This thesis explores the relationship between musical tastes and dance practices in a popular dance style known as breaking or b-boying/b-girling. It is based on a multi-sited ethnography involving the participation in and observation of the practices of breaking, as well as interviews with individual b-boys and b-girls, who often travelled between cities as part of their practices. Although there were many interesting and contradictory observations and participant responses provided by this multigenerational, multicultural scene, one theme emerged as central. 'Vernacular' or street dancers make consistent claims that "it's all about the music." This is to challenge assumptions in current academic writing on the relationship of music and dance. On one hand, many contemporary dance writers argue that musical tastes have little to do with choreographic practices and the meanings of dance performances. On the other hand, sociological accounts of musical tastes rarely consider dance practice in their analyses. The result is that musical tastes are under-theorised in accounts of dance performance, and vice versa. Hennion's (2007) assertion that taste is an activity provides a foundation for a new argument. I propose that taste is an activity that, when theorised in terms of music and dance practices, suggests new epistemological avenues for studies of popular dance. Put simply, I argue that, in breaking practices, dance is a performance of musical taste. This performance of taste has a variety of avenues - from hip hop theatre performances, to international battles, master class workshops, club nights and local events – and in each new context, the relationship between music and dance transforms. These shifts in selection reveal that the dance is not just “about the music,” but also about how tastes are mediated, negotiated and competed over.

The aim of this dissertation is to analyze the public music-making by locals in Holmsund 1850—1980, and to explain the great variety of musical forms in hope to thereby illuminate the importance of local music-making for the workers' musical taste, but also how workers' musical aesthetics were affected by a more general working-class culture. The variety of musical forms is explained according to John Blacking's distinction between change of musical system, and variation and innovation within a musical system. There are two major changes of the musical system. The first generations of workers in Holmsund were recruited from the surrounding countryside, and the main structure of their music-making seems to have remained unchanged. During the 1880s and 1890s there is an introduction of new elements which dominate the whole industrial epoch: brass instruments become the most highly valued instruments, and the thoroughly organized group playing. The new ideals of instrument sound are related to the new soundscape of the industrial society. Organized group playing is seen as homological with the social organization of industrial production, where the work of individuals in different departments is coordinated by a conductor/executive in power. During the decade of the 1960s the musical system is once more changed. Electronic technology changes the concepts of sounds and distribution forms, the influence of local music-making on public musical taste became marginal. Local music-making cannot therefore be said to reflect a workers' aesthetic, but should rather be interpreted as tendencies counteracting the professionalism and mediafication of modern society. These epochal models outline the basic structural frame of the musical system of each period and the role assigned to local music-making. At the same time there is a great variety of musical forms within each period. These variations are systematized as temporarily-used ways fo managing certain pairs of concepts, which are seen as oppositional or complementary. These pairs are: individual/collective, ideals of equality/professionalization, education/entertainment, continuity/innovation, culture/subculture, and male/female. Finally, the ways in which values and attitudes of the general working-class culture influence the local music scene are analyzed. Instead of the abstract ideals of composition, the usefulness of the music is stressed in popular aesthetics. The genius cult of art musics does not fit into popular music situations, where the will to work hard for the audience is valued instead. Ways of relating to the body form another distinction between bourgeois and worker culture. Popular music is much centred around dance music, which is also used in concert situations. What these values and attitudes have in common is that they are part of a popular aesthetic which the educated aesthetic uses as a negative reference point. / digitalisering@umu

There is a discursive formation of incapability that surrounds senior women's sexuality. Senior women are incapable of reproduction, mastering their bodies, or arousing sexual desire in themselves or others. The senior actresses' I explore in the case studies below insert their performances of self and their everyday lives into the large and complicated discourse of sex, producing a counter-narrative to sexually inactive senior women. Their performances actively embody their sexuality outside the frame of a character. This thesis examines how senior actresses' performances of sexuality extend a discourse of sexuality imposed on older woman by mass media. These women are the public face of senior women's sexual agency. The women I use as case studies are crucial because they perform sexually on screen as well as in their everyday lives. Their personae engage and intervene in the discursive formation of incapability outside traditional modes of performance. The performances of Kirstie Alley, Cloris Leachman Joan Rivers and Betty White transgress the invisible but well documented boundary between bodies that can be sexed and bodies that can't. Transgressing this boundary allows these older actresses to become active agents in their sexual lives. Sexual confessions, performances of personae, and citations of previous senior women performers facilitate senior women's sexual performances. The case studies that follow illustrate how these elements work together to create sexual representations of senior women that are not always accepted by audiences, but are still able to intervene into the larger discourse of senior women's sexual incapability.

Diss. (sammanfattning) Stockholm : Karol. inst., 2003. / Härtill 5 uppsatser.

Thesis (M.Ed.)--York University, 2004. Graduate Programme in Education. / Typescript. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 152-157). Also available on the Internet. MODE OF ACCESS via web browser by entering the following URL: LINK NOT YET AVAILABLE.

