The leisure mistress project is a perverse contemporary burlesque about leisure and inactivity investigated through a low-key style of dance performance, in an age where leisure pursuits are exhausting business. Julie-Anne questions her notions of dance, its place in her life and her work and challenges other ideas about what dance is. The concerns of the work include social, political, cultural and aesthetic issues. The core theme of leisure facilitates cultural investigation via performance with social critique being implicit. The process and the product are private, personal, idiosyncratic but have wider resonances and ramifications / Master of Arts (Hons) (Performance)

Written in the form of an historical fiction, this thesis explores the multiple influences that were active in the lives of temple dancers in Southern India from 1861 to 1947. It addresses the question of whether or not the devadasis were prostitutes, placing this debate in the context of conflicting colonial, Hindu and reform movement pressures, influences directing the decline and disappearance of the temple dancing tradition. In gathering information about this period, I have drawn from three main sources: colonial literature of the time, modern feminist research, and dance scholarship on the nature and history of the technical aspects of temple dancing. My aim has been to reconstruct, as accurately as possible, a close approximation of a devadasi's life, and to compare how it differs from those lived by previous generations of temple dancers.

Thesis (M.A.)--Northern Arizona University, 2005. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 142-147). Also available online (PDF file) by a subscription to the set or by purchasing the individual file.

Thesis (M.A.)--Northern Arizona University, 2005. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 142-147).

Research on exotic dancers as a population indicates that exotic dancers may be a high risk population due to correlations of substance abuse and risky sexual behavior with the profession, (CDC, 2015; Sherman et. al, 2011; Reuben et. al, 2011; Forsyth & Deshotels, 1997). In delay discounting research, it has been demonstrated that populations of individuals who engage in risky sexual behavior and abuse substances have steeper rates of discounting on a delay discounting task compared to their peers (Moreira et. al, 2015; Jones et. al, 2015: Celio et al., 2016). Steeper rates of discounting indicate an increased degree of preference for smaller-sooner reward versus larger-later reward as measured by a discounting survey task with hypothetical monetary rewards and may indicate higher rates of impulsivity (Moller et al., 2001). This study sought to determine if exotic dancers delayed more steeply than restaurant worker peers. Results indicate that at longer delays, exotic dancers discount more steeply than their restaurant worker peers, which may indicate a higher degree of impulsivity among exotic dancers as a population..

Written in the form of an historical fiction, this thesis explores the multiple influences that were active in the lives of temple dancers in Southern India from 1861 to 1947. It addresses the question of whether or not the devadasis were prostitutes, placing this debate in the context of conflicting colonial, Hindu and reform movement pressures, influences directing the decline and disappearance of the temple dancing tradition. In gathering information about this period, I have drawn from three main sources: colonial literature of the time, modern feminist research, and dance scholarship on the nature and history of the technical aspects of temple dancing. My aim has been to reconstruct, as accurately as possible, a close approximation of a devadasi's life, and to compare how it differs from those lived by previous generations of temple dancers. / Arts, Faculty of / Gender, Race, Sexuality and Social Justice, Institute for / Graduate

Lateral rotation of the left and right hip, knee, ankle and intertarsal joints during three trials of turnout from the straight leg and demi-plie positions was quantified with the use of a specially designed friction-free weightbearing goniometer, projecting fin-like body markers, and overhead photography. The female subjects were dancers (10 beginners, 11 advanced) recruited from University of Arizona ballet classes. MANOVAS revealed that turnout as measured from the feet was (1) significantly greater in the advanced group in both positions, (2) significantly greater in the demi-plie position than in the straight leg, (3) a cumulative joint rotation effect with the hip contributing the greatest absolute and relative amounts. Positive significant correlations occurred between: (1) pedal turnout and lateral hip rotation for the advanced group in both positions and for the beginning group in demi-plie, and (2) pedal turnout and lateral ankle rotation for the advanced dancers in the straight leg position. Alignment of the lower extremity segments during turnout from both positions did not exist for either group.

Postural set and body image are described as two interactive components of a dancer's expressive skills as a performing artist. The ways in which these components interact are influenced by numerous factors, including the dancer's physique, the environment in which movement is learned and practiced, the aesthetic requirements of particular dance techniques, and the kinds of body images the dancer has created or is in the process of creating. Postural set refers to a habitual, bipedal position of the body that is recognized by the central nervous system as an established motor response. Body image is defined as the summary notion, at any given moment, of one's body proportions and properties. Postural set and body image are functionally interrelated on psychological and physical levels, and both contribute to the experience of the body as a sensing, moving, and emotional entity.

Ways of Pulling A Person Out of the Water contains a preface, which discusses the writing process as well as a discussion of the short story form, ten original short stories, and two chapters of a novel-in-progress. A number of the short stories explore issues such as eating disorders, sexual violence, and artistic choice in the specialized context of the dance community. The novel chapters further develop one of the short stories, "When You Are the Camera and the Camera Is You." The narrator, Diane, explores her life coping with agoraphobia and her family's car accident.

Thesis (M.S.)--Eastern Illinois University. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 37-40).