Matching Items (38)
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- All Subjects: Dance
- Creators: Dyer, Becky
- Creators: Kaplan, Robert
- Status: Published
Description
Educed Play is a performance installation that investigates spontaneity and the invisible communication that can exist in improvisation and collaborative play. The work unites the mediums of dance, drawing, music, and video through improvisational performances. The multimedia installation entitled Educed Play was presented in the fall of 2012. Inspiration came from the idea of relics created by ephemeral interactions, using improvisation as a means to performance, and working within a genuine collaboration. This document encompasses an overview of the project.
ContributorsLing, Amanda (Author) / Kaplan, Robert (Thesis advisor) / Standley, Eileen (Committee member) / Pittsley, Janice (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2013
Description
This thesis document encapsulates the findings of my research process in which I studied my self, my artistic process, and the interconnectivity among the various aspects of my life. Those findings are two-fold as they relate to the creation of three original works and my personal transformation through the process. This document encapsulates the three works, swimminginthepsyche, applecede and The 21st Century Adventures of Wonder Woman, chronologically from their performance dates. My personal growth and transformation is expressed throughout the paper and presented in the explanation of the emergent philosophical approach for self-study as creative practice that I followed. This creative-centered framework for embodied transformation weaves spiritual philosophy with my artistic process to sustain a holistic life practice, where the self, seen as an integrated whole, is also a direct reflection of the greater, singular and holistic existence.
ContributorsDeWitt, Inertia Q.E.D (Author) / Mitchell, John D. (Thesis advisor) / Dyer, Becky (Committee member) / De La Garza, Sarah (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2013
Description
During the design of interactive dance performances, dancers generate a strong relationship to the responsive media after they are given information about how to use the system. This case study observes a dancer's experience of improvising in a responsive audio system (RAS). A triangulated analysis and conclusion is formed from Laban Movement Analysis in conjunction with post-experience discussions relating to Optimal Flow. This study examines whether or not providing information about how an audio system responds to movement affects a dancers ability to achieve a heightened state of Embodied Flow while improvising in a RAS.
ContributorsAkerly, Julie (Author) / Dyer, Becky (Thesis advisor) / Coleman, Grisha (Committee member) / Ziegler, Christian (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2014
Description
This ethnographic research focuses on the specific creative processes of one dance-maker who worked collaboratively with seven dancers, a sound designer, a costume designer, and a narrative speaker. Together they created an evening-length dance work entitled "The Now Creature." Throughout the creative process, the dance-maker was interested in noticing attachments, finding freedom from these attachments, and being aware of how the work was affected by the choice to detach or remain attached to certain ideas. This interest stemmed from the dance-maker/researcher's interest in Buddhist philosophy and a system of decision-making she had been developing since childhood. The creative process for "The Now Creature" began with experiments in chance procedures as a method of non-attachment. After the first public showing of the piece, the process shifted to include intuition and aesthetic integration. "Embodied nowness," or the awareness of one's physical and mental sensations in the present moment, played an important role in rehearsals and in the overall process of letting go of attachments. All collaborators kept journals and were usually given specific prompts about which to write. The researcher/dance-maker also conducted one-on-one verbal interviews and group discussions with the collaborators. These data informed the development of the work presented on January 31-February 2 at Arizona State University, Findings from this research can be applied to any kind of creative process, or any life situation that includes decision-making.
ContributorsStein, Denise A (Author) / Vissicaro, Pegge (Thesis advisor) / Kaplan, Robert (Committee member) / Fonow, Mary Margaret (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2014
Description
Transformation Is... is an arts practice-led research in Dance and Design, embodying and materializing concepts of structure, leadership and agency and their role in bringing about desired social transformation. My personal experiences as a foreign student interested in transformative experiences gave origin to this arts practice-led research. An auto-ethnographic approach informed by grounded theory methods shaped this creative inquiry in which dance was looked at as data and rehearsals became research fields. Within the context of social choreography, a transformational leadership style was applied to promote agency using improvisational movement scores to shape individual and collective creative explorations. These explorations gave birth to a flexible and transformable dance installation that served as a metaphor for social structure. Transformation revealed itself in this research as a sequence of process and product oriented stages that resulted in a final performance piece in which a site-specific interactive installation was built before the audience's eyes. This work became a metaphor of how individual actions and interactions effect the construction of social reality and how inner-transformation and collaboration are key in the process of designing and building new egalitarian social structures.
