su dansi. A dance film – and – Dancing elements: The making of su dansi - a dance film. An exegesis

This research project titled Dancing Elements explores choreographic conversations between the body and natural elements, specifically water on film. I question how natural elements when viewed in relation to the dancing body, can begin to be seen as a dancing entity. This research is divided between scholarship and the creation of a new dance film, su dansi which is Turkish for ‘water dance.’ su dansi is a collaborative and explorative outcome that plays with the dancing body and water through the art form of film. Drawing from author Sylvie Vitaglione (2016), I have adopted her term “natural elements’’ in reference to elements such as earth, water, fire, sand and air and look to Vitaglione as a departure point to discuss dance on film that is centred on such elements. Through the medium of film I attempt to take the twenty-first century gaze away from urbanity, technology and consumerism, and point toward the beauty and virtuosity of the human amidst the organic natural elements of the world. The creative process uses practice-led research as a paradigm to investigate how water moves, more specifically how it ‘dances’. I studied the movement of water and bodies through various filmed scenes to portray cinematic and choreographic techniques that highlight the ‘dance’ of water

Dancing the Pluriverse: Indigenous Performance as Ontological Praxis

This article discusses ways that Indigenous dance is an ontological praxis that is embodied and telluric, meaning “of the earth.” It looks at how dancing bodies perform in relationship to ecosystems and entities within them, producing ontological distinctions and hierarchies that are often imbued with power. This makes dance a site of ontological struggle that potentially challenges the delusional ontological universality undergirding imperialism, genocide, and ecocide. The author explores these theoretical propositions through her participation in Oxlaval Q'anil, an emerging Ixil Maya dance project in Guatemala, and Dancing Earth, an itinerant and inter-tribal U.S.-based company founded by Rulan Tangen eleven years ago

Beware the animals that dance: conservation as an unintended outcome of cultural practices

The International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN) World Parks Congress of 2003 and the Conference of Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) of 2004 call for the recognition and support of Community Conserved Areas, with the CBD Programme of Work on Protected Areas committing countries to take action by 2008. Both within protected areas and in the matrix of land beyond reserves, customs and beliefs of indigenous and local communities can yield conservation benefits. Identifying an intention to conserve by the custodians of customary conserved areas can be challenging as customary practices are embedded within a myriad of cosmologies and worldviews. However, the definition of Community Conserved Areas does not require an expressed intention to conserve nor does it specify the mechanisms by which nature or natural resources can be conserved. Thus, conservation as an unintended outcome of cultural practices is included within the scope of community conservation. Fieldwork was conducted in Sabah, Malaysian Borneo, from October 2010 to April 2011. Data for the case study of Gumantong comes from an interview with Porodong Mogilin,!Native Chief Representative of Matunggong Native Court in Bavanggazo, Kudat and meetings of community leaders from the 13 villages surrounding Gumantong. This paper 1) employs the case study of Gumantong in Sabah, Malaysian Borneo, to highlight the distinction between communities expressing an intention to conserve and conservation as an unintended outcome of cultural practices and 2) considers the implications of this distinction for the process of recognizing and supporting Community Conserved Areas

What Makes Theatrical Performances Successful in China's Tourism Industry?

This study aims to explore the factors affecting the success of a popular tourist product, namely, theatrical performance, within the context of China's tourism industry and develop a model based on previously successful productions. Using qualitative software, 22 Chinese-language articles on theatrical performances are analyzed to generate a list of success factors, classified as internal and external. The internal factors are storyline and performing, market positioning and marketing strategy, investment and financial support, operation and management, performing team, outdoor venue, indoor/outdoor stage supporting facilities, continuous improvement, and production team. The external factors are collaboration between cultural industries and local tourism, government support, privatization, and social and cultural effect. This study also provides suggestions for the future development of theatrical performances in China

Performing myths, ritualising modernity: dancing for Nomkhubulwana and the reinvention of Zulu tradition

The European colonial expansion T in Africa disrupted and in instances stopped the celebration and development of traditional values in the colonised territories. This disruption is more acute in southern Africa, especially in the South African territory of Zululand, where the European economic and political policies led to a state of apartheid, which existed from 1948 to 1991, and uneven development afterwards. Several of the nations in the formerly colonised areas are trying to re-create and re-form their traditional values. The AmaZulu, who occupy the north-eastern part of South Africa, are a nation of proud antecedents and rich traditional values and they are now evolving practices and ideas to re-create the lost cultural heritage of the people. A part of the cultural rejuvenation is the annual Nomkhubulwana (Nomdede)festival in celebration of the Virgin Queen. This paper highlights some aspects of traditional revival in the 1990s, after the apartheid period when the nation was trying to reform its relevance

Spartan Daily, October 3, 1940

Volume 29, Issue 11https://scholarworks.sjsu.edu/spartandaily/3173/thumbnail.jp