Professional dance companies which reflect a Christian worldview are slowly emerging within the dance community, but this is territory which is generally uncharted academically, especially in Australia. Consequently, this paper is an ethnographic study of an Australian professional dance company of this kind. ask dance theatre is a professional dance company located in Sydney. Established in February 1999, it has three key personnel - Phillippa-Oakden Patch (artistic director/ choreographer/dancer), Hannah Horsley Cooper (choreographer/dancer) and Steve Cooper (composer/musician). Developing a philosophy based on a biblical worldview, one of the company's aims is to provide a "nurturing environment for artists of different disciplines to grow artistically and spiritually while creating dance theatre works". This has involved working collaboratively, incorporating dancers, singers, musicians, visual artists and actors, to create original works which have been performed at major contemporary dance and Christian arts events in New South Wales, Australia. Through the ethnographic methods of participant observation, interviewing and document analysis, details of this company's worldview as a group of "committed Christians" and their creative process was researched. This paper focuses on the description, analysis and interpretation of their creative process in the production of a new work during the first six months of 2001, identifying how their Christian worldview is reflected in their creative process.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:ADTP/264876 |
| Date | January 2003 |
| Creators | Pratt, Angela |
| Publisher | Queensland University of Technology |
| Source Sets | Australiasian Digital Theses Program |
| Detected Language | English |
| Rights | Copyright Angela Pratt |
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