Combined Perspectives: Re-determining Aesthetic Value through Cultural Immersion

This study examines the shift of a personal aesthetic value in dance through experiencing the different dance educations and cultures in the different countries. Through the demonstration of the dance education I obtained in both China and the United States, I aim to illustrate why and how my previous aesthetics in dance and choreography were developed and expanded. In Chapter two, it demonstrates a circular theory that I observed from the study of Chinese classical dance and American modem dance. Through deep analysis of the different dance training systems, aesthetics, and cultures, I explained why these two types of dance look differently although a circular motion similarly exists in both of the dance styles. The observation of Laban Movement Analysis furthered my research as it developed my acknowledgment of a circular theory and how it aesthetically and culturally influenced me as an international artist. Through observing the movement qualities, space harmony, and choreographic procedures in different sections in the dance work Time Line, Space Point, I illustrated how my re-determination of aesthetic value in dance has been changed through a visual demonstration

Maine Dance Curriculum Guide

Maine Dance Curriculum Guide by Dance Education in Maine Schools Department of Education, Augusta, Maine 1994. Contents: Message from the Commissioner / Forward / Acknowledgements / Preface - Maine Dance Heritage / Introduction / Pedagogy / Students with Special Needs / Major Premises / Evaluation / Scope and Sequence / App.A: Glossary of Terms / App.B: How to Establish Your School Dance Program / App.C: Complimentary Movement Disciplines / App.D.: Resource List / App.E.: Dance Education in Maine Schoolshttps://digitalcommons.usm.maine.edu/me_collection/1056/thumbnail.jp

Synthesis of variable dancing styles based on a compact spatiotemporal representation of dance

Dance as a complex expressive form of motion is able to convey emotion, meaning and social idiosyncrasies that opens channels for non-verbal communication, and promotes rich cross-modal interactions with music and the environment. As such, realistic dancing characters may incorporate crossmodal information and variability of the dance forms through compact representations that may describe the movement structure in terms of its spatial and temporal organization. In this paper, we propose a novel method for synthesizing beatsynchronous dancing motions based on a compact topological model of dance styles, previously captured with a motion capture system. The model was based on the Topological Gesture Analysis (TGA) which conveys a discrete three-dimensional point-cloud representation of the dance, by describing the spatiotemporal variability of its gestural trajectories into uniform spherical distributions, according to classes of the musical meter. The methodology for synthesizing the modeled dance traces back the topological representations, constrained with definable metrical and spatial parameters, into complete dance instances whose variability is controlled by stochastic processes that considers both TGA distributions and the kinematic constraints of the body morphology. In order to assess the relevance and flexibility of each parameter into feasibly reproducing the style of the captured dance, we correlated both captured and synthesized trajectories of samba dancing sequences in relation to the level of compression of the used model, and report on a subjective evaluation over a set of six tests. The achieved results validated our approach, suggesting that a periodic dancing style, and its musical synchrony, can be feasibly reproduced from a suitably parametrized discrete spatiotemporal representation of the gestural motion trajectories, with a notable degree of compression

The Choreography of Everday Life: Rudolf Laban and the Making of Modern Movement

“The Choreography of Everyday Life: Rudolf Laban and the Making of Modern Movement,” explores how an inscription technology developed in German expressionist dance found unlikely application in some of the key institutions of twentieth-century modernity. Called “Labanotation,” it used a complicated symbology to record human bodily movement on paper. Initially used to coordinate mass-dance spectacles in Weimar Germany, the system was quickly adopted in the United States and the United Kingdom in fields ranging from management theory to psychiatry to anthropology. My research analyzes the widespread appeal of this seemingly quixotic tool and to situates it within broader literatures on modern technology, art, media, and politics. Ultimately, I argue that Labanotation succeeded so spectacularly because it promised to reconcile the invented and the authentic, the individual and the group, and the body and the machine at moments threatened by massive social upheaval. Laban’s work thus not only served to preserve a fading past, but opened up new possibilities for the literal choreographing of modern life

Analisis Gerak Tari Dalling melalui Laban/Bartenieff Movement Studies dalam Presentasi Performatif Dalling: The Initiation

