To study pairs of people is to study how individuals establish senses of self, other, and us. Every time two individuals meet, they confront their intersections; they align, collide, refract, reflect, and maybe even absorb one another. I am interested in a third element of betweenness created at the intersection of one-to-one interactions, and how that betweenness holds relationships between individuals in constant dialogue. In choreographing and directing Three Completely Distinct Duets with Absolutely Nothing in Common (TCDDwANiC), I investigate contradictions in the duet form in order to mine and frame a betweenness loaded with awkward aesthetics. In a world in which awkwardness is often shamed, I seek to illuminate its presence in my art-making. In this manner, TCDDwANiC immediately questions whether it is or is not what it says it is. In an attempt to conceptually and choreographically destabilize some of my contradictory relationships to my own trainings in Western concert dance forms, I rigorously conceived of the production through its framing, character developments, and re-distributed narrative layers. Having set up specific working procedures with rigid creative boundaries regarding time and space, I have come to recognize ways in which my research actively disallows a certain amount of pleasure in its making. Demanding the watching, witnessing, and participating spectator to engage with complex layers of contradiction, TCDDwANiC reflects its own making, and carries social implications more relevant than the production itself or its most direct communal reach.

This work began as an exploration of the spatial qualities of awkwardness. It eventually evolved into a fixation on the three planes within the corner of a room, representing the safe haven for an awkward individual. The corner has successfully demonstrated the relationship between body, space and garment as a concept. Furthermore, the corner has proved to function as the ultimate tool for creating a sculpture with the integrated body. The motive of this work is to spark interest and to provide an alternative criteria for what can be categorised as a sculpture. This new criteria represents functional interchanging sculptures that can be built around the body. The limits created within this work have been key in formulating the problem, and to generate a wide range of results within a concentrated field to challenge the method. The ultimate limit has been the corner itself, which has been manifested into the ultimate opportunity. This has resulted in a collection of examples all constructed through the method of the corner and finally bringing it to the body, effectively removing the corner from the space. This has created a mobile wearable space, that can be arranged according to desired fashion and shield awkwardness.

Adolescence is characterized by systematic and dramatic physical and behavioural changes, the most noticeable physical growth is the rapid increase in stature marked by peak height velocity (PHV). Anecdotally, many people are aware that as youth pass through their adolescent growth spurt there is a perceived period of physical awkwardness; however, there is no scientific agreement as to whether a period of awkwardness associated with the adolescent growth actually exists. Previous research has focused on the development of general motor performance or gross motor coordination. Increases in strength during adolescence may mask the effect of a stage of adolescent awkwardness on general motor performance tasks. To detect adolescent awkwardness it is necessary to measure either performance of skills that specifically do not depend on strength, or body awareness. The purpose of this study was to investigate whether female adolescents’ awareness of their body size and movement was influenced by biological maturation, and whether adolescent awkwardness could be detected in performance of sport specific skills independent of strength. An endpoint matching task was used to measure awareness of foot position in space by measuring the distance (mm) between a reference and matching endpoint position (endpoint matching error (EME)) with eyes either open or closed. The Johnson wall volley and a ball juggling task were used to measure soccer specific skill and coordination. Thirty six female youth soccer players, aged 10-14 years, were recruited. Age at PHV was predicted from measures of age, height, leg length and weight. Three groups were identified: pre-PHV (n=6), PHV (n=5) and post –PHV (n=25). Mean group differences were assessed using ANOVA. It was found that when the endpoint matching task was performed with eyes open there was no significant difference in mean EME between groups (p > 0.05). With eyes closed the PHV group performed worse than the pre-PHV and post-PHV groups. The Post-PHV group significantly (p < 0.05) decreased their EME (22.2 ± 13.9) compared to the PHV group (32.8 ± 17.6) but no difference was found with the Pre-PHV group (27.5 ± 15.7). On the wall volley test the Post-PHV group performed significantly (p < 0.05) better compared to the PHV group but not the Pre-PHV group. The Post-PHV group performed significantly (p < 0.05) better on the ball juggling task compared to both the Pre-PHV and the PHV groups. In conclusion, the results suggest that in the year around PHV body awareness, as measured by EME, may plateau or decrease and that soccer skill performance plateaus. This plateau or decrease in body awareness and soccer skills involving coordination is likely temporary; participants in this study who were > 6 months past PHV had significantly better body awareness and soccer skill performance than those participants who were within 6 months of PHV. The results from the endpoint matching task also indicate that a measure of body size and movement awareness has the potential to be used to measure changes in body awareness during the adolescent growth spurt. The results of this study suggest that teenage clumsiness could exists. However, a definitive study with larger maturity groups followed over time is required to confirm this statement.

Notre mémoire se veut une lecture de la version américaine de la série à succès The Office (NBC, 2005-2013) à travers la métaphore dramaturgique du sociologue Erving Goffman (1922-1982). Ce rapprochement permet une riche analyse, puisque la série comme le penseur placent le malaise au cœur de leurs projets respectifs. En ayant comme prémisse fictive d’être un documentaire, ainsi qu’en se faisant une satire de l’auto-spectacularisation des participants de télé-réalité, The Office explicite la métaphore dramaturgique goffmanienne. Les personnages de la série, et particulièrement le protagoniste Michael Scott, rendent constamment sensible le fait qu’ils sont en représentation. Le malaise étant une émotion fondamentalement désagréable, la série semble désigner les règles qu’elle considère comme essentielles à la cohésion du groupe en nous faisant subir leur transgression. Le malaise que nous éprouvons deviendrait l’occasion pour nous d’expérimenter les conséquences sociales de transgressions, nous apprenant du même coup l’importance de respecter les normes. D’abord, nous essayerons de déterminer si la série permet quelque chose comme un apprentissage par la négative des règles sociales. Dans un deuxième temps, nous tenterons de prouver que certains épisodes présentent un discours différent de celui de Goffman sur la transgression des normes sociales, présentant des moments où le malaise peut être vécu par les personnages comme des opportunités d’approfondir certaines relations interpersonnelles ou de faire des gains politiques. / Our study is intended as a reading of the American version of the successful series The Office (NBC, 2005-2013) through the dramaturgical metaphor of sociologist Erving Goffman (1922-1982). This rapprochement allows for a rich analysis as both the series and the sociologist place social embarrassment at the heart of their respective projects. With the fictional premise of being a documentary, as well as satirizing the self-spectacularization of reality TV participants, The Office makes Goffmanian dramaturgy explicit. The characters in the series, especially protagonist Michael Scott, constantly make us sensitive to the fact that they are in performance. Embarrassment being a fundamentally unpleasant emotion, the series seems to point to the rules it sees as essential to group cohesion by making us suffer their transgression. The discomfort we feel could become an opportunity for us to experience the social consequences of transgressions, teaching us the importance of upholding norms. First, we'll try to determine if the series allows for something like "negative learning" of social norms. Second, we will try to prove that some episodes convey a different narrative than Goffman's on the transgression of social norms, presenting moments when embarrassment can be experienced by the characters as opportunities to deepen some interpersonal relationships or to make political gains.