<p> The performativity of dance relies on the the power that different dance practices and choreographies have to shape culture, &ldquo;making and unmaking&rdquo; identities by &ldquo;molding&rdquo; the moving body (Franko, 2012). While theorists have connected dance technique and instruction to the perpetuation of larger cultural and historical ideologies, few methods yet have attempted a critical study of how performative impact is connected to a dancer&rsquo;s own embodied experience. </p><p> Working from an understanding of embodied experience as central to the performative impact of dance, my research examines the dancing body&rsquo;s role in constructing its own performativity. I begin with an analysis of how choreography &ldquo;does&rdquo; performativity, looking at historical changes in dance theory over time that have led to the imperative to examine agency specifically in relation to individually experienced embodiment. Current scholarship on the status of the 21st century contemporary dancer recognizes this need to study individual embodiment; dancers are creative agents within the choreographic process, able to alter the performative impact of a piece on the basis of how they learn or embody the movement. In order to substantiate this understanding of the dancing body&rsquo;s agency, my research culminates in an interview project that includes dancers&rsquo; voices and lived experiences together with scholarship that prescribes agency and performativity to the moving body. Tracking a group of dancers through the process of learning new choreography, I attempt a method of understanding the moving body itself as communicative agent. The philosophical field of phenomenology supports such an understanding, viewing the body as having its own consciousness and perspective. In addition to phenomenology, I use critical ethnography and oral history practices to construct a reflexive interview process and affect theory to conduct a deep analysis of the dancers&rsquo; descriptions. Affect, being defined as those intensities, feelings and forces at the base of personal experience and social patterns, offers a way of comprehending dancers&rsquo; felt sense of embodiment from their own perspective. </p><p> An examination of affect within the dancers&rsquo; descriptions shows how the dancers&rsquo; linguistic moves parallel their diverse kinesthetic experiences of learning movement. The dancers&rsquo; heightened kinesthetic awareness throughout the process of learning choreography demonstrates how they experience their bodies in a different phenomenological way and ultimately how they enact performative impact through their very processes of embodiment. The resulting interviews, transcriptions and discussion in this project support practice-based research, in the form of phenomenologically-centered and analyzed interviews, as a way to include dancers&rsquo; embodied experiences in studies of the dancing body&rsquo;s performativity. </p><p> Reference: Franko, Mark. "Dance and the Political: States of Exception." Dance. Ed. Andr&eacute; Lepecki. London: Whitechapel Gallery, 2012. 145-48. Print.</p>

<p> <i>The Againness of Vietnam in Contemporary United States Antiwar Choreography</i> examines eight twentieth- and twenty-first century postmodern antiwar choreographies in order to uncover the reverberations of Vietnam antiwar protests in these dances. The choreographies I examine in this study are Yvonne Rainer&rsquo;s 1970 <i>M-Walk</i> and 1970 (and 1999) <i>Trio A with Flags</i>, Wendy Rogers&rsquo; 1970 <i> Black Maypole</i>, Ann Carlson&rsquo;s 1990 <i>Flag</i> and 2006 <i>Too Beautiful A Day</i>, Miguel Gutierrez&rsquo;s 2001, 2008, and 2009 <i>Freedom of Information</i> (<i>FOI</i>), Jeff McMahon&rsquo;s 1991 <i>Scatter</i> and Victoria Mark&rsquo;s 2006 <i>Action Conversations: Veterans.</i> I theorize a concept called &ldquo;againness,&rdquo; in order to think through the multiple ways that repetitions specific to these particular choreographies continue to exist and to enact effects through time. I argue that repeated choreographic embodiment offers immediacy, nuanced response over time, expression through the bodies of former soldiers, and sites of mediated resistance such as live-streamed dance protest, to the United States public&rsquo;s commentary on and critique of war. I conclude that choreography&rsquo;s irregular and inexact repetitions are one of the ways that dance is especially apt for commenting on the large, never-ending, and ongoing traumas of the world such as war. My research extends established discussions about choreographic repetition and ephemerality, exchanging in questions of exactitude for conversations about impact. In particular, I show how the changes inherent to bodily repetitions reflect societal change, raise energy, garner power, and/or respond to current events. I study how politicized dances do not disappear after the time/space event of the initial performance, but instead linger on and reappear in unexpected moments. I thus parse out the many unbounded ways that protest choreographies happen again and again.</p>