Tulisan ini merupakan pemaparan proses kreatif dibalik penciptaan karya tari Dalling: The Initiation. Fokus utama dalam penciptaan ini yakni pada pencarian titik permulaan gerak tari Dalling. Tari Dalling berkembang di lingkungan masyarakat suku Bajau yang bermukim di Kepulauan Derawan, Berau, Kalimantan Timur. Proses penciptaan ini merupakan langkah awal untuk membedah potensi terapeutik pada tari Dalling, namun fokus yang digarisbawahi saat ini dibatasi pada pencarian inisiasi terlebih dahulu sebagai akar menelusuri geraknya. Penelitian ini menerapkan metode practice-based research dan analisis data dilakukan dengan Laban/Bartenieff Movement Studies (LBMS). Format presentasi performatif dipilih untuk menyampaikan secara verbal tentang proses analisis dalam penciptaan karya Dalling: The Initiation. Karya tari ini juga menghadirkan sentuhan digital berupa animasi kostum tari Dalling yang seakan-akan digunakan penari yang bertujuan untuk eksperimentasi pemanfaatan teknologi dalam pertunjukan. Temuan yang didapat yakni cara ungkap dekonstruksi dari proses analisis menjadi rangkaian gerak serta penemuan beberapa bagian gerak tubuh yang dominan. Pergerakan dominan yakni pada bahu, tangan, dan pinggul yang memberi efek pada keaktifan gerak torso, serta inisiasi gerak dominan dari kaki kiri dan telapak tangan kanan pada setiap motif geraknya.Analysis of Dalling Dance Movements through Laban/Bartenieff Movement Studies in Performative Presentations of “Dalling: The Initiation” ABSTRACT This paper explains the creative process behind the dance work Dalling: the Initiation. The main focus in this work as on the search for a point of initiation of the Dalling dance movement. Dalling dance develops in Bajau ethnic community who live in the Derawan Islands, Berau, East Kalimantan. This creation process is the first step towards dissecting the therapeutic potential of Dalling dance. However, the focus underlined is currently limited to the search for initiation first as the root of tracing its motion. This research applies a practice-based research method, and data analysis was carried out with Laban/Bartenieff Movement Studies (LBMS). The format of the performative presentation was chosen to verbally convey the process of analysis of the work of Dalling: the Initiation. This dance work also presents a digital touch in the form of Dalling dance costume animations that seem to be used by dancers, the purpose of which is to experiment with the use of technology in performances. The findings obtained are a way of expressing the deconstruction of the analysis process into a series of motions and the discovery of several dominant body parts movements. The dominant movement is in the shoulders, hands, and hips, which has an effect on the activeness of the torso movement, as well as the initiation of the dominant movement of the left foot and right palm in each movement motif.

An investigation into the relationship between philosophical principle and artistic practice with reference to the role of dance in education

The thesis commences with the examination of the place of dance in British society, and focusses on its social and cultural role, while proffering explanations pertaining to its metaphysical and symbolical significance. It is evident that changes in political and religious attitude led to censure of folkloristic pastimes and celebrations of dancing, but it transpires that during the Restoration Period a resurgence of the popularity and acceptance of dance occurred in both theatrical and social contexts. The role of the dancing master is depicted in the creation of a mannered society, when aesthetically, artistically, and technically, dance was valued. The function of dance as a form of physical exercise is examined and concludes the introductory section. In establishing the role of dance in education, a study of early nineteenth century educational philosophers and practitioners is made, and the implications of Swedenborgianism on their work is investigated. European and American influences in the form of militarism, the gymnastic movement, health and dress reform are also examined. The founding of the Women's Colleges of Physical Education established dance as an aspect of physical training, a role reinforced by the Board of Education through the publication of a series of Syllabuses on Physical Training. Drills, singing games and maypole dances were taught in schools prior to the Folk Dance Revival, when morris, sword and country dances assumed a place with court and national dances, which were also performed by children. The Modern Dance Movement developed during the inter-war period and was typified by a variety of neo-classical, rhythmical dance forms that emphasised datural movement and spiritual expression. An account is included on the implementation of modern educational dance during the post-war years, and an appraisal of contemporary practice is made. The conclusion forms a summary and analytical argument relative to the changing role of dance in education

Movement in Contemporary Staged Adaptations of the Alevi Semahs (1982-2018)

The semahs are musical and movement practices enacted at the core of religious ceremonies called ayn-i cem which Alevis communities perform to fulfil diverse social and spiritual needs. As part of urbanization, migration, folklorization and heritage-making processes, since the 1970s, in urban environments of Turkey and Europe, these practices started to be adapted and performed also outside of these ritual contexts. As part of folklore and of professional performing arts projects, both Alevis and non-Alevi actors and dancers started to learn and perform the semahs on the stage. In this way, the practices became a summative emblem through which the core tenets of the Alevi belief systems and cultures and its resistant stance towards the national imagination came to be divulged and promoted to audiences of Alevis and non-Alevis alike. Paying attention to some of the public and professional performances of the semahs outside of the ritual context, in this thesis I argue that since the 1980s, the adaptation of the semahs into performing arts frameworks had a pivotal role in the contemporary ‘explosion’ of Alevi identities in Turkey and internationally. To sustain the argument, through the presentation of ethnographic material gathered during long-term and multi-sited fieldwork research, I analyse three performing arts projects. Resorting to scholarship in Anthropology, Performance, and Dance as well as to critical application of Laban-related movement analysis methods, I show how each of these stage projects displays a different layer in the imaginative re-workings and stylizations of the semahs on a transnational scale. Accordingly, by examining historical changes in the transmission of semah movements and participation in semah events, I impart new knowledge on themes of embodiment, interactivity, participation and presentation within Alevi cultures

