The primary objective of this thesis is to inyestigate the development of and changes within the practice of Scottish competitive solo Highland dancing. Although this activity has been inherited through strong oral and military traditions, and is currently practised by over fifty thousand people world-wide. this theoretical and empirical work is the first in-depth study of its kind in the field. The focus of research is the extent to which the impact of regulation on a previously unregulated tradition has contributed to the usurping of creativity by technicality. Five dances have formed the principal competith'e repertoire since the nineteenth century. Their beginnings and early accounts are traced through oral, visual and literary sources, using an historical approach. Two dominant organisational bodies were established around 1950 and letters, minutes and other unpublished material pertaining to the circumstances surrounding their formation are interrogated. Interviews with dancers, teachers, judges and examiners offer insights into the construction of this governance, and the impact of its policing of the dancing community, from practitioners' perspec ti v es. A written ethnography of a contemporary Highland dancing championship reveals procedures at such an event. This is illustrated by a video ethnography. Interviews with contemporary dancers and teachers form a narrative in which attitudes towards the management of a Ii ying tradition are foregrounded. Personal testimonies of competitions yield qualitatiye data tilwhich there are three dominant themes: aesthetic judgements. dancers' musicality, and dancing as sport. Matters of gender and identity also emerge The analysis shows that the content and conduct of competitions has not altered much in the last half century. However, there are significant diffcrenccs between pre-regulated and post-regulated positions, gestures and steps. Extensive comparisons are made between components using Labanotation. Such standardisation is indicative of a climate of control which has led to a continual narrowing of style and an emphasis on technique. The thesis proposes that this pioneering study leads the way for future investigation into the Scottish Highland dancing tradition

The dominance of instrumentalism and utilitarianism in education today tends to reduce the value of dance. Research on dance in education is very limited. Recent reviews of research on the arts in education propose that research has to move from exploring transfer effects of artistic activity towards exploring the meaningfulness of the arts themselves. New researches as well as new theoretical approaches are thus called for (Winner, Goldstein and Vincent-Lancrin, 2013). Hence my research question is: what are students’ experiences of dance? Research on experiences in the arts is contested by the problem to verbalise lived experience. Therefore, in the thesis, a new method based on hermeneutic phenomenology (HP) and arts-based research (ABR) is developed. It includes artistic activity in three forms arts: dance, poetry, and visual art. An oral interview built on a circular structure gives the students a variety of opportunities to interpret and verbalise their experiences of dance. Twenty students, 18 years old, who regularly dance in school, participated. Answers were analysed following van Manen’s (1990) method of structural analysis of themes, including poetic interpretations. The findings reveal that dance is experienced as very important for personal exploration and transformation. Experiences of finding ‘my home’, security, freedom, authenticity, well-being, and happiness are most evident in research participants. Dance strengthens students’ motivation to take on the challenges of life and their ability to concentrate. The experience of dance is described as an extraordinary state of mind. Both participant evaluations and the analysis of results indicate that the method, phenomenology of artistic practice, was successful. Thus this thesis contributes to the development of ABR and HP. A theoretical perspective placing artistic activity at the centre of the creation of knowledge and based on Gadamer’s (1993) ideas on Bildung is presented. Recent educational discussions (Biesta, 2012) highlight the importance of interpretative activities and understanding of self in setting future directions for education. This thesis discusses dance in relation to this context and indicates that dance is an important school subject, being based on existential values. In concluding that dance has a positive influence on the life of the students and provides a unique opportunity to explore self, this thesis argues that educationalists should reconsider the value of dance in schools.

