Title: Judging systems of competitions in dance sport from judges point of view Objectives: The main goal of the thesis is to introduce the absolute judging system used on a dances sport competitions 3.0 to a wider public, and to describe differences between absolute judging systems 2.0, 2.1 and 3.0. Next goal is to map opinions, knowledge and attitudes of the TOP judges of the CDSF towards the judging systems of the dance sport. Methods: To obtain the necessary data for the elaboration of the thesis was used a method of electronic questionnaires. For the elaboration of a theoretical part of the thesis were used primary sources, professional literature and experts' own materials. Result: The thesis maps used systems of dance sport in the Czech Republic and abroad and their main progress towards objective and measurable judging. Based on survey, the questionnaire reveals the knowledge, opinions and attitudes of the Czech TOP judges towards System 3.0. In fact, the thesis is a breakthrough, because even though the absolute judging system 3.0 is already used in practice, there is still no Czech written documentation of its work or usage. Keywords: Dance sport, Latin, Ballroom, Dance, Judges, Judging systems, Sport, The questionnaire

This dissertation speculates on culture, social spheres, and programming to gain insight into how computer platforms can be (re)thought and (re)designed around the consciousness and struggles of Latin American communities. This dissertation uses an interdisciplinary methodology emphasizing approaches to live-coding performance, platform design and software development, participatory action research, and interpretive and semiotic analysis. The research in this dissertation starts with the argument that computer languages are influenced by social spheres (e.g., science and arts), economic models (e.g., knowledge economy), communication systems (e.g., natural language), and infrastructures (e.g., software collaboration protocols and institutions). Next, it is discussed how I deployed this argument by ideating and coding a computer language based on specific social spheres (i.e., live coding practice and popular music), communication systems (i.e., Spanish), and infrastructures (i.e., cultural centers and online spaces) of Hispanoamerica. Finally, this computer-music language is compared and contrasted against collective reflections and uses by this dissertation’s author and members of the general public through a series of conversation circles and live coding performances. This research results in developing Seis8s, a computer-music language inflected by Spanish constructs borrowed from Latin dance music. Seis8s blends Latin American music sensibilities and live coding techno-politics to promote critical reflection. Seis8s emphasizes resistance to asymmetric types of computer-music abstraction by bringing Afro-Latin instruments and rhythms to the center of the technology and the performance. Results of this research also include ten public presentations using Seis8s involving individual and collective live coding performances and conference presentations. These public presentations showcased Seis8s and promoted reflection toward universal understandings of bodies, culture, politics, and economies of these technological and artistic milieus. This research also gives insight into mestizaje and latinidad as concepts still present in the belief systems and ways of knowing Spanish speakers in Latin America and, consequently, in the software they develop. Mestizaje and latinidad are challenged collectively by positioning the white-mestizo ideology as a shared problem that could be resisted through reflection on the irreducibility of the Latin American identity and its potential to coexist with other identities. / Dissertation / Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

Ce projet de recherche s’est intéressé à l’hybridation culturelle résultant de l’intégration d’une pratique culturelle dans un contexte différent du contexte d’origine. Plus spécifiquement, ce mémoire a analysé l’hybridation de la bachata, une danse souvent associée à la République Dominicaine, mais qui, au cours de son évolution historique et musicale, a été au centre de tensions identitaires axées autour de la culture, l’ethnie, la géographie, la classe sociale ou encore des aspirations politico-idéologiques. La bachata se pratique aujourd’hui partout dans le monde et en tant que musique et danse, elle a subi des influences d’autres genres musicaux et d’autres styles de danse. Les mélanges culturels et musicaux ont renforcé son statut comme une pratique hybride. Ce rapprochement et mélange de cultures aura évidemment un impact sur les identités culturelles au pluriel des individus qui pratiquent la bachata. L’adoption, l’adaptation et l’ajout de nouvelles pratiques font évoluer notre identité culturelle. En me basant sur les notions d’hybridité et d’identités culturelles multiples et en utilisant des entrevues qui intègrent une analyse collaborative d’une vidéo de danse avec dix pratiquants de la bachata à Montréal, mon projet avait pour but de mieux comprendre comment les personnes qui pratiquent la bachata intègrent une pratique latine dans leur culture d’appartenance et l’impact de la bachata sur l’évolution de leurs identités culturelles. Cette recherche m’a permi d’établir cinq profils types qui expliquent les différentes façons dont la bachata a façonné les identités culturelles. Les cinq profils respectifs sont : unité identitiare, tension identitaire, harmonie identitaire, mosaïque identitaire et flou identitaire. Le concept d’hybridité s’est révélé être l’élément clé dans la construction hamonieuse de leur identité. Ceux qui ont une vision plus binaire de l’identité (je suis ceci ou cela) tendent à se retrouver dans une tension identitaire. / This research project focused on the cultural hybridization resulting from the integration of a cultural practice in a context different from its original one. More specifically, this thesis analyzed the hybridization of the bachata, a dance often associated with the Dominican Republic, but which, throughout its historical and musical evolution, has been at the center of cultural, ethnic, geographic identity-related tensions and divergent politicalideological aspirations. Today, the bachata is practiced all over the world and as a music and dance, it has been influenced by other musical genres and dance styles. The cultural and musical mixtures have reinforced its status as a hybrid practice. This blending and mixing of cultures obviously have an impact on the plural cultural identities of individuals who practice bachata. The adoption, adaptation and addition of new practices leads our cultural identity to evolve. Using hybridity and multiple cultural identities as conceptual frameworks, this research project adopted a qualitative methodology that integrated interviews and a collaborative analysis of a dance video with ten bachata practitioners in Montreal. By doing so, my project analyzed how bachata practitioners with different cultural origins integrate a Latin practice into their culture of belonging and the impact of bachata on the evolution of their cultural identities. This research allowed me to establish five typical profiles that explain the different ways in which bachata has shaped participants’ cultural identities. The five profiles are: identity unity, identity tension, identity harmony, identity mosaic, and identity blurring. The concept of hybridity proved to be the key element in the harmonious construction of their identity. Those who had a more binary view of identity (I am this or that) tended to find themselves in identity tension.

Basic element of competitive Dance Sport is the dance couple. For being succesful, it's needed to master the combination of specific dance skills, sport skills, stress resilience and skills connected to dance partnership, mainly communication skills and conflict resolution skills. Since the scientific research of conflict resolution among competitive couples is very scarce, aim of our explorative qualitative research is to understand how Latin Dance Sport couples experience conflicts and their subjective meaning of partnership in competitive dance. Experiences of dancers of various dance classes and their trainers were gathered using questionnaire (= 43) and half-structured interviews (= 13). Based on themati analysis, relevant themes were identified and described, and explanatory model further based on activity theory, game theory and theory of interdependence was proposed. Model suggests that contradiction of two different motives (competitive success vs. partner relationship) in the activity systems of competitive dance predisposes possible complex relationships between (implicit and/or explicit) aims of dancers, their type of partnership, possible expressed conflicts and their preferred styles of conflict resolution (based on the unique context of every dance couple). Relevant identified themes...