<p>A key in dance training is found in Maestro Alfredo Corvino&rsquo;s pedagogy. This is what I intend to argue as imperative inclusion in the training of concert dancers interested in an achieved ease in technical prowess. The pedagogical tradition for producing classical ballet dancers is not limited to ballet dancers, it is valued and necessary toward the creation of the concert dance artist. The inclusion of ballet in the training of modern and contemporary dancers is within a tradition that is sensible; the dissolution of ballet&rsquo;s value in contemporary concert dance, problematic. The interest of sports and yoga and the invasion of those modalities into the ballet and modern dance classroom is problematic in the pursuit of dance training. Injuries prevail due to a preponderate influence of sports and yoga into a room that is trying to accomplish physical prowess in a distinct artistic direction. </p><p> In the 50 years of his pedagogical experience, Maestro Alfredo Corvino developed a way of teaching ballet through a specific method of delivering and explaining exercises that are then explored by students in in-between sequences. He established this interstitial structure enabling the dancer opportunity to comprehend both within the sequence and outside of it. Each sequence is taught with its own particular dynamic timing so that the truth of the intention of the exercise becomes physical reality. </p><p> My intention is to simply pursue a corner of the world where the purity of classical ballet, before it became infiltrated by modernity and individual style, is valued. There is a pure line that is reflected in forms of nature that ballet was once interested in and I am interested in exploring and establishing the proof of that original value.</p>

<p> Site-specific dance emerged from the dance and visual arts scene of the 1960s and 1970s. It investigated and challenged where and how art could take place. My thesis looks back on Trisha Brown&rsquo;s early site-specific choreography in the 1970s and then analyzes current site-specific choreography through viewing live performances, interviewing artists and audience members, and researching published books and articles on this genre. Site based work explores a deep relationship between choreographer, dancers, audience, and space. My final choreographic event, <i>Natural Settings</i>, was my two-year long exploration into creating an outdoor site-specific walking tour in Emeryville, California. The dance included four dancers and eleven sections in eleven different locations.</p>

<p> 'Community' is a multivalent concept, subject to a plurality of contexts and constructs that can alter and shift its meaning. As a dance artist, I have encountered myriad understandings and manifestations of 'community' through dance practice, and perceive an intrinsic relationship between dance and 'community.' A 'West African' dance class in Philadelphia &mdash; designated as a 'community-based' class by the instructor &mdash; provides a rich opportunity to excavate this relationship. The class, one of several offered throughout the city, is located in West Philadelphia. It is an intergenerational class attended by a diverse demographic of participants (race/ethnicity, gender, profession, class, age, ability, etc.) with an array of motivations and goals for participating in class (as made evident through conversations and interviews). All are welcome to attend, regardless of previous experience or skill level in 'West African' dance. </p><p> My dissertation is a qualitative research study that examines participant experiences and interpretations of 'community,' with attention paid to the socio-cultural/political context of 'West African' dance in the United States, specifically in Philadelphia. Methodologically, this study is situated in sensory ethnography, philosophically oriented in community based participatory research, and draws from phenomenological strategies towards gathering lived experience data. Lived experiences of 'community' are placed in conversation with literature concerned with theories and constructions of 'community' from a range of disciplines, as well as texts that interrogate the historical, sociocultural and political contexts which frame 'West African' dance within the United States. As a member of this particular 'West African' dance class, I situate my own experiences within that of the collective, migrating inward and outward between personal reflection and participant narratives. As such this investigation lies at the intersection of subjective, intersubjective, and cultural knowledge.</p>

This thesis traces a lineage from historical onscreen awkward dancing to contemporary online dorky dancing. This evolution encompasses Edison's actualities, the stars of silent film, Charlie Chaplin and Buster Keaton, the expert awkward dancer, Donald O'Connor, and the more recent awkward dance stars, Pee Wee Herman and Napoleon Dynamite. This foundation contextualizes the rise of self-produced, "dorky dance" on the Internet, a form beloved for its genuineness and lack of fabrication and immensely popular due to "viralization" and transmission as "Internet memes." Dorky dance is further distinguished from awkward dance by examining the specific criteria that compose its definition. This investigation utilizes both movement analysis and socio-cultural studies, drawing particularly from gender studies and recent sociological theorizing about the Internet. The current role of Internet participation advocacy is linked to a long-standing precedent for participation-fuelled art-making, drawing from Walter Benjamin to the post-modern artistic collaborators of the 1960s and 1970s. This study analyzes the impacts of the online dorky dance movement, including those personal in nature—either for the creator or the viewer, the new audience member—and those on a societal level, both the positive and potentially negative. Although participation in the dorky dance genre is still limited by the existing restrictions of the digital divide, the technology necessary to participate is rapidly becoming cheaper and more available. This greater accessibility is continuing to bring fascinatingly diverse examples of online dorky dancing. Finally, the thesis explores the points of intersection between Internet dorky dancing and other arenas that it is permeating—the live concert dance stage, the cinema house, the video art realm, and the commercial world of advertisements and sponsorship. / A Thesis submitted to the Department of Dance in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts. / Degree Awarded: Spring Semester, 2007. / Date of Defense: April 2, 2007. / Dancing, Dance, Internet, YouTube, Numa, Ok Go, Awkward, Dorky, Vaudeville, Amateur / Includes bibliographical references. / Sally Sommer, Professor Directing Thesis; John O. Perpener, III, Committee Member; Tricia Young, Committee Member.