This thesis explores dance on screen from the artist's point of view following the making of the video GAIA - Mysterious Rhythms (20 min,Digital Betacam). The video and the thesis together form the PhD submission. The interaction of practice and theory, through a process of creative work, analysis and reflection resulted in the structuring of a model with which I claim the autonomy of dance on screen as a hybrid art form, a form which like other creative forms, such as painting, sculpture or even dance, has its own particular aesthetic qualities and limits. This thesis proposes that dance as a live form ceases to exist in the process of its recreation as a screen form. The argument about dance on screen is based not within the context of contemporary live dance, but within the contexts of film/video, screen choreography and performance, including 'performative' texts and art as performance engaging both artists and viewers. To locate dance on screen in a contemporary framework, I refer to central developments issuing from the television series Dance for the Camera produced by BBC2 & the Arts Council and the IMZ/Dance Screen international festivals. I approach choreography in screen terms thereby referring to the expression of movement in the broader sense, including performance, body language, the motion of objects and natural events, and rhythms and movements created via film/video technology. The moving body on screen is also utilised for the expression of mythical journeys as in Gaia. Overall, this thesis demonstrates that dance on screen, originating from the contexts of modem and post-modem art and culture, constitutes a unique art form and phenomenon reflecting current concerns with the notions of hybridity and performance.

The principal aim of this research is the critical investigation into the creative processes involved in the making of screen based work in dance and the moving image, with specific reference to the notion of choreographic sensibility. The research process has been located within a climate of evolving production paradigms and the increasingly permeable boundaries of professional roles. A marked increase in educational initiatives and opportunities for showing work within the environment of festival screenings has also coincided with a discernible shift towards smaller scale models of production. The investigation has been undertaken by means of a written submission and also by the creation of a forty two piece cycle of work submitted on DVD. Selected examples of work from screen based dance and moving image practice have been subject to a process of analysis. This analysis has been informed by critical perspectives drawn from the writings of selected classical film theorists, from influential filmmakers Maya Deren and Stan Brakhage, and from the field of practice theory. From this analysis, it can be claimed that examples of screen based dance and moving image work have the potential to be read 'choreographically'. Some of the common practices in theatre dance and screen based dance relate directly to the notion of movement material creation. Others must be regarded as relating to an enhanced and more conceptually oriented range of choreographic practices which are more usually associated with the non dance-specific professional roles of the director, editor and visual artist. A distinctive choreographic sensibility has also been identified in the creation of my own screen based work. This sensibility can be said to be located within a range of improvisationally oriented strategies. These strategies relate to the processes involved in performance; the creation of movement material; directing and editing, all of which are informed by a body of professionally developed intuitive knowledge.

This doctoral project examines Maurice Merleau-Ponty's account of phenomenological intersubjectivity and addresses a gap between his account of intersubjectivity and intersubjectivities present in the contemporary dance event. This gap concerns a specific type of performative practice which highlights the tension between person and persona. In order to focus on this area of the gap, the methodologies of choreological studies, phenomenological intersubjectivity and original choreographic practice have been employed. There are current choreographers such as Jonathan Burrows, Atsushi Takenouchi and Angela Woodhouse as well as choreographers of the past such as those from the Judson Dance Theater whose work has revealed intersubjectivity. However, there has not yet been a reflective practitioner who has undertaken an analysis of Merleau-Ponty's ideas on intersubjectivity, questioned their relevance to the contemporary dance event and proposed developments to his account of intersubjectivity in relation to contemporary dance choreographic practice. The research proposes a new synthesised account of intersubjectivites which is a development of Merleau-Ponty's account of intersubjectivity and promotes this new synthesised account of intersubjectivities as more relevant to the contemporary dance event which values empathy, human connection and immediacy. The doctoral project undertakes a hybrid mode of investigation consisting of practice-based research and practice-led research to produce an outcome which is mixed-mode in format: a combination of academic and creative writing and DVD documentation. These processes of inquiry have prompted a shift in focus towards a part of the gap that addresses Contemporary Dance technique and has provoked a critique of this technique, looking instead to psychophysical training. This research therefore challenges European mainstream Contemporary Dance technical training today with an aim to promote a meaningful, experiential engagement between the maker, performer and audience.