<p> German choreographer Pina Bausch is recognized as one of the original creators of 20th century Dance Theater through her seamless synthesis of stage design elements and movement. Through her choreographic methodology she is able to combine the everyday gesture of the body with the functionality of objects to create an emotionality that is authentic and transcendent on stage. The objects/props on stage illuminate the object world where objects are animated by our desires, fears, and the need to express the human condition. I will look at the procedure that Bausch employs through the lens of the psychoanalytic theory of object relations, the theories of Alice Miller, D.W. Winnicott, and the sociology of Herbert Blumer to prove the objects on stage in Bausch's work offer a physical and emotional obstacle for the dancers to contend with. </p><p> In this study I will unfold the history and functionality of stage properties and the role of the "prop" in terms of German Theater revolutions, exploring the ideas of the prop as a hindrance as well as an object of amplification for the stage action. I will delve into the theatrical models of Antonin Artaud, Bertolt Brecht, and Vsevolod Meyerhold, acknowledging the procedure and significance of theater objects through stage design. From here I will connect Bausch to the evolution of the German modern dance pioneers- Rudolph Laban and her mentor, Kurt Jooss. Through the work of Kurt Jooss, with whom Bausch studied at the Folkwang Schule in Essen, Germany, and specifically <i>The Green Table </i>, we begin to see the great influence that Jooss had on Bausch. I will discuss his use of props in his work as a means to illuminate his ideas of politics and war. This will then narrow in on the personal dance history of Bausch and her evolution as an artist, focusing on the mentorship she received in her career. The discussion will conclude with an analysis of her creative process and the use of specific objects that reflect meaning through the seminal works of Bausch: Caf&eacute; Mueller, Kontakthof, Bluebeard, and Waltzer. </p>

The research investigates stillness as movement in time and space explored and exploited through an interdisciplinary study of ceramics and dance. Exercises consistent with Butoh, a Japanese dance form, are employed as an exploratory tool to facilitate a broader interpretation of stillness as motion through a corporeal processing of concepts such as time and space. Laban's 'principles of movement' are observed, explored and employed as a method used in choreography to analytically study movement as still components of a flux within space to inform dance composition. This study maps a path to practice that involves the constructing of a material bridge that links two disciplines, ceramics and dance, through similarities and varying approaches to a shared area of concern: movement in time and space. The constructing of this path to practice and its effect on the composing and installing of ceramic composition is the focus of the study. The study begins with the contextualising of 'stillness' as a state of 'movement in time' through Bergson's concepts in philosophy. The experience of real time is located internally by the philosopher Heidegger, who references real time as lived time felt in and through the body. At this point in the research the path transitions to a physical and performative engagement with 'stillness in time and space' in search of its qualities and textures, which shifts studio practice for a period of time from ceramics to dance practice. Two three-part case studies are constructed from participation in a Butoh dance workshop and through the observation of a choreography workshop. Studio experimentation follows which maps a ceramic path to practice through the perspective of dance, exploring the potential to share learning across a disciplinary divide. The final part of the case studies involves the composing and constructing of ceramic installations through the shared perspective of ceramics and dance. This thesis contributes to the discourse on interdisciplinary practice, specifically relating to ceramics and dance. It provides a transferable model of research that merges two fields of practice, broadening and intensifying the experience of learning through a combined kinesthetic, visual and cognitive approach. This model has been tested as an extension of this research within the field of dance and within a therapeutic environment to effect learning.

<p> Discursive frameworks of dance grounded in Western patriarchal modernist aesthetics and phallocentric theoretical lineages have consistently privileged the role of choreographers such that the labor, knowledge production, and perspectives of dancers have received little attention in dance scholarship. This dissertation considers the modes of being, thought, and critique that become articulable when the labor of dancers is acknowledged. Chapter One examines connections between the feminization of the role of the dancer and the devaluation of her labor and knowledge production and considers theoretical methodologies which might facilitate the inclusion of dancer&rsquo;s knowledge, labor, and voice in dance and performance scholarship. Chapter Two considers how the labor of the dancer in U.S. Western dance practices since the 1930s has continually transformed alongside shifts in economic modes of production in order to trace this entwinement within the scope of dancers&rsquo; research, knowledge production and critical capacities. Chapter Three relies on interviews with nine dancers to explore the entanglement of contemporary freelance dancers&rsquo; labor with post-Fordist labor values as well as their experiences of agency, freedom, representation and labor within neoliberal capitalism&rsquo;s modes of production. Chapter Four employs personal testimony of the dancer-scholar in order to consider the politics of the dancer within the site of Deborah Hay's Blues (2012). Through an exploration of these sites, I argue that dance and performance scholarship would benefit from the rich knowledge and insight afforded through the voices and praxis of dancers.</p><p>

<p> This dissertation looks at critical interventions made by select San Francisco bay area choreographers and dance programmers interested in altering spectatorial norms for contemporary dance. Those selected have strategically employed food themes and materials in and as performance, simultaneously tapping into existing foodie ideology and redressing concerns about dwindling audiences for live dance performance in the twenty-first century. I argue that such efforts 1) bring to light subsumed race, class, and gender politics embedded in the trend towards "audience engagement," espoused by arts funders and dance makers alike as a necessary intervention for the survival of contemporary dance; and 2) open up discursive and experiential realms of possibility by favoring material, associative exchange, (re)awakening synesthetic sensory-perceptive capacities, inviting spectators to refigure themselves as co-creators in performance, and providing opportunities to reckon with exoticizing desires to enrich one's own culture by consuming another's. </p><p> In theoretically grouping these choreographies together I illustrate a spectrum of responses that clarify how food-oriented performance gatherings can operate not only as strategies for altering audience relations, but as sites for alternative knowledge production and fruitful commensal exchange. Such research draws from and intervenes in the overlapping fields of food studies, American studies, and performance and dance studies. This analysis is uniquely positioned amongst other work addressing the interstices between food and performance in its emphasis explicitly on Western concert dance. It also contributes significantly to the archives of an often overlooked San Francisco bay area dance community. </p><p> Methodologically I take a dance studies approach, generating choreographic analyses enabled through interviews with choreographers and dance programmers, my own work as witness/participant in the selected events, and archival research into feminist theories of performativity, anthropologies of the senses, contemporary theories of embodiment and select dance and theatre scholarship from the 1800s to the present. Throughout I prioritize the embodied experience of spectatorship, highlighting how contemporary corporeality is shaped by shifting inclusions and exclusions of various peoples and practices, capitalist economic models, the pervasive reach of readily-available digitized media, and both dominant and alternative systems of knowledge production. </p>

