance and explores how these dancers have functioned and been received within the societies they have been a part of. The methods that have gone into this article are a combination of analyzing primary source recorded dances and existing secondary source research into the dance of these communities. Through these methods, this article reveals how Yemenite, Iranian, …

A Poetically Embodied Out-Of-Body Experience, Natalie Sunseri

Honors Theses

The choreographic project Euphoric Dysphoria emerged as a response to the choreographer’s gender dysphoria and personal observations about the way that feminine-presenting people are perceived and approached in dance spaces, particularly in comparison to masculine-presenting people. The dance originated as a choreographic exploration of extreme femininity and masculinity, and it evolved into a manifestation of performative gender and experiential gender. The choreographer was guided by her poem “Uneven Envy” when developing movement and building relationships among the dancers. She considered the contributions of Judith Butler, a scholar who writes about gender manifesting in the body due to socialization, and Laura …

Transnational Ritual Poetics Of Blackness In Performance, Nina A. Mercer

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

In this dissertation, I investigate transnational ritual poetics of Blackness through a historical, cultural, and spatial lens, centering my exploration on the recurrence of circles, the crossroads, and waterways. I show how these formal poetics activate Africana cosmologies, cosmogonies, and mythologies dramaturgically by centering contemporary New York City performance works that bring together dance, theatre, and music. I contextualize NYC performance case studies in relation to performance practices in contemporary Salvador da Bahia. I am particularly interested in how the recurrence of circles, the crossroads, and water as formal poetics catalyze interventions along contested water-ways and landscapes marked by Black …

Spring Dance Concert, Jennifer Backhaus, Liz Curtis

Dance Programs

No abstract provided.

Blacklash: Phenomenological Hermeneutics In Black Dance, Darvejon A. Jones

Theses and Dissertations

The horrors inflicted on Black bodies, souls, and spirits in the United States during the transatlantic slave trade, the Jim Crow era, and the current era (2023) have a lasting legacy of trauma metabolized through the body and transmuted generationally. Jones uses this data to contextualize the work of Black dance artists as hermeneutic phenomena in which the Black dance artist is a hermeneut tasked with delivering a message of the Black body/spirit complex: “I AM HUMAN. DO NOT KILL ME.” This paper examines how Black dance artists frequently petition for their survival — incessantly subjugated to the interpreter’s empathy, …

For What Is A Man?: Towards Languaging Contemporary Dance In A Black, Queer, Male-Presenting Body, Thomas Ford

Theses and Dissertations

This paper examines Queering Blackness: Solo on a Theme of Reconciliation, a performance event that invokes movement, spoken text, projections and sound to explore the mechanisms of identity. Engaging performance, Black, queer and dance studies, the paper contextualizes cultural identity markers, towards an understanding of what it means to be Black, queer and male-assigned in Black spaces.

Gloria Rehearsal (Excerpt) A Feminist Mechanism For Metabolization, Eleanor Smith

Theses and Dissertations

Weaving embodied trauma studies with feminist theory, non-hierarchical creative structures, and research in dance improvisation, this thesis paper written by Eleanor Smith contextualizes the dance performance gloria rehearsal (excerpt). The performance piece was choreographed and performed by Molly Lieber and Eleanor Smith, who have been co-choreographing feminist dances since 2006.

Frameworks Concert, Amanda Kay White

Dance Programs

No abstract provided.

Dance And The Self: An Analysis On The Psychological Impacts Of Dance, Morgan Etzinger

Honors Projects

Professional dancers spend numerous hours immersed into dance culture every single day, learning new technique, practicing choreography, and exercising to stay fit. This study explores how dance affects the self-confidence and self-esteem of dance students. Utilizing surveys, the self-confidence and self-esteem of dance students at BGSU is compared to non-performing arts students. The study of psychology allows for proper analysis on the differences between the two groups, why a difference might occur, and how self-confidence and self-esteem is affected. After gathering data on emotions, perfectionism, comparison, group versus individual performances, personal thoughts, and body image, it was found that dancers …

Reflections: A Meditation On Ballet And Pain, Claire Madeline Silverman

Honors Theses

The defining details of the character of Giselle are that she loves to dance even though she knows it could kill her (for she has a frail heart), and that she is in love with a peasant boy named Loys, though she knows her mother dislikes him. She is defiant, determined to follow her desires.