Појава етнокореологије на међународном нивоу: сестре Јанковић, Мод Карпелес и Гертруда Курат

A fifty-year (1962–2012) period has been shown as a history of ethnochoreology supported by living memories of members of the International Council for Traditional Music (ICTM) Study Group on Ethnochoreology. Recently uncovered and juxtapositioned correspondence of three predecessors within earlier years of the International Folk Music Council (IFMC) broadens the history. This article reveals the emergence of ethnochoreology during the 1950s with publications of the two Janković sisters in Serbia with that of Gertrude Kurath in the United States, alongside correspondence with Maud Karpeles, the unheralded founder of the IFMC.Овај чланак открива међународно препознавање сестара Јанковић и њихових дела, која је као савременица приказивала и цитирала Гертруда Курат (Gertrude Kurath), у Сједињеним Америчким Државама препозната као личност заслужна за давање основе за поље етнологије плеса, а такође и Мод Карпелес (Maud Karpeles), чија је визија водила ка установљењу стручне комисије за плес под кровом Међународног савета за народну музику (IFMC). Ова укрштања су део историје научног поља етнокореологије. Та историја више није део живог сећања (као што то јесте педесетогодишњи рад Студијске групе за етнокореологију Међународног савета за традиционалну музику / ICTM, почев од 1962. године). Она је откривена кроз рукописе и преписку који се чувају у архивама. Архив IFMC/ICTM у Аустралијској Националној библиотеци открива Мод Карпелес као личност која је имала истакнуту улогу у повезивању научника у области музике и плеса. Други рукописи и преписка појављују се из других архива: Архива Гертруде Курат у Збирци крос-културних извора о плесу при Државном универзитету Аризоне у граду Темпе, Аризона; Легата Љубице и Данице Јанковић у Народној библиотеци Србије (обрада је у току); Спомен библиотеке Вона Вилијамса (Vaughan Williams) у Дому Сесила Шарпа (Cecil Sharp) у Лондону са својим онлајн каталогом, и са депозитором јединствене Спомен књиге Данице Јанковић, у којој се налазе писма саучешћа од научника из Европе и САД; најзад, и из све обимније Истраживачке библиотеке Универзитета Калифорније у Лос Анђелесу, са великом збирком литературе из (некадашње) Југославије, са читавим низом публикација сестара Јанковић, и додатном преписком обеју сестара и Курат. Писма су заведена као рукописи међу архивским збиркама установљеним за преминуле фолклористе, етномузикологе и антропологе у другим универзитетским библиотекама. Наслеђе сестара Јанковић са Гертрудом Курат и Мод Карпелес, иако данас умногоме заборављено, може се пратити кроз публикације и преписку у архивским збиркама. На тај начин сестре Јанковић откривамо као пионире у процесу настајања поља етнокореологије

Research and development of a music-movement syllabus for gymnasts and gymnastic coaches

Personal participation in floor exercise choreography and performance, observation of performances by other gymnasts, and conversations \u27With other; coaches, and gymnasts· have intensified the author\u27s awareness of a widespread lack of knowledge and understanding about the interpretation and use of music in floor exercise. When choreographing optional floor exercise routines, coaches and gymnasts have difficulty selecting appropriate music, interpreting the music, and choreographing routines to complement the music. Even after routines are finally developed, many of them lack style, originality, amplitude, flow, precision of rhythm and execution, and expressiveness. Many of these qualities are also lacking in the performance of compulsory routines, partially because gymnasts are not able to accurately and aesthetically interpret the music. Concern for this problem stimulated the author to investigate available literature on floor exercise. The literature indicated the importance of the proper use of music as well as skill in tumbling, dance, and acrobatic movements; however, it did not emphasize that gymnasts be trained in the fundamentals of music, which may enable them to accurately and aesthetically interpret music for their routines. After further investigation of the literature in the areas of floor exercise, physical education, dance education, music education, and rhythm education, it was concluded that the development of a music-movement Syllabus with supportive audio-visual aids, for training gymnasts and gymnastic coaches, could be of value in improving floor exercise training programs