So You Think You Can Dance Does Dance Studies

The extended choreography of the reality television dance competition So You Think You Can Dance teaches its viewers how to engage in a different kind of spectatorship

So You Think You Can Dance? Lessons from the US Private Equity Bubble

This article develops a sociologically informed approach to market bubbles by integrating insights from financial-economic theory with the concepts of voice and dissimulation from other cases of distorted valuation studied by sociologists (e.g., witch hunts, unpopular norms, and support for authoritarian regimes). It draws on unique data—longitudinal interviews with private equity market participants during and after that market’s mid-2000s bubble—to test key implications of two existing theories of bubbles and to move beyond both. In doing so, the article suggests a crucial revision to the behavioral finance agenda, wherein bubbles may pertain less to the cognitive errors individuals make when estimating asset values and more to the sociological and institutionally driven challenge of how to interpret complex social and competitive environments

So You Think You Can Glee? Implementation of Popular Styles in the Secondary School Arts Programs

This paper addresses the issues of popular culture, media- in particular television programmes such as Glee and So You Think You Can Dance Canada- and the effects on music and dance programs in the secondary school system. A comparison of the two performing art forms demonstrates many similarities and some significant differences in their current position within an educational context and the challenges that potentially face the two streams. A small-scale qualitative study was conducted using interview methodology seeking data from a dance teacher (secondary school and private studio) investigating this teacher’s opinions on the issues identified above and the similarities and differences between the two subjects-dance and music. This data is contrasted with the researcher’s own perceptions of the issues based on her experiences as a secondary school music teacher of nine years. An examination of the implications that are faced by music and dance educators is discussed in consideration of sociological theories of culture and education drawn from the work of scholars such as Bourdieu, Bernstein, Green and Wright. The paper identifies the relevance and challenges of implementing popular music and dance into the secondary school arts curriculum while examining the relationship of music and dance through an exposition of their commonalities. The connection of dance to music is established in their similar social function, personal identity relationships, relationship to cultural capital, gender issues and communicative forces. These similarities are further examined as both forms are confronted with challenges of how to negotiate classical technique with popular style infusion. An underlying factor of student perception and attitudes toward popular music and dance as a result of their portrayal in the television industry is revealed through the teachers’ perspectives. The challenge for dance and music in education arising from their association with visual media is discussed with particular reference to the issues facing students and teachers as they are forced to negotiate a discovery between the images presented by such shows and the ultimate reality of replicating that ideal

So you think you can dance? : investigating perceived dance efficacy and dance program participation in older adults

Dance is cognitively challenging, socially engaging physical activity. However, although dance participation is widely proposed to benefit health and wellbeing in later life, empirical evidence remains inconsistent and somewhat inconclusive. Individual factors may account for some discrepancies in dance program effects. Selfefficacy is a psychological construct which may reflect individual differences in factors likely to influence program participation and health and wellbeing outcomes among older adults. However, there is currently no tool that assesses dance efficacy in any population. This study first investigated the psychometric properties of six novel dance efficacy items for older adults participating in two large-scale dance intervention trials (Merom, Grunseit, et al., 2016; Merom, Mathieu, et al., 2016). Results indicated that dance efficacy was weaker in older participants, people with less dance experience, poorer mental health, poorer cognitive and physical abilities, insufficiently active, and with a reduced social network. Participants with low dance efficacy before starting the dance program went on to have lower program attendance, and low attendance was associated with further declines in dance efficacy. These findings informed further dance efficacy scale development. This process extends the measure to represent a broader range of dance tasks and impediments to social dance participation in later life, including scheduling issues. Dance efficacy concepts and items were generated predominately through deductive theory-driven analysis of qualitative focus group data from an aged care dance trial (Merom, Mathieu, et al., 2016), followed by an empirical study of the expert review process of potential dance efficacy items. The final item set is brought forwards for further scale development and validation. Measuring dance efficacy in older adult dance for health research and practice may improve the assessment of dance program participant needs and intervention effects, and dance program evaluation

Hovering on Screen: The WOW-Affect and Fan Communities of Affective Spectatorship on So You Think You Can Dance

