Matching Items (69)
Description
This six month IRB approved qualitative study was held at Arizona State University to see how a group of seven university dancers' body appreciation and body perception would be affected by introduction and familiarized with Bartenieff Fundamentals and other somatic practices. During this process the individuals gained knowledge about their own bodies through somatic movement activities, journal writings, group discussions, and personal interviews. Movers then used this knowledge to create movement phrases that represented their own personal journeys with body image struggles, doubts, and insecurities. These movement phrases were then linked together in a 40-minute expressive movement piece that represented the journey the group of movers had made and was still making together.
ContributorsRodgers, Patricia (Author) / Jackson, Naomi (Thesis advisor) / Britt, Melissa (Committee member) / Vissicaro, Pegge (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
"Linked Together" is a choreographic piece inspired by at-risk youth and their ability to learn, grow, and transform their lives through dance. The idea for the piece originated from dance programs implemented with under-resourced populations in Virginia, Panama, and India. My teaching experiences in these places sparked the development of a longer, more comprehensive dance program in Arizona, with a Boys and Girls Club. The Arizona dance program included specific somatics exercises, focused on the integration of mind and body, as well as other types of improvisations, to help the participants learn about movement concepts and develop original movement.
The title "Linked Together" suggests that all people are connected in many ways, regardless of personal differences such as socioeconomic status or language. The dancers included myself, Arizona State University (ASU) dance students, as well as Boys and Girls Club dance program participants. For the concert, all dancers portrayed stories and concepts related to empowerment through emotionally charged movement, and thereby provided audience members with a visceral lens through which to see the transformative powers of dance. The data collected from this project through observations, surveys, and interviews suggest that constructive behaviors that are internalized through dance can flow seamlessly into the non-dance world, encouraging people to think creatively, collaborate with others, gain a sense of ownership, and feel empowered in all parts of life.
The title "Linked Together" suggests that all people are connected in many ways, regardless of personal differences such as socioeconomic status or language. The dancers included myself, Arizona State University (ASU) dance students, as well as Boys and Girls Club dance program participants. For the concert, all dancers portrayed stories and concepts related to empowerment through emotionally charged movement, and thereby provided audience members with a visceral lens through which to see the transformative powers of dance. The data collected from this project through observations, surveys, and interviews suggest that constructive behaviors that are internalized through dance can flow seamlessly into the non-dance world, encouraging people to think creatively, collaborate with others, gain a sense of ownership, and feel empowered in all parts of life.
ContributorsDaniel, Chareka (Author) / Fitzgerald, Mary (Thesis advisor) / Britt, Melissa (Committee member) / Manning, Linda (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2015
Description
ABSTRACT
This study intended to provide people diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder a creative outlet to experience dance and other art forms as a way of expressing themselves. Other potential benefits were observed throughout the exploration, including social interaction, coordination, and confidence. An interpretive phenomenological research model analyzed participant and parent verbal reflections, written feedback, and video recorded movement sessions to understand and interpret the participant's experience and the potential value of creative movement. The study was conducted over a seven-week period, which included 13, 30-minute movement sessions held biweekly along with interviews, discussions, surveys, and journaling. The research revealed dance empowered each participant to explore his/her creativity and exercise personal expression. The feedback received from the participants and parents through interviews and reflections revealed the participants did exercise and discover social, physical, emotional, and creative expression throughout the study.
This study intended to provide people diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder a creative outlet to experience dance and other art forms as a way of expressing themselves. Other potential benefits were observed throughout the exploration, including social interaction, coordination, and confidence. An interpretive phenomenological research model analyzed participant and parent verbal reflections, written feedback, and video recorded movement sessions to understand and interpret the participant's experience and the potential value of creative movement. The study was conducted over a seven-week period, which included 13, 30-minute movement sessions held biweekly along with interviews, discussions, surveys, and journaling. The research revealed dance empowered each participant to explore his/her creativity and exercise personal expression. The feedback received from the participants and parents through interviews and reflections revealed the participants did exercise and discover social, physical, emotional, and creative expression throughout the study.
ContributorsFinlayson, Kelsey (Author) / Fitzgerald, Mary (Thesis advisor) / Murphey, Claudia (Committee member) / Brown, Karen (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2015
Description
Exploration of Practice in Partnering is a curriculum-based, research thesis, focused on the investigation of the potential impact of studying multiple forms of dance partnering through a constructivist learning lens. The primary goal was to discover concepts and practices that underlie effective dance partnering. The study was conducted in a 15-week university dance course that provided a survey of partnering dance forms taught by the researcher who is versed in the chosen forms. In addition to professional knowledge and experience, the researcher includes theory and pedagogy from his graduate coursework. Teaching frameworks and learning experiences for the study were informed by somatics and constructivist pedagogy; a student-centered approach to learning in which students might find knowledge and meaning through experience.
The research documented in this thesis may be methodologically described as a case study and the data collection methods were qualitative. Due to IRB limitations, the data set draws only from biweekly journal entries from a class of eleven students, in addition to the researcher’s observation of students. Data streams from student journal entries were analyzed and interpreted using common protocols. Guiding questions for the research study included: How do students currently understand and perceive partnering? How do leader and follower roles play a part in dance partnering? What commonalities of partnering exist between different dance forms? Data gathered from the research revealed that each individual student’s understanding and definition of dance partnering changed over the course of the semester and students found increased meaning in their partnering interactions.
