M.A. - Dance
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ItemFrom Cellophane to Kapa: Perspectives on Hula in the Diaspora([Honolulu] : [University of Hawaii at Manoa], [May 2016], 2016-05)Having studied hula in Western Canada and in Hawaiʻi, I have observed many differences in the way that hula is perceived in the land where it originated and in the diaspora. For instance, although the grass skirt was not part of the original hula attire used by Hawaiians before Euro-American contact, the grass skirt clad hula dancer is commonly viewed as a major representation of hula outside of Hawaiʻi. Through archival research, practice as research studies, fieldwork in the southern region of Western Canada and the American Pacific Northwest, and ultimately through a historical and postmodern framework, different ideas are presented in this thesis on why certain perspectives about hula might exist in the diaspora and about the role costume has played in disseminating this image of the dance. This topic fits into the greater question of stereotypes, globalization in dance, and to a situated perspective of cultural identity.
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ItemTravelling Through Her and Friends of P([Honolulu] : [University of Hawaii at Manoa], [May 2016], 2016-05)
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ItemTransitionalism Dancing Exploring Personal, Cultural, and Community Identity in Afro-Cuban Folkloric Deity Dances([Honolulu] : [University of Hawaii at Manoa], [December 2015], 2015-12)The Afro-Cuban folkloric deity dances in Cuba, like so many indigenous art forms and cultural practices, have encountered change with their introduction into other countries and the expansion of globalization. How has globalization impacted the dances as they have migrated from Cuba to the United States? Has the dance technique changed? How have Cuban dance teachers changed their teaching approach and has this affected perceptions of personal identity? These questions, explored in this research, draw from my participant observations of classes and performances, literature reviews, and interviews. The methods focus on the impacts and effects of Afro-Cuban folkloric deity dances on identity due to location, and public transmittance1 in community dance class settings in the United States, specifically in dance communities in Honolulu, Hawai‘i, Portland, Oregon, Seattle, Washington and the Bay Area, California. Issues of personal and cultural identity2, the identity of the dances, authenticity, tradition, and appropriation are addressed from the Cuban and non-Cuban perspective of dance teachers, their students, drummers and spectators. These are the voices of the ever-expanding global community of Afro-Cuban dance and culture. The deity dances discussed in this thesis originate among the Yoruba people in West Africa. The Yoruba people and culture has shown a preservation through flexibility and resilience in the face of colonial forces which began during the enslavement of the Yoruba people during the 1400’s, and continued during the attempted elimination by Catholicism in Cuba of the Yoruba culture, including the music, dances and spiritual beliefs that became Afro-Cubanism. As a non-Cuban student, dancer, performer and teacher of Afro-Cuban deity dances, this research connects with my own concerns about the transmittance, usage, and respect of these deity dances as they travel and transform with the migration and globalization of those dancing them. A varied group of people throughout the United States West Coast was surveyed through formal interviews. The interviews included people involved in teaching or taking classes in Honolulu, Hawai‘i, the teachers and students at Center Space Studio and Bahia Brazil Arts Center in Portland, Oregon, the director of the Academy of Cuban Folklore & Dance in Seattle, Washington, teachers and students at the Dace Mission, The Beat, ODC, and Malonga in the Bay Area; and spectators and performers at a dance performance in Portland, Oregon where informally surveyed. By exploring communities where these dances are being taught, a picture of who makes up Afro-Cuban dance classes can begin to reveal the current state of much larger issues. The understanding of culture, authenticity and tradition as well as the feelings, and impact on personal and cultural identities of participants are simple subjects that reveal how communities in the United States make sense of issues of cultural integration, immigration, racism and other forms of discrimination. Afro-Cuban folkloric dances emanate from a rich and private religious background. These interviews help reveal how the change from a religious setting in Cuba to the United States, where many participants are non-religiously affiliated, has impacted these dances and the types of communities in which they reside, as well as how this change is being accepted or not by the Cuban community. This research communicates some of the current positions within these communities and connects people through the voices of the community. This in turn helps promote dialogues on cultural diversity and self-reflection on cultural identity within the United States.
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ItemAfro-Peruvian dance : an embodied struggle for visibility and integration([Honolulu] : [University of Hawaii at Manoa], [May 2012], 2012-05)This thesis analyzes four Afro-Peruvian dances (Festejo, Zamacueca, Alcatraz, and Lando) in contemporary Peru and the impact of these dances in the transformation of Afro Peruvians status in Peruvian society. Historically, Afro-Peruvians have been marginalized in political, economical and educational sectors in Peru. I argue that even though Afro-Peruvian dance has been used as an entertainment tool for commodification, it has also provided a space for the development of Afro-Peruvians' embodiment of Black consciousness; and furthermore, a space for contestation, negotiation of power and status of Afro-Peruvians. With this emerging consciousness Afro-Peruvians can challenge the hierarchical power structure within Peruvian society. This study employs an ethnographic approach based on my knowledge as an Afro-Peruvian dance practitioner, and the application of Louis Althusser's technique of symptomatic reading to archival videos, interviews, and English and Spanish literature.
