This project is concerned with exploring the relationship between postconceptual dance and its state as object. As a practice-led research project it aims to do so both through the written thesis and through artistic practice, which is here presented as a series of video projects that extend representations of dance. Over five chapters I trace the permutation of the ‘object’ from choreographer to spectator, participant, editor, collector and ‘reframer’, arguing for the multiplicity of roles that choreographers, and by extension dancers, take on at the beginning of the 21st century. My interdisciplinary research draws from a variety of theoretical discourses including performance theory, visual cultures and critical theory, and is therefore both relevant to the field of dance studies and beyond the discipline. Given the practice-led nature of the project, my aim has been to expand choreographic performance practices and to increases the range of ‘objects’ that can be considered dance. Therefore, the project resides in the gaps and tensions between practice and theory, performance and documentation, language and dance, text and movement, choreography and objecthood. Throughout I argue that post-conceptual dance operates within an extended field in which dancers and choreographers are expanding the boundaries of the art form, making dance relevant to a broader artistic, cultural, political and social context.

This thesis project presents the web service choreography approach used for the composition of web services. It leverages the CHOReVOLUTION platform, a future-oriented and scalable platform, that is used to design and deploy web service choreographies. By using this platform, a use case that falls into the ITS domain is developed. This use case highlights the benefits of the web service choreography when used for the development of ITS applications. The necessary web services are designed and their interactions are defined through a choreography diagram that graphically represents how the services should collaborate together to fulfill a specific goal. By using the choreography diagram as input to the platform and by registering the web services on a web server, the choreography is deployed over the platform. The resulted choreography is tested in terms of services coordination. It is demonstrated that the platform can generate specific components that are interposed between the services and are able to take care of the services coordination for the use case created. Moreover, the execution time required to complete the choreography is measured, analyzed and reported under different conditions. Finally, it is shown that the execution time varies depending on the data that the services have to process and that the processing of huge data sets may lead to high execution times. / Detta examensarbete behandlar hur man med hjälp koreografering av webbtjänster kan komponera webbtjänster. Det använder sig av CHOReVOLUTION plattformen, en framåtblickande och skalbar plattform, som används för att designa och verkställa koreografering av webbtjänster. Med denna plattform skapas ett användningsfall inom ITS-området. Detta fall belyser fördelarna med webbtjänskoreografi i samband med utveckling av ITS- applikationer. De nödvändiga webbtjänsterna designas och deras samspel definieras genom ett diagram för koreografin, som på ett grafiskt vis presenterar hur tjänsterna skall kollaborera för att nå ett specifikt mål. Genom att mata plattformen med data från diagrammet, och genom att registrera webbtjänster på en webbserver, verkställs koreografin. Med resultatet testas koordineringen av tjänsterna. I detta examensarbete visas det att plattformen kan skapa specifika komponenter som interagerar med tjänsterna, samt sköta koordineringen av tjänster som krävs för detta användningsfall. Exekveringstiden mäts, analyseras och rapporteras under flera olika omständigheter. Det demonstreras också att exekveringstiden varierar beroende på den data som tjänsterna måste behandla, och hur behandlingen av mycket stora datamängder kan leda till långa exekveringstider.

“it is like jumping down into a water-barrel”  – a study about dance pedagogues work with choreography in dance education This study examines how modern- and contemporary-dance pedagogues, in Sweden, work with choreography in their teaching. The purpose of this study is to through a phenomenographical perspective examine a selection of dance pedagogues perceptions of what the meaning of the phenomenon choreography has in their teaching. This is to hopefully contribute to an increased understanding of how choreography can be used in dance education. The research questions are How does three dance pedagogues perceive the usage of choreography in dance education? and Which pedagogical aspects can affect the teaching in dance? The study was researched through three semi-structured interviews which were processed and analyzed through Kvale´s interview-guide and Dahlgren’s &amp; Johansson’s phenomenographical method for analyzing. The results show three main categories of description that were distinguished; The student´s affect in the dance education, The teacher´s affect in the dance education and Knowledge from choreographic processes. Each category was perceived differently, yet many connected to each other. Though this is a small-scaled study, the variation of perceptions shows many different ways to recognize and understand choreography’s and pedagogy’s relation to each other. Further research needs to be done to verify if these factors are important to the bigger population of dance-educators. / <p>2023-05-05</p><p>Språk: Svenska</p><p>Praktiskt presentation. Geslatade del utav resultatanalysens tredje rubrik.</p><p>Stockholms konstnärliga högskola</p><p>Brinellvägen 58, Stockholm</p>

