Cette thèse, sous la direction de Claude Jamain, interroge l’affirmation de Duncan selon laquelle elle n’invente pas sa danse qu’elle qualifie de naturelle. Afin de répondre à ce paradoxe, l’idée est de saisir l’élaboration de sa danse comme matière en termes kinesthésiques, moteurs et qualitatifs, en interactions avec les contextes historiques et culturels auxquels elle se confronte en Amérique, en Europe et à la charnière des XIXe et XXe siècles. Après une présentation des pratiques corporelles en Amérique, la thèse aborde la façon dont l’imaginaire de la nature en Amérique et les différentes visions de l’antique aux Etats-Unis d’Amérique et en Europe participent de l’élaboration de sa danse. La conclusion,loin d’apporter une réponse radicale, tendrait à considérer sa danse à la fois comme renaissance de l’antique et naissance d’une nouvelle danse. / This thesis, directed by Professor Claude Jamain, questions Duncan’s assertion that she does not invent her dance, which she describes as natural, even though, it is immediately praised for its novelty. In order to deal with this paradox, this research seeks to capture the way she developed her dance as a discipline with its kinesthetic, motor and qualitative aspects,against the historical and cultural contexts she encountered in America and Europe at theturn of the 19th and 20th centuries. After a presentation of bodily-practices in the United States, the thesis shows how the imaginary view of nature in America and the differing visions of antiquity in the United States and in Europe feed the development of her dance.Our conclusion, far from offering a radical answer, would rather consider her dance as are birth of the antique, as well as a new emerging dance.

Title: Evaluation of postural stability in modern dance dancers Objectives: The aim of this Diploma thesis is to objectivly evaluate and compare ability of dynamic and static postural stability between modern dancers (women only) and normal healthy population (women only), who don't do any sport activities on a regular basis. Another aim of this study is to evaluate whether the personal preferences of the standing lower limb, used in performing dance piruettes, will affect the load on the lower limbs and it's stability, during testing static and dynamic postural stability. Methods: This thesis is quantitative observational cross-sectional study involved 40 women between 18-29 years. Experimental group included women dancers (n1=20) and control group included women non-athletes from faculty (n2=20). For objective measure of postural stability was used NeruCom Smart EquiTest and following five measuring protocols: Sensory Organization Test, Motor Control Test, Unilateral Stance Test, Limits of Stability a Weight Bearing Squat. Results of measurement was statistically processed in Microsoft Excel 2016 for each group and then compared between groups. For statisticial analysis was used: Shapiro-Wilk test, Student's T-test and Mann-Whitney U-test. Results: A statistically significant difference was found...

Throughout history, dance is a powerful tool for expression of self or community. Art, especially dance, became a way to react to societal shifts and stalemates through means of storytelling. Through my choreography, I used history of modern dance such as the mother of modern dance, Isadora Duncan, an incredibly influential choreographer, Martha Graham, and her famous protege, Merce Cunningham. I used a combination of their methodology to choreograph my intrapersonal journey with dance and life.

The purpose of choreographing "Jacob Five: A Journey into the Olive Vineyard" was to artistically express a religious allegory in order to praise God as well as to bring the audience, dancers, and choreographer to a new understanding of the passage from which it was derived. The 39-minute dance was presented April 10, 1993 as a dance fireside. Following the performance, an informal discussion was held to give the audience an opportunity to respond to the dance. These comments were considered and recorded as part of the evaluation of this thesis. Both the thesis and video of "Jacob Five: A Journey into the Olive Vineyard" are available through the Brigham Young University Department of Dance.

