As an American contemporary modern dance maker, I explore the ways in which my Mexican-American female identity reveals itself in my choreographic work. In this two-fold dance thesis research, I insightfully search for mind and body connectives to help increase awareness centered around various parts of my ethnicity. I inquire about my mixture of histories, lineages, and experiences and share my collaborative choreographic process for the making of Agave Americana, a dance work that premiered on April 25-26th, 2019 at UC Irvine’s Experimental Media Performance Lab. I poetically insert my personal perspective of dance making to engage with a broader discourse in the fields of cultural studies, feminism, and the contemporary dance making body.

ABSTRACT OF THE THESIS

Sensing and Shaping from Within: Exploring the Integration of Somatic Concepts into the Teaching and Learning of Ballet

By

Alana Rae Isiguen

Master of Fine Arts in Dance

University of California, Irvine, 2015

Professor Loretta Livingston, Chair

This thesis research study examines how somatic thought can aid in the approach to, and execution of, classical ballet, specifically within American dance programs in higher education at the undergraduate level. This research also aims to further the discussion of the value of using somatics in training dance professionals. It adds to an existing body of knowledge of more helpful and healthy pedagogical ways in shaping dancers by treating the individual body and striving for wellness.

A brief overview of three long standing somatic practices, The Alexander Technique, Laban Movement Analysis/Bartenieff Fundamentals, and Ideokinesis, provides background on foundations and principles: teaching awareness of self, placing attention on mind-body connectivity, and promoting efficiency in motion, breath, and body alignment. Also, a closer look at two examples of long-standing, high achieving BFA dance conservatory programs, The Juilliard School and The Boston Conservatory, demonstrate the utility of somatics in dance curricula.

Lastly, this thesis research describes the workshop I undertook with undergraduate dance students at the University of California, Irvine exploring the application of somatic concepts to classical ballet. The pedagogical model was based on four somatic principles: breath, kinesthesia (internal sensing), connectivity, and initiation and intention, drawn from Dance and Somatics: Mind-Body Principles of Teaching and Performance, by Julie Brodie and Elin Lobel. Additionally, experiential anatomy was incorporated into the workshop through the work of Mabel Todd, Lulu Sweigard, and Irene Dowd. Emergent themes included a sense of community building amongst students, as well as empowerment within each as individual artists.

This qualitative research study explores the experiences and values of five Maui dance artists who believe Maui has influenced their movement practice. The experiences of my five research participants, collectively, provide a glimpse into the complex nature of aloha on Maui. Aloha, which means love, kindness, sympathy, and compassion, and refers to the welcome extended to strangers in Hawaii, also has a history of smoothing over ethnic tensions resulting in feelings of exclusion. Correspondingly, Aloha emerges as a shared ideal and influence on mindset and approach to dance for all of my research participants. The interplay of experience, influence, and aloha, while not always harmonious, manifests in each of my research participants' value of cultivating and sharing with the community through their dance practice. This research is also a parallel reflexive study of the complexity and richness of my Maui experience, which has lead to a deepened understanding of my own identity as a Local and as a dancer/choreographer.

ABSTRACT OF THE THESIS

Gender: Human Being

By

McClaine Timmerman

Master of Fine Arts in Dance

University of California, Irvine, 2017

Loretta Livingston, Chair

The purpose of this research is to identify and analyze the connection between art and feminist theory, using dance as a main point of departure. The investigation of feminist theory in art provides a platform to create commentary on widespread projections of femininity in American visual and mass media culture. The research divulges how art continues to not only illuminate but also challenge conflicting notions of feminine beauty. In this thesis I provide analyses of three contemporary art makers whose work in performance and installation revolves around concepts of feminist theory. Additionally, I document my creative process in creating a multi-media dance theater concert about the “ideal” woman at the University California, Irvine. To encompass the findings within the research, an original monologue titled Pink Blanket was created and performed within the dance theater concert, giving voice to my personal relationship to feminist theory. The monologue is about a female who is experiencing the conflicting and unattainable expectations of the socially constructed “ideal” woman. The outcome of this research served me in my own understanding of my place among feminist art makers, and has inspired me to create more performance projects as an emergent feminist dance maker.

Although competitive dance is a common form of training and performance for

young dancers in the United States, there is little academic research on how this type of

training and performance might impact the minds and bodies of the dancers who

participate. Through interviews with five former competitive dancers, and a psychologist

and dancer, Dr. Christina Donaldson, I explore how practices within competitive dance

might impact the dancers who participate.

This research explores the impact of competitive dance on college undergraduate

dance major’s perceptions of their own body, and how those perceptions might impact

their choices as performers, choreographers, and educators. In collaboration with the

dancers, I created a choreographic work inspired by this research, and in the last chapter I

discuss the creation and presentation of this work.

This thesis describes the investigation of selected concepts in chemistry as prompts for movement invention and new dance composition. The concepts are entropy, chemical kinetics, chirality, resonance, isomers, crystallization, and the chemical properties of water. In this study, these concepts serve as points of departure for choreographic invention and compositional elements. I use the discoveries to fuel and drive new and original choreography resulting in a concert presented to the public at The University of California, Irvine, April 2017.

As a dance maker and artist, I am interested in revealing chemistry culture through the body’s movements. For the research, I use science as a basis for movement discovery, investigating, challenging, and ultimately understanding the pairing of chemistry and dance to create a unique performing art. My study of dance artist and movement theorist Rudolf Laban and contemporary ballet choreographer William Forsythe further stimulated my thesis research.

Multiple modes of inspiration for contemporary dance making emerge from a multitude of investigatory concepts in chemistry. Each concept provides distinct parameters for choreographic invention. I further develop my research by subdividing the concepts into terms that connect to both science and the human body in motion. By delving deeper into a topic, I am able to focus on themes in chemistry by exploring movement with dancers. This study provides a method for choreographers and dance educators to find and form connections between science and art, in particular, concepts of motion and dynamic spatial and temporal relationships found in both chemistry and dance.

Commercial dance is employment in which dancers are hired to perform in and on film and TV, music videos, corporate events, advertising campaigns, musical artist’s tours, exhibitions, industrials, Broadway and for-profit venues such as Las Vegas nightclubs. Many dance programs in higher education have a concert dance focus (ballet and modern), and do not have a curriculum that fully prepares dancers for the commercial dance sphere.

Arts based qualitative research was utilized for the pedagogical intent of furthering dancers’ knowledge with regard to commercial dance, so that they have an embodied understanding and can make a living in the field. Interviews were conducted with dance professionals Carmit Bachar, Brian Friedman, Lauren Gaul, JoAnn Hunter, Scott Jovavich, Lisa Lindholm, Terry Lindholm, Rhonda Miller, Elizabeth (Liz) Ramos, Desmond Richardson, Jamal Sims, Jamal Story, and Charlie Sutton. The interviews with the professionals gave rise to pertinent topics and information that can help create more versatile and marketable dancers for all facets of the commercial dance world, and be implemented into university dance departments.