Contemporary dance and modern ballet often focus on conveying emotions through patterns of movement which may be abstract, obvious, or anywhere in between, as supported by music, sound, or spoken words that set the mood. Scenography is typically sparse or confined to the available space, leaving the dancers as the main instrument of communication. This work explores choreography and costume design, with a focus on how garments can inform and direct movement, choreography, and performance, and in turn how movement may inform and contribute to the development of dynamic garments. Through a series of live experiments, ranging from self-instigated performance/video work in collaboration with choreographers and dancers to performances of garment interaction associated with everyday life, the performative, spatial, and interactive properties of garments are explored. The results of these live experiments relate to various aspects of choreography, scenography, and performance space, and offer wide-ranging creative potential. The work shows how designers and choreographers can collaborate on performance scenarios within the context of modern ballet and contemporary dance productions, thus creating conceptual garments that influence the design, choreography, and manipulation of conceptual garments. In relation to the act of dressing and undressing, previously unseen types of garment and ways of wearing and performing were found. New models of collaborative interaction are proposed. This work has demonstrated how the agency of garments can function as a manuscript in modern dance, and how performance itself redefines the notion of wearing and the concept of garments.

Service-oriented architectures are a popular architectural paradigm for building software applications from a number of loosely coupled, distributed services. Through a set of procedural rules, workflow technologies define how groups of services coordinate with one another to achieve a shared task. A problem with workflow specifications is that often the patterns of interaction between the distributed services are too complicated to predict and analyse at design-time. In certain cases, the exact patterns of message exchange and the concrete services to call cannot be predicted in advance, due to factors such as fluctuating network load or the availability of services. It is a more realistic assumption to endow software components with the ability to make decisions about the nature and scope of their interactions at runtime. Multiagent systems offer a complementary paradigm: building software applications from a number of self interested, autonomous agents. This thesis presents an investigation into fusing the agency and service-oriented architecture paradigms, in order to facilitate flexible, workflow composition. Our approach offers an agent-based solution to service choreography and is founded on the concept of shared interaction protocols. By adopting an agent-based approach to service choreography, active autonomous agents can utilise the typically passive service-oriented architectures, found in Internet and Grid systems. In contrast with statically defined, centralised service orchestrations, decentralised agents can perform service choreography at runtime, allowing them to operate in scenarios where it is not possible to define the pattern of interaction in advance. Application to real scenarios is a driving factor behind this research. By working closely with a number of active Grid projects, namely AstroGrid and the Large-Synoptic Survey Telescope (LSST), a concrete set of requirements for scientific workflow have been derived, based on realistic science problems. This research has resulted in the MultiAgent Service Choreography (MASC) language to express scientific workflow, methodology for system building and a software framework which performs agent based Web service choreography, in order to enact distributed e-Science experiments. Evaluation of this thesis is conducted through case study, applying the language, methodology and software framework to solve a motivating set of workflow scenarios.

Med våra kroppar som verktyg mäter vi rummet, beräknar stabilitet, skala, riktning. Arkitektur stimulerar våra sinnen och skapar förutsättningar för rörelse. Koreografi är en komposition av rörelser. Koreografi är också att bestämma hur en eller flera personer ska röra sig. Mitt projekt undersöker hur arkitektur koreograferar kroppen och hur jag som inredningsarkitekt därmed kan agera koreograf i mitt arbete. / We use our bodies as tools to measure space, stability, scale and direction. Architecture stimulates our senses and sets a stage for movement. Choreography is a composition of movements. Choreography is also deciding how people move. My project investigates in what way architecture choreographs the body and how I as an interior architect can act choreographer in my work.

The thesis engages in Choreography and Dance Technique by delineating the concepts and practices that the artistic research project MODUL has generated. A modular method of choreographing is articulated. The MODUL method of choreography starts by making a topographical movement analysis of the context that the work engages with. This analysis results in an identification of the different agencies at work within the context approached. They are considered as Choreographic Agents and as elements of the modular assemblage. The choreographic act then performed consists of a re-articulation of the relations between the different elements. The MODUL method links movement practice and art production as the topographical movement analysis is also applied to, and conceptualised through, the body. In terms of dance technique the MODUL method works with the same topographical movement analysis to explore bodily functionalities as Choreographic Agents. The technique is called Body-Self Attunement and aims at tuning the self, understood as the symbolic body, with the biological body. Body-Self Attunement does not try to unify the symbolic body and the biological body but affirms the gap as generative. The term Generative Choreography is coined in order to emphasise the performative aspect of choreography that is not defined by what it is, but what it does.

