<p> <i>Hiraeth</i> is a twenty-seven minute multi-disciplinary contemporary dance work that explores the effects of grief after two similar yet disparate traumatic moments of loss in my personal life. It encapsulates a small part of my experience in a movement landscape created by the combination of dancers on stage, large and small-scale video projections, and the stretching of time. In contrast to previous dance works involving grief, <i>Hiraeth </i> translates these experiences through a more subtle lens, as it examines the relationship between those we have lost and those we have left behind. </p><p>

<p> The CSULB College of the Arts and Department of Dance presented &ldquo;Beyond the Pale&rdquo;, a concert of MFA graduate thesis choreography by Nate Hodges, Francesca Jandasek, and Courtney Ozovek, on March 15 - 17, 2018 at the Martha B. Knoebel Dance Theater at California State University, Long Beach. <i> The Immured Woman</i>, a 40-minute long episodic interdisciplinary performance work for 10 dancers, was presented first in the program.</p><p> Inspired by the Romanian legend of the Arge? Monastery in which a pregnant woman is immured to make the walls of the monastery stand, <i>The Immured Woman</i> investigated the themes of woman, immortality, creation, and procreation through merging dance, physical theater, visual art, film, text, and sound. The final product included live dance performance, original text and music, an architectural set, film projections of sexualized fruit, and a time-stop animation of an original illuminated musical manuscript to unveil art creation as a metaphor for procreation and procreation as a metaphor for art creation.</p><p>

abstract: Waiting for a Passenger / Ship to Go to Sea is a performance made by In Kyung Lee and performed by five dancers. It premiered in Americas Gallery at ASU Art Museum on January 20, January 24, and Jan 27, 2015. The work existed in a container of geometric spatial structure and cyclical rhythmic cycles, which were filled with repetition, accumulation, and minimalistic durational movement vocabulary. The dancers courageously ventured through the rigorous and exacting structure, transforming individual and collective struggles and vulnerabilities into the beauty of being human. This document looks into the background and creation process of the work. / Dissertation/Thesis / Masters Thesis Dance 2015

abstract: Purple World was a choreographic project that investigated improvisational, compositional, design, and technological experiments to research movement possibilities in interdisciplinary and interactive settings. In developing the work, the dancers exchanged different individual perspectives through "movement recall." This movement recall was inspired by the sensations associated with their physical memories from childhood, conditioned movement patterns, and the ways dancers can use their bodies to creatively problem-solve the philosophical questions in their lives. The work united dance, interactive work, structured improvisation, props, and installation. The intersection of discussion with collaborators, creative methods inspired by other artists, and the elements described above provided a structure for the artist to investigate his choreographic artistic identity by cultivating individual movement vocabulary in himself and his dancers. / Dissertation/Thesis / Masters Thesis Dance 2015

abstract: ABSTRACT Connection, isolation, and female empowerment are not often explored nor analyzed together, yet often coexist harmoniously. Through processes of improvisation and dance making informed by feminist perspectives, the research investigated the intersections of empowerment, voice, knowledge construction and embodiment. It focused on women's ways of understanding their embodiment, the relationship between choice-making and meaning-making, processes of reflecting upon lived experiences, and exploring how experiences are expressed through the body and body attitudes. The research study explored and analyzed not only my own meaning making about connection, isolation, and female empowerment, but also the perspectives of fourteen young women between the ages of seventeen and twenty-three. Using the themes of connection, isolation, and female empowerment as fuel for creative expression and movement development, my dancers and I collaborated on making an evening length work that reflected our findings based on connection, isolation, and female empowerment and as well as embodied values. / Dissertation/Thesis / Masters Thesis Dance 2016

abstract: This six month IRB approved qualitative study was held at Arizona State University to see how a group of seven university dancers' body appreciation and body perception would be affected by introduction and familiarized with Bartenieff Fundamentals and other somatic practices. During this process the individuals gained knowledge about their own bodies through somatic movement activities, journal writings, group discussions, and personal interviews. Movers then used this knowledge to create movement phrases that represented their own personal journeys with body image struggles, doubts, and insecurities. These movement phrases were then linked together in a 40-minute expressive movement piece that represented the journey the group of movers had made and was still making together. / Dissertation/Thesis / M.F.A. Dance 2014

This thesis focused on the self as dancer explored through narrative and presented through constructed stories. Four dancers were interviewed, two from contemporary dance and two from the classical genre, in order to collect narratives of their career path. The interviews were videotaped and transcribed; the object of the analysis was the interview as text. Only those aspects of the self supported by language were explored in this study. Narrative analysis involved selecting and sequencing events and themes taken from the narratives and writing them into a story for each dancer. The dancers' words were used as much as possible in order to let a sense of how a dancer told about her life and work be present. However, the created stories represent my interpretations of the dancers' texts. Four unique paths to the role of professional dancer are presented.