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For eight years, dancers in the United States performed and taught as employees of the federal government. They were eligible for the Comprehensive Employment and Training Act (CETA), a Department of Labor program that assisted the unemployed during the recession of the late 1970s. Dance primarily occurred in artistic or leisure contexts, and employing dancers as federal government workers shifted dance to a labor context. CETA dancers performed “public service” in senior centers, hospitals, prisons, public parks, and community centers. Through a combination of archival research, qualitative interviews, and philosophical framing, I address how CETA disrupted public spaces and forced dancers and audiences to reconsider how representation functions in performance. I argue that CETA supported dance as public service while local programs had latitude regarding how they defined dance as public service. Part 1 is entitled Intersections: Dance, Labor, and Public Art and it provides the historical and political context necessary to understand how CETA arts programs came to fruition in the 1970s. It details how CETA arts programs relate to the history of U.S. federal arts funding and labor programs. I highlight how John Kreidler initiated the first CETA arts program in San Francisco, California, and detail the national scope of arts programming. In Part 2 of this dissertation, CETA in the Field: Dancers and Administrators, I focus on case studies from the Philadelphia, Pennsylvania and New York, New York CETA arts programs to illustrate the range of how dance was conceived and performed as public service. CETA dancers were called upon to produce “public dance” which entailed federal funding, free performances in public spaces, and imagining a public that would comprise their audiences. By acknowledging artists and performers as workers who could perform public service, CETA was instrumental in shifting artists’ identities from rebellious outsiders to service economy laborers who wanted to be part of society. CETA arts programs reenacted Works Progress Administration (WPA) arts programs from the 1930s and adapted these ideas of artists as public servants into the Post-Fordist, service economy of the 1970s United States. CETA dancers became bureaucrats responsible for negotiating their work environments and this entailed a number of administrative duties. While this made it challenging for dancers to manage their basic schedules and material needs, it also allowed for a degree of flexibility, schedule gaps, and opportunities to create new performance and teaching situations. By funding dance as public service, CETA arts programs staged a macroeconomic intervention into the dance field that redefined dance as public service. / Dance

Although working in two different mediums, Jackson Pollock, Martha Graham, and Merce Cunningham created works during the 1940s and 1950s that share several analogous formal characteristics, as well as a body-centered process that reminded viewers of both the corporeality of the artists and of themselves. My thesis identifies and interprets the formal analogies evident in each the artists' approach to asymmetry, repetition, gravity, and space. I argue that the common aspects among the works of the three artists resulted from their participation in a shared modernist discourse circulating post-war America, especially in New York. This discourse provided the artists access to common sources of inspiration, such as the writings of Carl Jung, Native American imagery, and Asian cultures. Each of these elements characterizes the work of all three artists, along with similar ideas concerning the individual, national identity, and modern technology. / Art History

Though she is widely considered one of the "four pioneers" of American modern dance, German-American Hanya Holm (1893-1992) occupies a shadowy presence in dance history literature. She has often been described as someone who fell in love with America, purged her approach of Germanic elements, and emerged with a more universal one. Her "Americanization" has served as evidence of the Americanness of modern dance, thus eclipsing the German influence on modern dance. This dissertation challenges that narrative by casting new light on Holm's worldview and initial intentions in the New World, and by articulating the specifics of the first five years of her American career. In contrast to previous histories, I propose that Holm did not come to the U.S. to forge an independent career as a choreographer; rather, she came as a missionary for Mary Wigman and her Tanz-Gemeinschaft (dance cultural community). To Wigman and Holm, dance was not only an art form; it was a way of life, a revolt against bourgeois sterility and modern alienation, and a utopian communal vision, even a religion. Artistic expression was only one aspect of modern dance's larger purpose. The transformation of social life was equally important, and Holm was a fervent believer in the need for a widespread amateur dance culture. This study uses a historical methodology and accesses traces of the past such as lectures, school reports, promotional material, newspaper articles, personal notebooks, correspondence, photographs, and other material--much of it discussed here for the first time. These sources provide evidence for new descriptions and interpretations of Holm's migration from Germany to the U.S. and from German dance to American dance. I examine cultural contexts that informed Holm's beliefs, such as early twentieth century German life reform and body culture; provide a sustained analysis of the curriculum of the New York Wigman School of the Dance; and consider how the politicization of dance in the 1930s--in both Germany and the U.S.--affected Holm and her work. / Dance