This thesis addresses the social process of bodily learning and the cultural shaping of sensory experience. It draws on literature from the anthropology ofdance, the anthropology ofthe body, and the anthropology of the senses in order to explore the socially constituted practices by which dancing bodies are created in present-day London. Based on heavily participatory fieldwork undertaken at a nationally recognized school for professional contemporary dance, it explores issues of social access, identity, bodily transfonnation, and institutionalized bodily control as they relate to the process of becoming a professional dancing body within the British context. A central theoretical premise underpinning this investigation is that the heretofore unresolved division between concepts of 'mind' and 'body' (and its related dyad of 'subject' and 'object') is not merely a philosophical construct but has its roots in actual bodily experience. As such ethnographic material is presented within a dualstrand framework that highlights varying experiences of body-as-object and body-assubject among British contemporary dance students.

The aim of this thesis is to investigate the social and cultural significance of butoh dance beyond its original context of postwar Japan. In order to do so, the thesis explores ideas, practices and experiences of butoh dancing among contemporary–Japanese as well as non-Japanese –practitioners: primarily the Oxford-based butoh dance company Café Reason, which constituted the main case study for the research. The ethnographic particularities of butoh, as defined by its practitioners, provided the core of the investigation. That is, a common notion among teachers and students of this dance form is that butoh has no conclusive form or style. They also say that butoh is defined by its very defying of definitions. Thus, the central question that runs through the thesis is: ‘How does butoh, a dance that resists codification and classification, continue to be practised and reinvented?’ The central hypothesis of the thesis is that the core of butoh lies in its perceptual, rather than its formal, constitution and articulation. In order to test this hypothesis I engaged an unorthodox methodology that, by explicitly mobilizing sensory engagement in the processes of training and performing butoh, brought my own experience to the centre-stage of the analysis. In turn, the methodological focus on the senses unveiled the sophisticated aesthetic dimensions of butoh dancing, especially its reliance on tactile-kinesthetic perception. Based on these methodological premises, a review of butoh training and performances allowed an approach to the semantic and perceptual ‘indeterminacy’ of the butoh body. The latter is typically associated with unintelligible levels of experience: in the form of either intense, and often ‘anti-social,’ emotional states, or augmented, near-religious, states of awareness. These findings led me to identify ‘emotion’ and ‘otherness’ as the core experiential dimensions of butoh dancing, which, in turn, explains its continuity and significance as an art form. Ultimately, butoh’s synthesis of ‘art’ and ‘spirituality,’ or of ‘dance’ and ‘therapy,’ allows the analysis to situate this cultural phenomenon in a continuum between ritual and aesthetic performance, with different butoh dancers placing themselves at different positions within this spectrum.

Set in the context of contemporary dance this thesis investigates how improvisation practice and performance making participate in a critical rethinking of age(ing). Advancing the notion of an age critical dance practice, the research draws on the theoretical frameworks of age studies – a multidisciplinary field of critical inquiry informed by, largely speaking, feminist and poststructuralist theories. The age critical dance practice developed in this thesis, in turn, enters into conversation with the discourses established in age studies and dance studies as a way to incorporate age critique into dance. The thesis is a Practice as Research project consisting of a written thesis, two solo performances (The Fountain of Youth, premiered 2013, and The Fountain of Age, premiered 2015), and employs immersive dance based research methods such as the development of a Solo Partnering practice (as documented on DVD). The research also remodels the method of qualitative interviewing into a performative method that allows the participating expert practitioners to tap into their unique improvisation and performance expertise when addressing their particular understanding of age(ing). Through the development and analysis of improvised practice and performance making, alongside in-depth performative interviews, the findings of this research point to ways in which improvisation and performance embody age critical potential. The long-term, open-ended and agentic artistic processes that improvisation experts develop all share a range of characteristics that serve to challenge the established youth-orientation in dance and constitute an implicitly critical position to dominant understandings of age(ing) in dance. Consequently, the thesis argues that improvisation practices ‘do’ age(ing) in ways less prone to dualistic stereotyping and reiterations of (self‐) discriminatory age(ing)-as‐decline narratives that dominate our culture as a whole. The research also suggests strategies in performance making that enable representations of age(ing) in ways that collide with, resist, or complicate normative expectations on age(ing). The dance works presented in this thesis allow the dancer to articulate shifting perspectives and experiences, creating ambiguous meanings and disjunctive narratives of age(ing), and thereby making explicit a critical position towards the grand narratives of age(ing). In conclusion, this research argues that specific approaches to a long-term, open-ended dance practice, alongside critical images and new imaginations of age(ing) in performance, allow dance to evolve as an age critical arts practice.