American Musical Theatre is one of the unique American methods of storytelling that exists in performance. In a musical, text, song, movement, and dance tell a story. In Music Theatre, when a character can no longer express what they desire in words, they sing. If singing cannot satisfy the need, the element of dance comes into play. Richard Kislan states, "What sets dance apart is the universality in movement and gesture which is not bound like language to nationality or culture. Dance transcends geography in a way that language cannot. Dance humanizes expression in a way that music cannot."(237) In American Musical Theatre History, dance was, at first, purely used for dance sake. The spectacle of dance was the interest of the public. Choreographers George Balanchine and Agnes De Mille helped to change dance in music theatre, by using dance numbers to further the plot of the story. They believed a musical number should enhance the tone, energy, and rhythm of the entire piece. Influenced by my mentors at VCU, I have discovered the important lesson of "telling a story." A musical number needs to take the audience on a truthful and emotional journey and aid in the flow of the play. Through the many projects that I have worked on with Patti D'Beck, I have learned a way to choreograph that is efficient and, to me, the best way to go about revealing a story to the audience. Using the musical Cabaret, I will highlight these important steps. I was the associate choreographer for the VCU Mainstage production of Cabaret. I assisted in all pre- production work and aided in the creation of all musical numbers. As part of my thesis, I was also in charge of teaching the choreography to all who were involved in the musical. Spacing and polishing the musical numbers once we arrived in the space was also a part of my job as the associate choreographer.The first part of this thesis is a guide for those who have an interest in the world of musical theatre choreography. It outlines a step by step process on how to go about choreographing a dance within a musical. Whether one has choreographed many dances or never choreographed at all, this guide will aid in their creative process as a choreographer. The second part of this thesis is a case study on Cabaret.. All the steps that are outlined in the first part of this thesis are reiterated within the analysis of VCU's Main Stage production.

This text is a partial record of the conception and development of Reflections of Red in a Mirror of Desire that opened on February 20th 2006 for a three day run ending on February 22nd. The majority of the text is focused on the events and research that provided the concept for the show. Some of the research includes influential choreographers and companies such as Pina Bausch, Graziela Daniele, Moses Pendleton, Pilobolus, Momix, Julie Tayrnor, and Merce Cunningham. Included in the analysis of this event are the experiences and lessons that came about during the process of directing Reflections of Red in a Mirror of desire. The result of this evaluation is the creation of an approach to choreographing and directing sexual or intimate scenes for the stage. Further reflections on directing, choreographing, collaboration, creative process, and aesthetics serve as the culmination of lessons inherent in both the creation of the production and the author's three years of study at the Virginia Commonwealth University Theatre Pedagogy Program with an emphasis in Movement and Choreography.

Abstract DEVISING, REFINING, AND REHEARSAL IN A 30 YEAR WAR By Bradley Harris Willcuts, M.F.A. A thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Masters of Fine Arts at Virginia Commonwealth University. Virginia Commonwealth University, 2015 Thesis Chair: David Leong Devising, Refining and Rehearsing in a 30 Year War is an account of the process of developing movement and choreography for the production of Mother Courage and her Children at Arena Stage in Washington D.C. It was my largest project during the two years I spent at Virginia Commonwealth University studying an MFA. The title reflects the chronological process that my mentor, director, and colleague David Leong and I went through to produce the work that earned a Helen Hayes Nomination for Outstanding Choreography in a Play. The show starred Kathleen Turner and was directed by acclaimed artistic director of the Arena Stage, Molly Smith. The demands of the work not only had serious responsibilities, but they also asked for a higher caliber of iv work than I had ever been a part of before. It proved to be the single most influential theatrical experience of my career. The movement work needed to be approached with great research and merit due to the highly stylized nature of the project and the national acclaim for it’s opening. This thesis documents that process and the successful outcome of the work which David Leong and I spent over 8 months on.