In this article I argue that the television dance franchise So You Think You Can Dance fosters and encourages what I call affective viewing practices and communities of affective spectatorship, which are specifically related to the "WOW-affect" created by its affective bodies. I use the term 'affect' to indicate the relationship between screens, athletic/virtuosic bodies, sound, and movement as one of excessive stimulation, resulting in intensities, or affects, which are circulated between screens and bodies as particular moments of suspense. In this sense, affect can be located in the gap between the impact of a stimulation on the skin-surface and a more coherent, cognitive response to this stimulation. The WOW as an utterance in relation to the athletic/virtuosic screen bodies and their affective impact gives voice and physical expression to the excess of intensities as a not-yet-cognitive suspended response. The notion of the WOW-affect, combining the utterance with a specific affective impact, is closely linked to the vaudeville show aesthetics of using an intensely spectacular movement series at the end of a routine to 'stop the show' by stunning the audience and suspending their reaction for a brief moment in time. Hence, the WOW-affect is a particular reaction to the experience of movement.&nbsp

Debt, Imperialism, Eunuchs, and Contemporary Christian Worship

(Excerpt) There are three ways to begin a lecture such as this. The first is to ask people to turn to each other and say why they came to this particular part of the program and what they expect to hear. This approach has the advantage of giving the speaker five to ten minutes less lecturing time. Much as I\u27m tempted, I think this tactic might leave you feeling shortchanged. The second approach is to say: I don\u27t quite understand the title I\u27ve been asked to address and then waffle for twenty minutes on the semantics before ever dealing with the subject. But since I chose the title, I can hardly quibble over it. The third approach (at least for me) is to admit that the last sixty seconds have simply been an exercise in enabling your ears to be attuned to my [Scottish] accent, so that when I begin to deal with the topic, you might at least acknowledge that you can hear if not understand

Midsummer

Sejla: In Sweden we celebrate, like, Midsummer. That’s a really big tradition in Sweden. So [pause], that’s like, originally it was always June 24 [unsure]. That’s cuz it is the longest day in Sweden. But like nowadays it’s like, [jumbled sounds]. So, like, Sweden decided that Midsummer, eh, cuz they wanted Midsummer to always be like on a Friday, so now the date depends. But I remember when, so when we have Midsummer, we are usually outside and we have like a big like maypole that we’ll like decorate with flowers, and flowers in our heads. And a lot of flowers. And a lot of food. Then we’ll like sing and dance and just dance around the maypole [laughs], and we’ll dance. It was a big thing when I was younger cuz we always danced and held hands and like just sing songs and dance around, I don’t know why. But that’s like, that’s almost, that’s probably one of the biggest traditions in Sweden. I mean some, cuz like some of my friends they think the Midsummer is like a bigger deal than Christmas. So... Alana: So do you do it with your families or is it within city/communities? S: Both. So, I know, we always have like, erm. So, in my city if, I mean, if you go to the parks, you will see a maypole, like a big maypole in like every park. And we have like a huge one in the middle of the city. But I know that every family has has a small one in like their yard and stuff. Just outside their house, they have a smaller one. [Changed to details about Sweden’s Independence Day. Details can be found under “Sweden’s Independence Day”]. So we have like a cake that is mostly cream and strawberries that is called Midsummer Cake, so if you don’t have that, if you don’t eat Midsummer cake on Midsummer, you aren’t from Sweden [laughs]. So everyone has that cake. And you only eat that cake on Midsummer, cuz like if I were to eat that cake now, people would be like “Um, excuse me? What are you doing?” [laughs] So, [diverts back to details about Independence Day]. A: So you mentioned the Maypole, are there other games and stuff or… S: Not really games. It’s just like we have a lot of songs about Midsummer that we always sing at the same time as you like dance around the Maypole holding hands and stuff. And that’s like songs about Midsummer. Eh. Hmm [pause]. And I remember when I was in Kindergarten we started to prepare for Midsummer like a month before. Like doing the Maypole cuz we always do it like by ourselves, and picking all the flowers. That was fun. And, it’s like, so the girls, they always wear dresses or skirts. You can’t wear pants on Midsummer. You have to wear a skirt or a dress. A: Are they like springtimey summertimey dresses? S: Ya. It is, usually with like flowers on them. A: What’s your favorite part of Midsummer? S: It’s like, cuz, probably just that you meet all your friends and family. Cuz we usually I know many people do it like this that during the day you celebrate with your family and like when it gets later, you meet up with your friends and you like celebrate with them. So that’s fun. A: What kinds of things do you do to celebrate with your friends? S: Eat food [laughs] and we, so like you have to have like a barbeque on Midsummer too. More food [laughs]. And ya, people usually drink a lot on Midsummer, like the grownups. So the can and ya I know that it is it is um I don’t know if it’s wine I think it is wine, but it is like a special brand that the stores only sell for Midsummer, cuz you are supposed to drink that wine during Midsummer