Giselle wasn’t one of the ballets that stuck out to me when I was younger. I loved the Tchaikovsky ballets — Swan Lake, The Sleeping Beauty, The Nutcracker — and later Romeo and Juliet (Macmillan’s version) became my favorite. Giselle existed at my periphery. It’s …

Navigating Gifted Pathways, Ashley Rosenthal

Honors Program Theses and Projects

Programs for gifted students have been used to identify and advance youth who show talent and academic potential in their academics for years. These programs separate the course load for gifted students from the typical education of their peers and allow them to further explore knowledge with advanced and accelerated work programs that manage the pace, content, and applications of their intelligence and talents. This research project investigates what it means to be a gifted student, how these students are identified, what the mental health trends of burnout are, the social-emotional relationships between peers, and how gifted students later bridge …

From Raqs Sharqi To Belly Dance: The Influence Of Western Cultural Values On A Middle Eastern Dance Form, Molly Talbot

Dance Department Best Student Papers

This paper examines the history and development of two Middle Eastern movement forms, raqs sharqi and belly dance, through an analytic lens of Western cultural influence. Raqs sharqi originated around 5500 b.c. and holds strong cultural values in honoring female rites of passage. During Napoleon's occupation of Cairo in the late 18th and early 19th century, raqs sharqi performers split into two paths. Some performers appealed to new norms imposed by French spectators while others refused such norms and removed themselves from the scene to create various movement subcultures. This rift began a theme in belly dance history of subjection …

Examination Of The Cumulative Risk Assessment And Nutritional Profiles Among College Ballet Dancers, Kenya Moore, Nancy A. Uriegas, Jessica Pia, Dawn M. Emerson, Kelly Pritchett, Toni M. Torres-Mcgehee

All Faculty Scholarship for the College of Education and Professional Studies

This study examined female collegiate ballet dancers’ (n = 28) Female Athlete Triad (Triad) risk via the Cumulative Risk Assessment (CRA) and nutritional profiles (macro- and micronutrients; n = 26). The CRA identified Triad return to play criteria (RTP: Full Clearance, Provisional Clearance, or Restricted/Medical Disqualified) by assessing eating disorder risk, low energy availability, menstrual cycle dysfunction, and low bone mineral density. Seven-day dietary assessments identified any energy imbalances of macro- and micronutrients. Ballet dancers were identified as low, within normal, or high for each of the 19 nutrients assessed. Basic descriptive statistics assessed CRA risk classification and dietary macro- …

Works In Progress, Robin Kish, Julianne O'Brien, Tomas Tamayo, Amanda Kay White

Dance Programs

No abstract provided.

The Reality Of Bipolar Disorder: A Dance Film To Bring Awareness To The Misconceptions Of Mental Health, Julia Woolums

Mahurin Honors College Capstone Experience/Thesis Projects

For my project, I researched bipolar disorder to create a dance film highlighting the associated symptoms and emotions of hypomanic and depressive episodes. The purpose of this research is to bring awareness to and educate on the reality of these mental health symptoms to reduce mental health stereotypes and stigma. I researched academic texts and peer-reviewed articles about bipolar disorder written from the perspective of those diagnosed with it and used the symptom criteria in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders to compose, choreograph, film, and edit my dance film. The completed film showcases what daily life could …

Lindenwood University Promotional Booklet For The Dance Program, Lindenwood University

Student Dance Programs & Brochures

2023 Lindenwood University Promotional Booklet for the Dance Program

Shifting Once Again, Hannah Dusek

Undergraduate Theses, Professional Papers, and Capstone Artifacts

Change is constant; an action and a reaction. “Shifting Once Again” is an exploration of how changes in an individual affect one's relationship to themself and others. Figuring out who we are - that is change. Such shifts can be terrifying, exciting, and in some cases, underwhelming. I invite you to reflect on these shifts in your own life as you watch this piece, and how they might have even brought you to this very audience tonight. The knowledge that everyone around us is constantly going through changes can be comforting. Finding comfort in those changes, without resistance, is what …

Needs Salt, Joshua Lang

Dance (MFA) Theses

Researcher Joshua Lang investigates the development of the Eden narrative in western culture. Near the beginning of the book of Genesis, the Eden narrative provides a lens to culturally significant elements of early Hebrew culture. Genesis illustrates early Hebrew culture’s relationship with the natural world, sex, sin, judgment, and death. Similarly, John Milton’s retelling of the narrative in Paradise Lost divulges information about the culture that Milton lived in, as well as a great deal about the author himself. Milton’s blindness, and his opinions on heteronormative marriage, Protestantism, sin, judgment, and death are evident in the text. In Paradise Lost …

A Mixed Method Comparison: Instruction In Undergraduate Beginning, Intermediate, And Advanced Contemporary Dance Classes, Aditi Bheda

All Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Other Capstone Projects

This study aimed to identify the nature of instructional differences between beginning, intermediate and advanced contemporary dance classes. The study involved interviewing two dance instructors and observing their classes, as well as conducting focus group discussions to gain insight from students. Despite difficulties in comparing across three levels given that no single instructor was observed teaching all three levels, the mixed method comparison yielded some common themes at each dance level. Given that students at higher levels were more aware of and comfortable with their bodies, instructors moved through the class at a quicker pace. Students at each level were …

The Old One And La Mer, Karter Tod Bernhardt

Undergraduate Theses, Professional Papers, and Capstone Artifacts

No abstract provided.