Proefskrif (MA)-- Stellenbosch University, 1985. / No abstract available

Bakgrund: Inom fysioterapin ser man på individen utifrån ett bio-psyko-socialt perspektiv. ”International Classification of Function, Disability and Health” (ICF) är ett ramverk för att mäta hälsa ur ett bio-psyko-socialt perspektiv. Kunskapen om hur dans som fysisk aktivitet påverkat personer med ryggmärgsskada är bristfällig. Det saknas kvalitativa studier inom området. Syfte: Syftet med studien var att undersöka hur personer med ryggmärgsskada upplever dans ur ett bio-psyko-socialt perspektiv. Metod: Metoden var kvalitativ och induktiv, baserad på semistrukturerade intervjuer med fem informanter: två män och tre kvinnor i åldrarna 21–57 år som dansat i rullstol mellan 2–33 år. Data analyserades med innehållsanalys. Resultat: Informanterna upplevde kroppslig påverkan: Förbättrad styrka, kondition, rörlighet, koordination och balans. Ändrad kroppsuppfattning (fått mer kontakt med kroppen). De hade även fått minskad smärta. De upplevde personlig påverkan: Psykiskt välmående (ökad self-efficacy, förbättrad självkänsla och glädje) samt fysiskt välmående. Dansen hade även varit ångestframkallande. De upplevde att de hade påverkats omgivningsmässigt: Socialt (fått nya vänner, upplevt unik gemenskap och utvecklat socialt samspel). De hade mött acceptans, viss okunskap men fått stöd från närstående. De upplevde påverkan på aktivitets- och delaktighetsnivå: Mer självständig i vardagen (de hade blivit bättre på förflyttningar). Delaktig i samhället (deltar i fler aktiviteter, delaktig i att påverka samhället). Konklusion: Personer med ryggmärgsskada upplever att dans har många positiva effekter bio-psyko-socialt. Fysioterapeuter och andra yrkesverksamma inom vård och omsorg, samt personer med ryggmärgsskada behöver få kunskap om vinsterna av dans som fysisk aktivitet för personer med ryggmärgsskada så att fler kan få del av dansens fördelar. / Background: In physiotherapy you look at the individual through a bio-psycho-social perspective. “International Classification of Function, Disability and Health” (ICF) is an instrument to measure health from a bio-psycho-social perspective. The knowledge about how dance as a physical activity effects people with spinal cord injury is insufficient. Qualitative research in this area is nonexistent.     Purpose: The purpose with the study was to examine people with spinal cord injury’s experiences with dance as a physical activity in a bio-psycho-social manner. Method: The study design was qualitative and inductive, based on semi-structured interviews with five study-participants: two men and three women in the ages 21-57, who had been dancing in wheelchair 2-33 years. The data was analyzed with qualitative content analysis. Results: The participants experienced that dancing had an impact on bodily functions: improved strength, condition, flexibility, coordination and balance. Changes in body perception (more contact with the body). They had also reduced pain. They experienced effects in personal factors: Psychological wellbeing (improved self-efficacy, self-esteem and joy) and physical wellbeing. The dance had also been generating anxiety. They experienced impact on factors involving their surroundings: social (they got more friends, experienced a unique fellowship and developed social interaction skills). They had met acceptance, some ignorance but support from close ones. They experienced impact on their activity and participation: More independent in daily life (they had become better in locomotion). Participating in the community (participating in more activities, participating in having an impact on the community). Conclusion: People with spinal cord injury experience that dancing has many positive outcomes on bio-psycho-social factors.  Physiotherapists and other professionals in health care, and people with spinal cord injury need to get knowledge about the profits of dance as a physical activity for people with spinal cord injury so that more people can take part of the benefits of dancing.

Author: Anežka Kudrnová Title: Assessment of injuries and painful conditions in Irish dancing in CZ and Europe The goals of the thesis: The goal of this thesis is introduction of Irish dancing with its specification, and its current state here in the Czech Republic and in Central Europe. Further, mapping of the most common injuries and painful conditions, assessing the quality of preparation of the organism for the strain. Methodology: In this thesis a research was conducted of foreign and Czech sources addressing Irish dancing from historical point of view, organisation and primarily injuries. For mapping of the most common injuries, their causes and solution methods were chosen anonymous non-standardised questionnaires. These questionnaires were distributed to dancers from different states, all dancing categories, with age limitation only on the bottom level and that of 12 years old. From 150 distributed questionnaires were returned 130 completely filled and their results were processed by Microsoft Excel. Results: On the bases of the research it was ascertained, that absolute majority of the injuries occurred during Irish dancing, is localised on lower limbs. More than a half of all injuries is then related to the area of the hock joint. From external causes are the dancers affected mostly by footwear....

v angličtině This master thesis is about woman and her body. If a woman wish to be healthy, her soul and body should be in harmony. If she follows her own way, she is in harmony with society, she has time for relaxing and takes care for her soul she is happy. Society at this time is trying to separate soul and body. But when we are lost we can find the truth and ourselves. We can take care of our soul in this ways: relaxing, meditation, movement. When we are moving, soul is in harmony with a body. Every woman has shapes of her body from her forefathers and she should appreciate it.

No description available.