This thesis offers two layers of analysis of a contemporary dance titled Watch The Gap, a site-inspired work initiated by the architecture, design, and function of the Jamaica, Queens (New York) train station. For the dance analysis, the investigated question is: can a dance that is inspired by a specific location but performed on a concert stage still fit within the genre of site-dance? By comparing its choreographic methodologies within the field of site-dance, a second investigated question arises: can these practices be codified and taught as part of a course in a university setting? Through this study I examine, explain, and analyze the different choreographic tools and aspects of site-dance impacting the field of dance by a comparison study with Watch The Gap and a pedagogical investigation into improvisation and site-dance. In doing so, pedagogical applications, key terminology, and methods, discussed in the paper, help to clarify and add to the discussion of this rapidly growing art form. / text

When considering the Latina dancer in the United States it is easy to conjure images of a fruit crowned Carmen Miranda shimming in front of the camera, videos of Jennifer Lopez swinging her hips in dark and crowded clubs, sultry salsa dancers rocking and twisting on their bedazzled stilettos, or Jalisco girls who swirl the hemlines of their rainbow colored skirts as they parade down the street. These depictions of the Latina dancer are duly noted for creating a means of visibility for an otherwise invisible demographic. However, they also function to reinforce stereotypical ideas of the Latina moving body which limit Latina agency by positioning dancing Latinas within a set of prescribed representational practices. My study bridges Latina/o studies with dance studies in order to ask how Latina women are utilizing modern and contemporary dance styles to upset and redefine notions of the dancing Latina. I focus on the choreography of four women in particular; Michelle Manzanales, Maray Gutierrez, Annabelle Lopez Ochoa, and Nancy Turano who each presented work in association with Luna Negra Dance Theatre’s Latina Choreographers Project. Through my study I place the project’s mission into dialog with the corpus of choreography commissioned during its three-year lifespan (2006-2009). My close analysis serves to elucidate the stories that the choreographers chose to tell. For some, the deconstruction of icons provided the most compelling exercise in the process of excavating beneath quintessential Latino facades. For others, the strong recollections of home and the feeling of not being able to assert a defined location characterized their investigations of cultural identity. The Latina Choreographers Project, I contend, sets a historical precedent by pursuing and presenting the work of Latina choreographers in a field that has traditional excluded the Latina voice. I argue that by engaging four choreographers with extraordinarily diverse relationships to Latinidad and presenting them to an American audience, the Latina Choreographer Project presents an invaluable opportunity for intercultural and cross-cultural dialog that aims to relay the complexity and nuances of a contemporary Latina experience. / text

No description available.

This thesis investigates the influence of hybrid theatre practices, media and technology on contemporary dance performance and questions if dance is endangered by developments in hybrid cultures. Through a consideration of dance genealogies, the thesis suggests that notions of identity play a significant role in power structures within interdisciplinary relationships. / Contemporary dance has gone through many changes in the last century. In particular, contemporary aspects of performance have demonstrated that the body is not the only site for dance. Why dance, is a culmination of questions that surfaced during the course of my own practice. It refers to questions that many dancers have asked themselves in the years following the arrival of postmodernism, when notions of body identity confronted conceptual possibilities in the terrain of interdisciplinary and mediated spaces. / Incorporating my own experience as a practitioner and observer with theoretical perspectives in the field, I have attempted to give voice to some of the ambiguities and paradoxes that inhabit dance and its hybrid postmodern affiliates. I make use of various genealogies that have led to hybrid and interdisciplinary interactions as a means to define relationships of power that exist within interdisciplinarity. The use of case studies and examples of performances from Europe and Australia provide material through which to examine performance methodologies that have arisen out of interdisciplinary practice. My reading and suggestions express the concern that disciplines outside of the body may have become more important as defining element in dance. Through an examination of new ways that dancers now speak through media other than their bodies, the thesis examines what affects this has on the discipline of dance and questions if notions of disciplinarity are still relevant. While it has become necessary to reconstruct, reinterpret and demystify the body, the outcome suggests that autonomy rests with recognition of the body as the site for further development within negotiated spaces.

Thesis (M.A.) - Carleton University, 2002. / Includes bibliographical references. Also available in electronic format on the Internet.

Thesis (M.A.)--York University, 2007. Graduate Programme in Dance. / Typescript. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 77-80). Also available on the Internet. MODE OF ACCESS via web browser by entering the following URL: http://gateway.proquest.com/openurl?url_ver=Z39.88-2004&res_dat=xri:pqdiss&rft_val_fmt=info:ofi/fmt:kev:mtx:dissertation&rft_dat=xri:pqdiss:MR29284

Thesis (Ed.D.) -- Teachers College, Columbia University, 1992. / Typescript; issued also on microfilm. Sponsor: William Sayres. Dissertation Committee: Maryalice Mazzara. Includes bibliographical references (p. 173-183).

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of California, Riverside, 2009. / Includes abstract. Accompanying CD-ROM includes Mohiniyattam practicing and performance. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 418-464). Issued in print and online. Available via ProQuest Digital Dissertations.

Thesis (M.A.)--Ohio State University, 2005. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 71-78). Available online via OhioLINK's ETD Center

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Wisconsin--Madison, 1980. / Typescript. Vita. eContent provider-neutral record in process. Description based on print version record. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 197-201).