Movement As Medicine: Dance/Movement Therapy For Individuals With Autism, Parkinson’S Disease, And Cancer, Alessia Zanobini

CMC Senior Theses

Dance/movement therapy (D/MT) is the psychotherapeutic use of expressive, creative movement to support holistic well-being. D/MT views the human being as a single body-mind unit and movement as a manifestation of life experiences. While typically practiced as a mental health intervention, D/MT can be adapted for a variety of populations. This thesis evaluates scientific data for the non-traditional use of D/MT for three conditions: autism, Parkinson’s disease, and cancer. For individuals on the autism spectrum, D/MT can strengthen attunement skills, provide creative communication outlets, and relieve harmful physical manifestations of autism. For individuals with Parkinson’s disease, D/MT can simultaneously ease …

The Creation Of Choreography For Disney's High School Musical, John Greer

All Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Other Capstone Projects

This document is a thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the Master of Fine Arts degree in musical theatre. It is a detailed account of author John Greer’s artistic process of creating the choreography for Disney’s High School Musical as a part of Minnesota State University, Mankato’s mainstage theatre season in the fall of 2022. The thesis chronicles the choreographer’s artistic process from pre-production through performance in five chapters: a preproduction analysis, an historical and critical perspective, a rehearsal journal, a post-production analysis and a process development analysis. Appendices and works cited are included.

The Messiness Within: Personal Essays On Peeling Back The Facade, Chava Pearl Lansky

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This collection of three interconnected personal essays draws from the genres of memoir and biography to answer the following question: What are the physical, mental, and emotional repercussions of covering up hardship and sickness with a facade of normalcy and perfection? Overlaid by themes of chronic illness, dance, beauty, and control, this project chronicles my own personal battle against this tendency. The first essay explores the complexities of the year and a half I spent working as a ghostwriter for Larry Rhodes, an elderly dancer attempting to rewrite his history in the wake of societal change. The second piece follows …

2022 Bfa Dance Showcase

Dance Programs

No abstract provided.

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 …

Reconstructing Maria Clara: An Empowered Contemporary Interpretation On The Undervalued Characteristics Of Filipino Women Through Analyzing Maria Clara In The Carinosa, Calista Loriana L. Conlu

DLSU Senior High School Research Congress

Throughout decades of progress, gender stereotyping remains a social dilemma in the Philippines. Particularly with the media's continued portrayal of Filipino women as a part of society. These societal constraints on women date back to the postcolonial era, which continues to have an impact on women's life, robbing them of their independence, self-expression, and rights. This artwork aims to give a perspective that empowers the various qualities and roles of Filipino women that society deems as ‘undervalued’. In this study, Cultural Feminism was used as the basis of understanding the social dilemmas and other factors concerning gender roles, specifically for …

Meet And Run, Gia M. Binner

Theses and Dissertations

A defense for Gia Binner’s MFA Thesis, Meet and Run, argues that accessible art, known in this paper as commercial dance, is a meaningful vehicle for social change and that it has the ability to dismantle the outdated, European concert dance dominance by modeling the interdependency of both worlds.

Self-Efficacy Development In Elementary-Aged Learners Through Dance As An Algorithmic Thinking Tool, Niva Shrestha

Honors Theses

The purpose of this research is to demonstrate the effectiveness of a transdisciplinary approach in teaching computational thinking through dance to elementary-aged learners, with primary attention to females. With limited literature available on how pre-adolescents begin to construct conceptions of computer science and other engineering domains, including potential career pathways, the incentive of this project was to leverage a day camp for about 20 rising 3rd - 5th-grade learners to assess their identity development in computer science. Modules that teach computational thinking through dance paired with Unruly splats (block-based programmable electronic gadgets) were implemented. By conducting pre-and post-surveys and a …

Movement As A Way Of Knowing Earth: An Ecosomatic Approach To Developing Movement Choices, Brittany Tolbert

Honors Theses

The senior choreographic project The Spirit of Gaia aims to not only build awareness for individuals about the impact humans have on the climate crisis but also to inspire change in the way in which humans utilize movement practices for the benefit of Earth. As a creative process based in somatic exploration and a performance contingent on a live audience, The Spirit of Gaia exists as a living moment of dance. Acknowledging the power movement has to be the progenitor of a larger environmental consciousness and an eco-friendly change on the individual level, the dance acts as a means of …