ContributorsSibauste Bermudez, Janelle (Author) / Kaplan, Robert (Thesis advisor) / Britt, Melissa (Committee member) / Standley, Eileen (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2014
Description
This study intended to identify what children's perceptions and experiences are with contact improvisation and how these experiences relate to their education; their understanding of being an individual within a community; and their physical, social, and intellectual development. An interpretive phenomenological research model was used, because this study aimed to understand and interpret the children's experience with contact improvisation in order to find meaning relating to the form's possible benefits. The research was conducted over the course of ten weeks, which included classes, interviews, discussions, questionnaires, and journals. This study showed that contact improvisation empowered the children, opened the children's awareness, developed critical thinking, and created a deeper understanding and trust of the self and relationships formed within the class. The experiences found through teaching contact improvisation to these children showed that there are benefits to teaching children the form.
ContributorsCrissman, Angel (Author) / Schupp, Karen (Thesis advisor) / Dyer, Becky (Committee member) / O'Donnell, Timothy (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2014
Description
The intention for the dance production Story was to develop and explore a collaborative creative process to communicate a specific narrative to an audience. The production took place in the Margaret Gisolo Dance Studio at Arizona State University on November 18, 19, and 20, 2011. The purpose of my thesis work was to investigate how my personal inspiration from classical ballet, balletic movement vocabulary, fantasy narrative (an imaginative fictional story), supportive lighting, set, costumes and expressive sound might merge within a collaborative dance-making process. The final choreography includes creative input from the participating dancers and designers, as well as constructive feedback from my thesis committee. My reflection on the creative process for Story describes the challenges and personal growth I experienced as a result of the project.
ContributorsAllen, Karryn (Author) / Dyer, Becky (Thesis advisor) / Murphey, Claudia (Committee member) / Gharavi, Lance (Committee member) / Piver, Harper (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2012
Description
The Mormon Plan of Salvation explains that people originate in a heavenly state and are sent to Earth in a physical form, where they aspire to lead good lives and gain wisdom in order to reach glory in the afterlife. The dance piece "From There to Here to There: Whose Journey is it Anyway?" explores each stage in the Plan of Salvation at a different location, requiring dancers and audience to travel both metaphorically and physically. The piece incorporates several kinds of journeys: the collective journey of humankind based on the Plan of Salvation, the dancers' own journeys, and audience's journey as they watch the piece, and my journey as an artist. In the process of making this piece, I refined my identity as a 21st century Mormon artist interested in conveying religious messages through the traditionally secular art form of postmodern dance.
ContributorsFrost, Randi (Author) / Kaplan, Robert (Thesis advisor) / Daughtrey, Doe (Committee member) / Schupp, Karen (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2011
Description
Every body holds a story. Those stories are rich with physical movements to be expressed, and through the physical expression comes self-awareness and transformation. A partnership between Arizona State University and Arcadia High School was the vehicle in which I implemented a curriculum built around somatic experiences and communal beliefs and values. The framework for this investigated curriculum teaches students' embodiment of self, tolerance and acceptance in collaboration, life skills through applied constructivist principles, and increased critical thinking and problem-solving abilities. This research involved somatic exercises enabling participants to have insight into natural moving patterns, how such patterns relate to others and outside environments. Research concluded with collective dialogue around individual and shared experiences. I worked twice per week with a choreography class with a four unit curriculum. From varying modes of assessment (e.g., one-on-one interviews, group discussions, journals, surveys, ongoing observations) students' responses to this type of curriculum ranged from excitement and curiosity to frustrating and provoking. Although these areas of research are not necessarily new to the field of dance and education, gaps in dialogue, published work, and reliable resources prove these theories and methods are still valued and necessary. This research demonstrates the imperative demand in dance education for deeper connections of self-discovery.
ContributorsYourse, Katie R (Author) / Dyer, Becky (Thesis advisor) / Vissicaro, Pegge (Committee member) / Johnson, Elizabeth (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2015
Description
The purpose of this case study is to observe how social dance combined with somatic practices can encourage internal, physical perception and experiences of the body perceived from within for an adolescent boy with high functioning autism and dyspraxia; an impairment or immaturity of the organization of movement (Boon 7). More specifically, this research seeks to observe the impact that social dance instruction can have on an individual’s kinesthetic responsiveness, such as efficiency in movement patterning through increased movement awareness and somatic facilitation. In addition, this study seeks to observe the impact that social dance lessons could have on the participant’s communication and listening skills; attentiveness; initiation of movement, such as taking the role of a leader and lead patterns; organization of movements, such as performing movements within a specific order; and performance of movements that might lead to personal and social growth. Finally, this study investigates exercises from Alexander Technique and ways to incorporate them into pedagogical practices for adolescents with psychological limitations.
ContributorsPeltcs, Diona (Author) / Dyer, Rebecca (Thesis advisor) / Kaplan, Robert (Committee member) / Caves, Larry (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2018