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- Member of: ASU Electronic Theses and Dissertations
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 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
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
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
Description
The piece WAKE UP BREATHING holds personal significance as an investigation of thought-provoking issues of breathing through film installation, video and live performance. This research specifically addressed how breath training exercises enhance dance performance and improve a dancer’s control of their body, as well as how these exercises can function as material for choreographic inquiry. During the creation of the concert, the choreographer employed breath building exercises and applied different breath techniques with a cast of nine dancers. The choreographer and dancers worked collaboratively to develop creative material, enhance performance and help members of the audience understand why breathing in dance is so meaningful.
ContributorsKong, Zijia (Author) / Jackson, Naomi (Thesis advisor) / Kaplan, Robert (Committee member) / Kim, Marianne (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2019
Description
It’s Not That Simple: A Complex Journey of an MFA Applied Project discusses the experience of graduate student, Molly W. Schenck. Schenck’s applied project, It’s Not That Simple, was an interdisciplinary dance theatre performance piece that challenges rape culture on college campuses. While the focus of the applied project was this performance, it was the obstacles and highlights that were related to the project that made the journey memorable. This paper will discuss the history and evolution of It’s Not That Simple, the creative process, the research, the trajectory of the project, and reflections on the journey.
ContributorsSchenck, Molly W (Author) / Schupp, Karen (Thesis advisor) / Kaplan, Robert (Committee member) / Sterling, Pamela (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2016
Description
With this document I will discuss and reflect upon the performance and art exhibition show which I presented as part of my MFA thesis at the MonOrchid Gallery in Phoenix, Arizona on February 10, 2017. The approach to my thesis comes from my perspective as a Hip Hop practitioner exploring the relationship between each artistic discipline that makes up Hip Hop. Through this lens I will show the knowledge that is built from both individual and the conventional collective understandings of Hip Hop. As a practitioner for over 20 years, Hip Hop has molded my mind to be multifaceted, giving me a strong interest in art making as a collaborative process. I believe the more you see the relationship between each medium, the more that connection manifests a larger cognizance for where these art forms can progress. The relationship between all of the mediums involved creates a rhythm; it is the understanding of rhythm that can connect all types of art. When you are able to understand the process of rhythm as a through line, you will be able to create from your own personal rhythmic qualities in all things. This paper will delve into how my thesis performance incorporated not only music production and dance, but the written form of Hip Hop culture (Writing), identity, and the fundamentals of design. I will use the discussion of these forms to explore the similarities of meaning in movement-making behind B-boying, the most fundamental aspect of visual art and in body forms within Hip Hop. My aim was to research what we (the dancers and myself) learned from the movement in conjunction with Writing. I will discuss how many ways this can be beneficial to exploring new interdisciplinary creative collaborations with
design, visual art, choreography, sculpture, and architecture. Rhythm is the connective tissue between these disciplines in Hip Hop culture.
ContributorsDenaro, Anthony (Author) / Standley, Eileen (Thesis advisor) / Kaplan, Robert (Committee member) / Grimes, Sabela D. (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2017
Description
Perceptions and interpretations of life experiences and actions vary across individuals. When these differences are linked to colors, they become more apparent and discernable. Colors have the ability to convey a range of emotions, evoke diverse feelings, and conjure up different images for different people. For dancers, these colors and emotions can impact the execution of a movement, resulting in variations in quality and texture, despite performing the same choreography. Notably, the same color can hold opposite meanings in different cultural contexts. Consequently, the objective of this project is to employ dance performance as a means to communicate these disparate cultural perspectives.
ContributorsPan, Houyu (Author) / Kaplan, Robert (Thesis advisor) / Dyer, Becky (Committee member) / Bowditch, Rachel (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2023
Description
In this project, Schrodinger’s X, I explored a way of promoting a more neutral understanding among people from the same or different cultural background and the possibilities of one performance. I created an online interactive, immersive performance by combing dance, role-play games, and film. In this project, instead of sitting and watching, the audience is also part of the performance. They have the power to explore the world of this performance by making options during the performance. Each audience member sees the specific content and ending(s) based on their choice. At the end of the performance, the audience also has options to replay the performance or explore another character. There is no reference or model or documentation that relates to online interactive video performance. Thus, I explored the form of performance on my own. As the leader of this project, the author played the role of both the director and choreographer, coordinator and collaborator with six dancers, one cinematographer, and three composers. The diversity of the members of this project is extraordinary: Asian, Asian Americans, and Americans. Each member had contributed their unique voice and perspective to this project. The final product of this project contains a traceable online interactive video that audiences can replay anytime with a demonstration video and this document. Keywords: interactive videos, dance, interactive performance, cultural difference, role-play games, online performance
ContributorsLei, Qinzi (Author) / Kaplan, Robert (Thesis advisor) / Roses-Thema, Cynthia (Thesis advisor) / Williams, Wendy (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2021