The main purpose of this study was to examine the role of the ballet teacher as a perceived source of weight loss pressure for the ballet student. Another purpose was to examine whether there could be a positive relationship between the reported use of unhealthy methods of losing weight and the perception of the teacher as a source of weight loss pressure. Finally, we sought to identify the forms of communication used by the teachers that could be construed as weight loss pressures by the students. Forty ballet students participated in the study and completed the BALLET Scale, Eating Behaviors Scale and the Athletic Image Scale. Students were placed into one of two groups based on their answers to the Athletic Image Scale (combined-pressures, no-pressures). The results showed that students did perceive the teacher as a source of weight loss pressure. Further, a positive relationship existed between students who perceived the teacher as a source of weight loss pressure and unhealthy eating behaviors. The results also showed that students in the combined-pressures group perceived more forms of communication by the teacher as weight loss pressures.

The Ukrainians in Canada have, as a group, endeavoured to preserve and propagate their cultural traditions in their adopted homeland from the arrival of the first settlers in 1891 to the present day. They have attempted to mold themselves by means of their own cultural traditions, as a separate ethnic entity, possessing their own innate values and distinct cultural characteristics. These efforts have been particularly notable in the areas of theatre, choral music and dance. Numerous factors necessitated Ukrainian emigration from Ukraine and each of the three waves of Ukrainian immigration to Canada differed from each other in terms of the economic position, educational level and political-national orientation of its members. These differences reflected themselves in organized community life and affected all Ukrainian theatrical, choral and dance activity in this country. Ukrainian theatre was extremely popular among Ukrainian Canadians, particularly during the 1920's and 1930's, at which time hundreds of amateur groups flourished across the country. Theatrical performances were seen as a means of creative expression for the participants, as a pedagogical tool useful in awakening cultural awareness among the audience, and as an acceptable way of raising funds for further community work. For the most part, the theatrical repertoire staged in Canada was written by authors in Ukraine with ethnographic plays being most popular with Canadian audiences. Ukrainian Canadian dramatists also wrote many plays which often dealt with recent events in Ukraine/or in Canada that were of topical interest. Choral singing has remained consistently popular among Ukrainian Canadians and has been widely used during their religious services, as part of Ukrainian nusical theatre and as an artistic tradition in its own right. Since choral music was a popular means of familiarising non-Ukrainians with the Ukrainian cultural heritage, many choral performances were presented by various Ukrainian choirs before their fellow Canadian citizens. A tremendous role in the development of Ukrainian choral music in Canada can be accredited to Oleksander Koshyts', first through the tour of his Ukrainian National Choir and later, through his involvement with the Educational Summer Courses. Although dance was a relative newcomer to the cultural scene in comparison to the two other fields of cultural activity discussed, it quickly gained acceptance and has remained the favourite form of cultural expression, especially among the younger generation. Vasyl' Avramenko's name is synonymous with Ukrainian dance in Canada and his influence extended far beyond his brief two year stay in this country. Great changes occurred in the Ukrainian dance movement following World. War II with the formation of strong, performing dance ensembles. As a result of performances by visiting professional dance companies from the Soviet Union and the availability of published material on Ukrainian dance from the Soviet Ukraine, the Ukrainian dance repertoire in Canada has undergone distinct changes. The first Ukrainian immigrants arrived in Canada as "men in sheepskin coats" whose "desirability" as future Canadian citizens was questioned. Through their hard work and industry, the Ukrainians earned the trust and respect of their fellow Canadian citizens. Through their maintenance and propagation of cultural traditions, the Ukrainians gained their admiration as well.

This thesis is an investigation of women's conscious exercise as it intersected with industrialism, consumerism and early Progressive Era identity politics. It will discuss calisthenics, Delsartism and the beginnings of modern dance as physical expressions of a burgeoning women's rights movement. These organic and healthy practices—often performed within the private home—reflected women's evolving perceptions of their physical, intellectual, spiritual and political needs. This corporeal awakening eventually manifested itself in gendered social reforms of the late nineteenth and early twentieth century. / A Thesis submitted to the Department of Dance in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts. / Spring Semester, 2007. / February 13, 2007. / Manuals, Wellness, Fitness, Art Nouveau / Includes bibliographical references. / John Perpener, Professor Directing Thesis; Sally Sommer, Committee Member; Tom Welsh, Committee Member.