This Masters in American Dance Studies thesis engages with the notion of bodily memory as the feminist archive. Using historical, theoretical, and embodied research methods, I define the feminist archive as it relates to the field of Dance Studies at large, and in doing so investigate the liberatory power of movement. Specifically, I examine the ways in which the feminist archive subverts the Western edifices of capitalism, linear time, and heteronormativity. In doing so, I rely on Diana Taylor’s repertoire and Rebecca Schneider’s feminist archive as critical theories in asking of bodily memory’s potential to empower dance as a subversive practice. / A Thesis submitted to the School of Dance in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts. / Spring Semester 2018. / April 16, 2018. / American Dance Studies, Feminist Archive / Includes bibliographical references. / Jennifer Atkins, Professor Co-Directing Thesis; Hannah Schwadron, Professor Co-Directing Thesis; Sally R. Sommer, Committee Member.

In the past decade there has been a resurgence of experimental dance artists in the United States using nakedness—especially utilizing their own nude bodies—in choreography. In an effort to discover why this trend is reemerging now and how nudity is functioning in new ways in the world of twenty-first century avant-garde American dance, this thesis critically investigates five works of choreography as case studies. The first chapter introduces my main ideas, gives a brief history of nudity in avant-garde dance and outlines the format for the rest of the thesis. The second chapter investigates grotesque and carnivalesque uses of nakedness in Ann Liv Young's Cinderella. The third chapter investigates two radically different ways of relating the bare female body and environment through analyzing Anna Halprin's Returning Home: Moving With the Earth Body and Noémie Lafrance's Home: the Body as a Place. The fourth chapter focuses on how male dancers refute, transgress and move beyond the cultural taboo of male bodily exposure through studying Miguel Gutierrez's myendlesslove and Eiko Otake Yamada and Takashi Koma Yamada's Naked. Finally, the thesis closes by posing some potential political, economic, cultural and scientific reasons why nudity has been reappearing in choreography over the past ten years and highlighting a new use of nudity as a mediating tool in the five aforementioned works / A Thesis submitted to the School of Dance in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts. / Degree Awarded: Spring Semester, 2011. / Date of Defense: April 1, 2011. / Nudity, Nakedness, Dance, Miguel Gutierrez, Takashi Koma Yamada, Ann Liv Young, Anna Halprin, Noemie Lafrance / Includes bibliographical references. / Tricia H. Young, Professor Directing Thesis; Jennifer Atkins, Committee Member; Gerri Houlihan, Committee Member; Sally R. Sommer, Committee Member.

abstract: Cultural background is very important for people, and people from different cultural backgrounds will have different understandings of art. This document explores how individuals relate to other cultures and incorporate the advantages of Chinese cultural values into contemporary dance experiences as researched for the applied project, III. This project uses the Bagua theory in the ancient Chinese book the I Ching to carry out the process of collaborative creation through different art forms in collaboration with artists from different mediums. This document details the artist’s process of self-exploration and creative expansion using personal cultural background and influences (both Eastern and Western). Through this research the artist has come to understand and develop unique personal perspectives and formulate a creative method that she will continue to use in the future; it centers the importance of cultural identity and how that shapes experiences of art and art-making. / Dissertation/Thesis / Masters Thesis Dance 2019

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In this paper, we introduce the Tootsie Pop Algorithm and explore its use in different contexts. It can be used to estimate more general problems where a measure is defined, or in the context of statistics application, integration involving high dimensions. The Tootsie Pop Algorithm was introduced by Huber and Schott[2] The general process of Tootsie Pop Algorithm, just like what its name suggests, is a process of peeling down the outer shell, which is the larger enclosing set, to the center, which is the smaller enclosed. We obtain the average number of peels, which gives us an understanding of the ratio between the size of the shell and the size of the center. Each peel is generated by a random draw within the outer shell: if the drawn point is located in the center, we are done, else we update the outer shell such that the drawn point is right on its edge.

This thesis applies the theory of optimum currency area (OCA) to the case of two small, open economies, Hong Kong and Singapore to see if a fixed exchange rate functions as the best exchange rate regime for them. It examines the costs and benefits of the linked exchange rate system which was established in Hong Kong in 1983 by applying a list of selected OCA criteria. This thesis further provides a comparative analysis on the economic implications of the two distinctive exchange rate systems in Hong Kong and Singapore: while Hong Kong has adopted a pegged exchange rate regime under a currency board system, Singapore operates a managed-float system that links its target rate to a basket of currencies of its major trading partners. The findings suggest that the managed-float system in Singapore has not only allowed for greater monetary autonomy during economic cycles, but also offered greater flexibility to cushion external shocks.