The research documented in this thesis may be methodologically described as a case study and the data collection methods were qualitative. Due to IRB limitations, the data set draws only from biweekly journal entries from a class of eleven students, in addition to the researcher’s observation of students. Data streams from student journal entries were analyzed and interpreted using common protocols. Guiding questions for the research study included: How do students currently understand and perceive partnering? How do leader and follower roles play a part in dance partnering? What commonalities of partnering exist between different dance forms? Data gathered from the research revealed that each individual student’s understanding and definition of dance partnering changed over the course of the semester and students found increased meaning in their partnering interactions.
ContributorsRivieccio, Kyle (Author) / Dyer, Becky (Thesis advisor) / Jackson, Naomi (Committee member) / Britt, Melissa (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2017
Description
“shiFT: An Exploration of Empathy” is a document detailing the process of
creating the evening length dance performance, “shiFT,” through the theoretical,
somatic, kinesthetic and choreographic research of empathy. This research specifically
addressed the ability to consciously take on an empathetic perspective and the change
that must occur within oneself to co-create empathy. It focused on the factors that
impede empathetic function and the role of vulnerability in experiencing empathy.
Throughout the creation of this concert, the choreographer employed empathy building
exercises and concentrated creative processes constructed from her research into the
neurological, emotional and physical aspects of empathy with a cast of ten dancers.
Choreographer and dancers worked collaboratively to create an empathetic
environment, a pre-show film installation titled GREY MATTER, and the culminating
evening length concert piece “shiFT.”
creating the evening length dance performance, “shiFT,” through the theoretical,
somatic, kinesthetic and choreographic research of empathy. This research specifically
addressed the ability to consciously take on an empathetic perspective and the change
that must occur within oneself to co-create empathy. It focused on the factors that
impede empathetic function and the role of vulnerability in experiencing empathy.
Throughout the creation of this concert, the choreographer employed empathy building
exercises and concentrated creative processes constructed from her research into the
neurological, emotional and physical aspects of empathy with a cast of ten dancers.
Choreographer and dancers worked collaboratively to create an empathetic
environment, a pre-show film installation titled GREY MATTER, and the culminating
evening length concert piece “shiFT.”
ContributorsWitt, Rebecca (Author) / Fitzgerald, Mary (Thesis advisor) / Standley, Eileen (Committee member) / Heywood, William (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2018
Description
Through ideologies of gender identity, gender as performance, sexuality, and the transgressions thereof, this document serves as a memoir inside of a memoir. I made a pop concert dance piece through a western dance aesthetic with my thesis paper detailing the experience. What did that look like? Throughout this paper, I will explain my thought process, expectations, and experience through writing, which is a more challenging task for me. I am not an academic writer, but rather a rebel with a cause. My cause is to transgress the system in any way I’m able - through words, dance, and expression. As opposed to the artistic dance piece itself, this paper’s purpose is one of both selfish intent and catharsis. Given this, I approached my thesis paper with the same mindset used when developing my piece, in that I rebel fighting against the heteronormative standards that have run my life. I don’t fill this document with regurgitated theory. Moreover, this document morphed into a cathartic platform for me, a purging of counter-hegemonic principals and ideals.
ContributorsCruz, Felix (Author) / Fitzgerald, Mary (Thesis advisor) / Rex, Melissa (Committee member) / McMahon, Jeff (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2017
Description
What is driving my applied project are questions derived from lived and observed experiences as an African American female born and raised in Los Angeles California to a non-native of twelve years in Arizona. I recognize situations I have gone through may not have happened if I was not a person of color and a woman. This is also true for Hispanics, Latinos, Native Americans, Pacific Islanders, Asians and other immigrants. The history of America as taught in public, secondary and post-secondary institutions speaks to this truth and raises the questions that I will explore in this document in relation to the process of creating my performance work Movement Speaks.
ContributorsMoore, Erika (Author) / Jackson, Naomi (Thesis advisor) / Britt, Melissa (Committee member) / Reed, Michael (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2017
Description
“In Spirit - An Archetypal Journey of the Soul” is a document illustrating the process of creating an evening length autobiographical aerial dance theater performance, In Spirit, through the investigation of theoretical, kinesthetic and choreographic research of archetypal symbolism, as well as aesthetic, choreographic and pedagogical aspects of aerial dance. The Jungian research specifically informed the identification of symbolism and the roles that archetypes play in creating a clear storyline within aerial dance theatre. In addition, research of aesthetic voice and current aerial dance practitioners became important and gave perspectives on creative pedagogical engagement in contemporary dance and aerial dance-making. For the duration of the process of creating In Spirit image-based creative tools, tarot symbolism, Jungian archetypes, aerial dance training and collaboration were explored with the cast of ten dancers. Through this research and embodying the spirit of collaboration, the choreographer and dancers worked diligently to train dancers with no previous experience in aerial dance to perform in aerial roles. The evening-length performance of In Spirit synthesized contemporary dance, aerial dance, theatre and symbolism regarding rebirth.
ContributorsReed, Elisa M (Author) / Fitzgerald, Mary (Thesis advisor) / Schupp, Karen (Committee member) / Winnemann, Christopher (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2020
Description
“Mix Mix Tayo: The Many Pieces in Our Stories'' is a written reflection, exploring the creation of the dance documentary, Carried Across the Water as well as the community event, Mix Mix Tayo. The ideas behind these works are centered in storytelling, filipino american identity and community. This research explores the use of film, dance, event production and the mixing of elements to create new wholes in order to communicate these ideas. These works were imagined in response to a call that was felt from people actively searching for healing, community and ancestral knowledge.
ContributorsCurry, Nicole (Author) / Standley, Eileen (Thesis advisor) / Fitzgerald, Mary (Committee member) / Nascimento, Eliciana (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2020