M.A. - Dance

Permanent URI for this collectionhttps://hdl.handle.net/10125/2030

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Dancing Another Role: Gender, Sexuality, and the Lead-Follow System in Korean Social Partner Dance Communities
(University of Hawai'i at Manoa, 2023) McClure, Matthew; Perillo, Lorenzo; Dance
This study examines the gendered and sexualized meanings and effects of dancers who challenge the gendered assignment of lead-follow roles in contemporary social partner dance practice in Korea. This study focuses on a growing number of women dancing the leading role and men dancing the follower role in styles such as swing, salsa, and tango, despite gendered norms in partner dance and Korean cultures. I coin the term “nonconventionally gendered role” (NGCR) to specify this practice across partner dances that use different terminology. Beyond filling this gap in the literature on this phenomenon in Korea, this study seeks to give insights into dancing the other role for practitioners across styles and how embodied arts can provide space for negotiation and understanding of gender and sexuality. I use archival analysis, ethnographic interviews, and participant observation to examine the limitations, meanings, possibilities, and effects of dancing the other role. My data suggests norms in Korea and partner dance around the gender binary, conformity, and skill hierarchy place limits on gendered and sexualized expression in dance communities. However, dancing the nonconventional role in Korea offers a broader range of gendered expression, relations, and somatic and verbal discourse beyond the conventionally gendered role. The effects of representation and the dialogue between practice and policy in this study may signal a move from exclusive to inclusive practice of the other gendered role in Korea.
Speculation
(University of Hawaii at Manoa, 2022) Sanchez, Erika Nicole; Schiffner, Amy L.; Dance
In partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of MFA in Performance and Choreography I propose a twenty-two minute performance titled “Speculation.” The production is a choreographic approach to exploring biomechanics and mental responsiveness to specific emotion driven prompts. The choreographic process implements physical mechanics of the body; acceleration, force, gravity, momentum and projectile trajectory; to devise a mental response and deeper understanding of the movement. Through guided tasks of texture, dynamics and internal or external movement quality will reinforce the intentions of the entire performance. “Speculation” will include an original sound score developed by Ernest Provencher, costumes designed by Devin Walter and lighting designs created by Brian Shevelenko. The production is intended to be performed live for the 2022 Spring Footholds Concert titled Co-Motion. The Concert is projected to take place in the Earl Ernest Lab Theatre at the University of Hawaiʻi Mānoa.
Dancing Through The Decades: Essays & Screendances
(University of Hawaii at Manoa, 2022) Pivar, Amy; Miller, Kara; Dance
ABSTRACT Reshaping personal narratives is important for older professional dance artists to maintain longevity in an aging body. Inevitable physical constraints, economic and career challenges, and family responsibilities, create obstacles in the body/mind. How do dancers pivot those intervals of crisis into reinvention? Making opportunities to synthesize one’s life work and situated knowledge for personal nourishment and professional validation, can also contribute to the field of dance. One approach is to turn a lifetime of embodied dance knowledge into a written document to grow the dancer’s voice in the scholarly dialogue. A rare artist who continues to inspire is French Canadian dancer/choreographer Louise Lecavalier, who, well into a successful performing career, offered her first major choreographed work, So Blue at age 57. Sparked by seeing So Blue at New York Live Arts in 2015, and entering graduate school at the University of Hawai‘i Mānoa in 2017, I began to look at issues related to age(ing) dancers, which culminated in a series of five personal reflection essays that track my Practice-as-Research (PaR) project. I began making screendance self-portraits that employed newly learned digital dance technologies. Then came the COVID-19 pandemic lockdown and I turned toward self-reflexive research, as corroborated in the writings of Kim Etherington and Lynette Hunter. Lecavalier’s So Blue inspired me to research my past dance works, previously buried with the stain of tragedy and betrayal. I designed a PaR archiving process to de-traumatize my personal and political narrative in dance to recast my memories and stories. I digitized, viewed, and responded to old works and then shared them with dance colleagues and conducted follow-up interviews with Patricia Chen, Seán Curran, Janet Lilly and Lisa Sokolov. I have discovered that the practices of making self-portrait screendances, and of engaging with my own ‘de-traumatizing the archive’ process, has proven to be an effective method to dissolve embodied negative psychological imprints thereby enabling me to bring my dances into the light of day. My personal experiential knowledge as a dance artist, who came to academia later in life, can be a valid contribution to the collective insight, by creating a revived constellation of dance connection to add to the bricolage of stories.
