UC San Diego

This dissertation brings together four case studies of U.S.-based choreographers to present and analyze various aspects of utopian artistic practices from conception to process to performance. Anna Halprin, Deborah Hay, luciana achugar, and Miguel Gutierrez are discussed together for the first time to draw connections and form a history that sheds light on artistic goals. I examine dance practices as ideologies inscribed onto the bodies of dancers and disseminated to the public not just as artistic production but as social choreographies. Each choreographer’s ideals around how the body ought to move and behave are examined as “utopian” for their proposal of an alternative, better way of being. The term “utopia” implies a striving-toward and comes from a conversation in Dance, Theater, and Performance Studies to which this dissertation contributes.

From extensive experiential research, I put forth four distinct arguments about how utopian practices function. Chapter 1 explores Halprin’s effort to create peace in the world through her practice. Chapter 2 examines Hay’s goal to de-choreograph the body. Chapter 3 focuses on achugar, who aims to remove visual and physical boundaries between dancers and among audiences. Chapter 4 looks at Gutierrez’s aggressive self-expression through the lens of queerness. Coming out of the post-modern tradition, Halprin and Hay set the stage for the utopian practices achugar and Gutierrez propose in the 21st century. This study expands the conversation around the value of an embodied practice and contributes to an understanding of choreographic intent.