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ItemRhythm's Expression([Honolulu] : [University of Hawaii at Manoa], [May 2014], 2014-05)I will choreograph an original dance that will be 15 minutes in length. I aim to present this work within the department's Winter Footholds January 2014, in the Earl Ernst Lab Theatre. I will fulfill the performance requirement of the degree with a solo in the same piece. Using Bharata Natyam movement vocabulary, this choreography will be my reP imagining of Bharata Natyam compositional elements that form the basis of "traditional" Bharata Natyam choreography. This choreography reflects my positionality as a Bharata Natyam practitioner. The three sections of the piece highlight the three components of Bharata Natyam movement. These are nritta, or pure/abstract movement, abhinaya, or modes of dramatic expression, and nrtiya or natya, the combination of both to convey a story. The movement for this piece is both abstractly and literally inspired a poem titled "World's Dance Stage," written by Tirupathi Chandrupatla. This poem describes the energy, beauty, and grace of various dance forms sharing a "world stage." I decided to use this poem as an underlying narrative as it poetically speaks to the root of my personal journey in dance, and in my life. The musical compositions used for this choreography are performed with music, and musical instrumentation, from various parts of India and outside of India to reflect the poem's title: "World Dance Stage."
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ItemTransformation through dance : Maud Robart and Haitian yanvalou([Honolulu] : [University of Hawaii at Manoa], [May 2014], 2014-05)This research is an inquiry into the role of the Haitian dance yanvalou, in the work of the Haitian artist Maud Robart. Robart works with groups of individuals in structures of movement, in which the dance is combined with Vodou chants. Robart's work focuses not on the creation of dance forms, but on the search of pulses of creative awareness or inherent creative drive within the individual, as the source of dance. In this thesis I argue that Robart emphasizes the exploration of dancing and singing as a window into a deeper and larger view of the human being and creativity. I explain how her approach to form, in both dance and chant, widens the experience of the body by going beyond the inherited cultural viewpoints that consider dance as a tool of the mind to create forms. I explain that in the context of her research, the body is seen not as an object limited by time and space, but as an entity of relatedness, an interface that connects our consciousness to the external world perceived through the senses, as well as to the inner, subjective world--what we feel within our body and psyche. In Robart's work, the body is an open door to the present, past, and future, to all beings, to the most mundane and to the most sacred in the human being. In Robart's research, form, articulated either as dance or chant, is the expression of a duality. Such duality includes the subject's pulses of creative awareness and its response to those same pulses. Robart calls the pulses of creative awareness élan. For her, élan is more than a physical or kinesthetic impulse; it is like a fervor, a passion, and a will to go beyond our limited human condition to find freedom--it is a propulsion toward God. Dance and chant are simultaneously a call and a response to that call. The call represents an innate need to overcome our limitations and realize our transcendental nature. The response is expressed through the evanescent forms our body can create through chant and dance. The realization that form itself is the expression of the creative power of life may lead the individual to a process of transformation of identity and agency. Such transformation is not a temporary and extreme psychological or religious experience as in the Vodou rituals, but a subtle and permanent transformation of perspective on life and art. This research explores Robart's work and ideas, and their connection to notions related to the body and perception as present in modern phenomenology
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ItemGoing back : contemporary Irish dance choreographers and modern Irish identity([Honolulu] : [University of Hawaii at Manoa], [May 2014], 2014-05)Irish step dance has for many years centered on Irish nationalism, and an attempt to preserve Irish tradition and identity. In the late twentieth and early twenty-first centuries, dancers who have been trained in the competitive Irish dance tradition have begun to experiment outside of the highly structured confines of this style of Irish dance. Particularly since the premiere of Riverdance in 1994, there has been increasing interest in exploring the use of Irish dance outside of the traditional structure. This thesis looks at the work of two such choreographers--New York-based choreographer Darrah Carr and Limerick-based choreographer Colin Dunne-who are actively creating contemporary Irish dance pieces utilizing both Irish dance and contemporary dance vocabulary and choreographic structures. I analyze choreographic works and teaching practices of both choreographers. I also take a practice-as-research approach to this area of inquiry, including an analysis of my own past works of Irish contemporary choreography, as well as a dance film produced specifically as part of my thesis research and the work that I created for my UH Late Night dance concert, Identity Crisis, in Fall 2013. This thesis argues that the work of Carr and Dunne, as well as my own, reflects the changing nature of postcolonial Ireland and the Irish diaspora, and aims to represent the multi-faceted, hyphenated identities of the choreographers as modern Irish dancers by combining the traditional with the contemporary.