In the early twenty‐first century, asexuality has emerged as a sexual orientation category, defined as a ‘lack’ of sexual attraction. This thesis challenges such a definition, arguing that it erodes individual idiosyncrasies; assumes that everyone is sexual, and that sexuality is immutable; and fails to note that sexual orientation labels are products of patriarchy and capitalism. A study of female (a)sexualities is long overdue. Very little has been written on the topic. Furthermore, with the rise of postfeminism, women are often represented as desiring their sexual objectification, whilst the narratives of asexual‐identified women are in danger of being lost. In response, this thesis poses two questions. Firstly, what are the junctures and disjunctures between discursive representations of female (a)sexualities and women’s engagements with (a)sexualities across their life spans? Secondly, what are the embodied moments when female (a)sexualities are in transition, and in particular, what role do ecstatic collective movement rites play in these shifts? To answer these questions, this thesis employs three methodologies: (i) a two-part genealogy, comprising a sociohistorical exploration of female (a)sexualities and alternative narratives, articulated through the literary imaginary, Western and Afro‐diasporic dance and Zumba; (ii) ‘me‐search,’ featuring nine autobiographical passages written between September 2013 and August 2016; and (iii) collective biography workshops with nine women/life history interviews with seven women, conducted from April to June 2015. The data suggested that patriarchal structures constrain women’s collective ecstatic motion. This led to the emergence of a new concept for reframing female (a)sexualities: Zorbitality. Zorbitality is a resistant imaginary, which navigates a threefold process from vulnerability to inner ecstasy and collective ecstatic motion. It harnesses the collective joy of Zumba, a global Latin dance fitness phenomenon, as a central example. Zorbitality features realigned and evershifting erotic poles, from autoeroticism to polyamory. Ultimately, as a resistant imaginary, Zorbitality challenges representations of ‘asexuality’ as a categorical orientation, by situating collective ecstatic motion as the basis of a feminine libidinal economy, which embodies an ethical openness to otherness.

The thesis investigates how Bharatanatyam dance practice is reconfigured through the specific cultural histories and novel practices of emerging dance artists in Britain. At the outset, I engage with how various dance labels are contested socially and culturally by diverse groups of people. In doing so, I intertwine the discussion with the politics of identity to illuminate how these dance artists negotiate their multiple identities, encompassing the issues related to race, ethnicity, gender and citizenship. Through a situated reading of postmodern and postcolonial praxes, I argue that these dance artists construct a permeating border by continually bringing new elements into their contemporary works, dismantling the purity/hybridity dyad. Additionally, I demonstrate how the theme of the ‘city’ is adopted as a performative device to portray kaleidoscopic patterns of cultural, historical and psychological climates of urban cities. While analysing non-proscenium choreographies, I demonstrate how an assembly of the senses overlap with various architectural places to create a complex web of history, cultural identity and memory to construct a ‘site’, which in turn, opens up rooms for discussing the previously ignored senses, including tactility, gustation and olfaction. Furthermore, I reveal how digital performance as a genre is increasingly celebrated by these dance artists, which decisively has challenged the bodily boundary and influenced the psycho-visual aesthetics of contemporariness. Drawing on interdisciplinary theoretical lenses, my readings of a range of danceworks and a mixed-method approach, I argue that contemporary Bharatanatyam practice is always in a state of flux due to the incessant mobility of people, ideas, cultures, histories and differential artistic subjectivities, and therefore it restricts any closure of meanings. In a nutshell, this thesis offers a new perspective on the disjuncture and reconfiguration of contemporary practice of Bharatanatyam dance in the 21st century British context, provoking new ways of seeing, interpreting and appreciating contemporary performance.