Manariwa: A Filipina Perspective on Indigenous Contemporary Dance
(University of Hawaii at Manoa, 2017-05) Pasion, Toni M.; Dance
This thesis is an auto-ethnography utilizing dance, performance, and practice-as-research as cognitive methodologies to document indigenous contemporary dance from a Filipina perspective. There are three main segments of analysis: 1) my participation as a dancer in three indigenous contemporary dance projects that took place on Mannahatta/Manhattan, Guåhan/Guam, and Molokaʻi, Hawaiʻi; 2) conducting a survey of dance in Antipolo, Manila, Nabua, Baguio, and Laoag, Philippines; and 3) producing a dance performance on Oʻahu, Hawaiʻi entitled Manariwa. All of these events show how dance and performance are utilized to cultivate inter-cultural collaboration and community gathering. Impetuses of this thesis are to critically inquire Philippine cultural identity, cultivate indigenous relationships, and strategize how dance can be conducted as healing and as a method of cultural innovation. To do this, I question in each segment: How does place inform choreo-graphy? How do dance and performance help build communities and sustain cultures?
From Cellophane to Kapa: Perspectives on Hula in the Diaspora
(University of Hawaii at Manoa, 2016-05) Linan, Kathryn
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.
Travelling Through Her and Friends of P
(University of Hawaii at Manoa, 2016-05) Monson, Camille
Transitionalism Dancing Exploring Personal, Cultural, and Community Identity in Afro-Cuban Folkloric Deity Dances
(University of Hawaii at Manoa, 2015-12) Thornton, Elbereth
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.
Afro-Peruvian dance: an embodied struggle for visibility and integration
(University of Hawaii at Manoa, 2012-05) Porras, Katherine Aissa
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.
Rhythm's Expression
(University of Hawaii at Manoa, 2014-05) Acharya, Rohini
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."
Transformation through dance: Maud Robart and Haitian yanvalou
(University of Hawaii at Manoa, 2014-05) Jimenez, Pablo Manuel
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
Going back: contemporary Irish dance choreographers and modern Irish identity
(University of Hawaii at Manoa, 2014-05) Holt, Kathryn Marie
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.
I-Rave: digiphrenia's transformation of a culture
(University of Hawaii at Manoa, 2014-05) Heller, David Francis
Over the last five years, electronic dance music culture, originally known as Rave has made dramatic shifts due to the influence of new media. Technology is a key factor. The vast majority of current EDM (electronic dance music) event attendees have smartphones that take pictures and record the event, changing the original Rave concept of "living in the moment" into a photo op for a Facebook update. The use of technology has shifted the experience of Rave culture from a model based on face-to-face interactions on the dance floor to a model based on digital/online communication. The use of technology has redefined participation in Rave culture. I am asking three fundamental questions: Why do people gather at Raves? How have new media cellphone technologies and social networks like Facebook changed the way people interact at Raves? What is the impact of technology on Rave culture? In the era of smartphones and social networking, the use of technology in popular culture demands that we are seen in photos and videos uploaded to social network sites. Therefore, the opportunity to connect with strangers through dance, unity and love is replaced with a two-dimensional image. Simultaneously, corporations easily get hold of key elements of underground electronic dance music, which transforms Rave culture into a product.
B-girl like a B-boy: marginalization of women in hip-hop dance
(University of Hawaii at Manoa, 2014-12) Fung, Jenny
Many female hip-hop dancers (such as b-girls, poppers, lockers, choreography dancers) have embraced and struggled with hip-hop dance, a dance where many of its sub-styles honor the male body and masculinity. In a male dominated dance culture, how do women negotiate with issues of gender in the dance movement and social practices? This thesis responds to these concerns by documenting the experiences of hip-hop dancers and urban street dancers in New York City. By examining the woman's experience in hip-hop dance, this thesis looks into how the marginalization of female dancers within breaking is connected to how the dance was molded around the male adolescent lifestyle, social practices, and cultural values within Black urban ghetto communities of New York City during the 1970s and 1980s. In addressing how the conditions and issues associated with the dance's reverence for masculine expression affects the lives and careers of women, this research aims to find and reclaim the woman's voice and body in hip-hop dance culture.
Dance, mysticism, and sensuality perspectives from Tajikistan
(University of Hawaii at Manoa, 2007) Hinz, Sonja, 1973
Shadows
(University of Hawaii at Manoa, 2007) Wright, Celia Ann
My background in dance began with classical ballet, not in a rigid, structured format but in a small, let's-have-fun school. This naturally developed my love for dance - the friendships, the physical exercise, and the ecstatic joy of moving through space. I later .' progressed to more structured ballet classes and became thoroughly involved with the • ballet world in Hawaii and never strayed until college. While completing my BFA, I found myself exploring the world of, jazz (not hip-hop) and my presented piece at the Kennedy Lab Theatre was a piece that included both ballet and jazz. I continually fought the modern dance concepts and dismissing them as nonsense and crazy. I was young. " , Now my life is completing a circle and I finally understand 'modem dance' concepts and fully embrace them . During my MFA 'studies Ire-visited Labanotation concepts, learned about Laban Movement Analysis and found them to be very useful tools in teaching ballet and modem technique classes.