Perception, particularly in the case of dance spectatorship, is a kind of performance. This study considers how spectators' perception of a dance performance is shaped by a combination of the material conditions of the space, spectators' kinetic and psychological histories, as well as their previous encounters with dance and the individual performers. In particular, whether we have experience performing the kind of movement enacted by the dancers can greatly alter how we perceive the movement. Kinesthetic empathy, or the ability to intuit what others are experiencing based upon their bodily behavior, is particularly shaped by our movement histories. As understood by phenomenological theory, kinesthetic empathy is a socially informed, intentional perception of others' experiences, such as physical pain, as being distinct from one's own. Phenomenological accounts then differ from neurological approaches, such as those put forth by mirror neuron theorists, holding that we unconsciously simulate others' behavior and then project our sensation of that simulation onto them. It is suggested that phenomenological accounts of dance performances, replete with idiosyncratic, visceral responses to the performances spaces and performers alike serve as a complement and/or corrective to disembodied, non-embedded neurological studies and abstracted theoretical treatments of dance. A phenomenological approach to discussing kinesthetic empathy will be performed upon works by contemporary choreographers, including: Rosie Kay, Anne Teresa de Keersmaeker, Nir de Vollf , and Sasha Waltz.

Thesis (Ed.D.)--Teachers College, Columbia University, 1974. / Typescript; issued also on microfilm. Sponsor: Robert Pace. Dissertation Committee: J. Marion Magill. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 130-133).

<p>The subject of dance and injury has become an increasingly important area of study for sports medicine, education, and dance studies. However, the majority of current research focuses on professional dancers or pre-professional dancers in a conservatory training context. The research typically overlooks dancers in a university setting who pursue baccalaureate-level dance programs. This small-scale research study therefore focuses on collegiate dancers in their first year of study in a liberal arts dance program. As this population often sustains injuries, the thesis project seeks to examine the management of injury strategies and to create injury prevention guidelines for the liberal arts dance department, its dance classes, and a hypothetical syllabus for a first-year injury prevention course. The research methodology adopts three approaches: a survey of the incoming freshman dance class at Temple University; a detailed study of six previously or currently injured dance students through interview; and a critical assessment of the research on dance injury. The injury prevention guidelines developed from the student injury surveys, interviews, and assessments will focus on basic, yet essential, information regarding injury management and misconceptions, and the guidelines will prepare collegiate-level dancers for future injury challenges they may face. </p>

This research looks at contemporary understandings of performance arts in India, specifically Karnatic Music and Bharatnatyam as ‘religious’ arts. Historically, music and dance were performed and patronized in royal courts and temples. In the early 20th century, increased nationalist activities led to various forms of self-scrutiny about what represented ‘true’ Indian culture. By appropriating colonial discourses based on the religious/secular dichotomy, Karnatic Music was carefully constructed to represent a ‘pure’ Indian, specifically ‘Hindu’ culture that was superior to the ‘materialistic’ Western culture. Importantly, the category called divine was re-constructed and distinguished from the erotic: the divine was represented as a category that was sacred whilst the erotic represented ‘sexual impropriety.’ In so doing, performance arts in the public sphere became explicitly gendered. Feminity and masculinity were re-defined: the female body was re-imagined as ‘sexual impropriety’ when in the public sphere, but when disembodied in the private sphere could be deified as a guardian of spirituality. Traditional performing communities were marginalized while the newly defined music and dance was appropriated by the Brahmin community, who assumed the role of guardians of the newly constructed Indian-Hindu identity, resulting in caste-based ‘ownership’ of performance arts. Mechanical reproduction of Karnatic Music has created a disconnect in contemporary Indian society, in which Karnatic Music is disembodied from its contexts in order to be commodified as an individual’s artistic expression of creativity. This move marks a shift from substantive economics (music was performed and experienced within a specific context, be it royal patronage or Indian nationalist movements) to formal economics (music as a performer’s creative property). I question the understanding of Karnatic Music as ‘religious’ music that is distinguished from the ‘secular’ and seek to understand the colonial patriarchal mystification of the female body in the private sphere by deconstructing the definition of the ‘divine.’ In doing so, I also question the contemporary understanding of Karnatic Music as an item of property that disembodies the music from its historical context.