The impact of the University of Hawaiʻi at Manoa Dance Program: graduate students, Honolulu dance companies, and the community of Oʻahu
(University of Hawaii at Manoa, 2005) Novack, Lynn
The University of Hawai'i at Manoa Dance Program is producing dancers that are making a difference in the professional world of dance on O'ahu and the mainland. I selected five alumni/ae pursuing careers in dance who had completed their MFA degrees at the University of Hawai'i at Manoa (hereafter UHM). I interviewed each of them over the telephone and via e-mail using a list of questions I created to question how their degrees relate to the positions they now hold. Each dancer graduated with an MFA degree in the past twenty years and continued to either dance professionally, teach at an educational institute, or both. I also interviewed four current MFA students in the Dance Program and asked them to share their personal aspirations and their hopes for the UHM Dance Program. Additionally, I selected three local modern dance companies that have ties to UHM through their dancers. I asked each Artistic Director how the University of Hawai'i Dance Program affects their company. My goal was to find how UHM is affecting graduate alumni/ae, present MFA candidates, and Artistic Directors of local companies. In what way did each dancer take what they learned at UHM and apply it to their everyday professional and personal lives? I am pursuing my MA degree at the University of Hawai'i. I started studying modern dance during my undergraduate time at UHM from 2000 - 2001, and obtained a minor in dance. I fell in love with modern dance, and decided to pursue a graduate degree. This research is relevant and interesting to me as it shows how a UHM dance degree affects other's in their lives, both personal and professional. I wanted to find how these alumni/ae were able to incorporate their passion for dance into a career, and how the university helped to contribute to the vitality of dance in the O'ahu community and on the mainland. In interviews I posed the same questions for each alumni/ae and current dancer at UHM. These questions were: Where did you study dance before attending UHM? Did you perform professionally? Which dance styles do you associate the most with? Why did you chose UHM for your MFA? When did you attend UHM? Do you feel UHM made a positive influence on you? Who were your greatest influences at UHM? Did UHM push you further than expected or hoped on a physical or mental level? Where do you teach dance? Where have you taught since graduating from UHM? Do you teach your students what you learned from UHM? How does UHM compare to the school you are employed by? Do you reflect back on your degree and time spent at UHM and how? Looking back, would you go to UHM and do it allover again? Would you recommend UHM to others? What do you think are UHM's strengths and weaknesses? Do you think local modern dance can survive on O'ahu without UHM? And I asked each subject to list anything they would like to add that I might have missed. My purpose was to find out if these dancers applied what they learned while obtaining their UHM degree in their current career. I wondered what the current degree candidates were hoping to achieve by completing their MFA degree from UHM. At the beginning of my interview process with the alumni/ae, I did not know if they used their UHM schooling or not. Were these former UHM dancers applying specific lessons gained during their degree pursuits? To what extent do they credit UHM for where they are with dance today? While wanting to discover if the UHM Dance Program is contributing to the vitality of local dance, I wanted to find if it contributes to the evolution of this artistic discipline locally. I believe my role in the process of interviewing the heads of current O'ahu dance companies is to be a facilitator of dialogue about dance and find insights for current and future students about the long term contributions of the UHM Dance Program for its graduates' careers in the local community and beyond as a performer and choreographer. A larger inferred question that my research analyzes is: Can local modern dance survive without the university?
Movement Characteristics Of Three Samoan Dance Types: Maʻuluʻulu, Sasa And Taualuga
(University of Hawaii at Manoa, 2004-08) Radakovich, Jennifer
Using principles originated by Rudolf Laban, I analyze examples of three Samoan dance types, ma'ulu'ulu, sasa, and taualuga, performed by three dance groups from American Samoa: the youth group of the Congregational Church of Jesus in Samoa (CClS 'Autalavou), the Samoana High School Swing Choir and the Siva Maia Dance Group. In Chapter 1, I briefly present the geography and political situation of American Samoa, followed by a brief overview of Samoan culture. Then, I provide an introduction to Samoan dance, including terminology, types of dance, change, general characteristics and contexts for performance and instruction. In Chapter 2, I review the existing Samoan dance literature and other relevant movement studies. I also discuss my research and analytical methodologies. Then, I introduce the three dance groups that performed the examples in my analysis and discuss where they performed the examples cited. In Chapters 3 through 5, I analyze the chosen dance examples to reveal the movement characteristics of each dance type. Finally, in Chapter 6, I summarize the elements that characterize each dance type, distinguish stylistic variations of each dance group and suggest general features that characterize Samoan dance. In addition, I suggest possible directions for future research.

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