Remnants of us: Collective dance-making as multi-art form praxis

The Australian dance theatre collective, Remnant Dance, was established with a vision to ‘create, make, connect’ through artistic practice and performances. Remnant Dancers have generated unexpected social networking and community development whilst exploring connectivity through dance in the collective environment. In particular, during 2015/2016, Remnant Dance ventured into ambitious creative territory by inviting 22 artists from the fields of music, contemporary dance, and visual/multi-media arts to collaborate in response to fragments of literary texts, matched with wines. The project, winery psalms–the mixed half-dozen, generated six short, multi-art form pieces which were installed/performed on site at a winery, inviting audiences to experience viscerally a sensory connection through visual, aural and kinaesthetic (wine-tasting/responding to site-specific installations) mediums. An innovative venture for Australian artists and audiences, the collaborations extended creative practices that consider how artwork is seen as a commodity for consumption, challenging audience engagement with (assumed) boundaries that constitute performing art works

PenQuest Volume 2, Number 1

Table of Contents for this Volume: Untitled by Janet Collins Untitled by Judy Gozdur Last Hour of Light by Susan Reed Untitled by Judy Godzur Untitled by Rick Wagner Untitled by Carol Groover Untitled by R. Wagner Only in the Portico by Linda Banicki Untitled by Helen Hagadorn Private Place, Pubic Place by David Reed Untitled by Tammy Hutchinson Untitled by Tammy Hutchinson Madison Knights by Susan Reed Untitled by Sissy Crabtree The Price by Sandra Coleman Untitled by Ann Harrington Invasion of Privacy by Mark Touchton Untitled by Bruce Warner Untitled by Tom Schifanella Untitled by Tammy Hutchinson Bloodwork by Laura Jo Last Untitled by David Whitsett Burial Instructions by Bill Slaughter Untitled by S. Trevett PenQuest Interview: Joe Haldeman by David Reed Her Name Came from the Sea by Richard L. Ewart Untitled by V. Williams In the Woodshed by R. E. Mallery Untitled by Modesta Matthews Untitled by David Olson Illumination by E. Allen Tilley Untitled by Joseph Avanzini Everywoman by Laura Jo Last Untitled by Beth Goeckel Believe Me by Donna Kaluzniak Untitled by Judy Gozdur Untitled by Judy Gozdur Unicorn by David Reed Untitled by Susan Reed untitled by Paul Cramer Unititled by Lucinda Halsema The Violin by Richard L. Ewart Untitled by Maria Barry Untitled by Roger Whitt Jr. Haiku by Lori Nasrallah Rhymer’s Revolt by R. E. Mallery Untitled by Valerie William

Measuring ethnicity: challenges and opportunities for survey research

Measuring ethnic identity in social surveys has traditionally been problematic, often using a single question and allowing the respondent to choose one category from a pre-defined list. In this paper we discuss the rationale for and limitations of measuring a complex and multi-dimensional concept with a simple, uni-dimensional question. We propose that operationalizing ethnicity as multi-dimensional requires multiple questions to capture the complexity of the concept. Giving researchers a number of different measures enables them to focus on the dimensions of interest to them, and has the potential to open up the rich resources of theoretically robust survey research to researchers from a range of disciplines concerned with questions of ethnic identification

Immune boosting by B.1.1.529 (Omicron) depends on previous SARS-CoV-2 exposure

The Omicron, or Pango lineage B.1.1.529, variant of SARS-CoV-2 carries multiple spike mutations with high transmissibility and partial neutralizing antibody (nAb) escape. Vaccinated individuals show protection from severe disease, often attributed to primed cellular immunity. We investigated T and B cell immunity against B.1.1.529 in triple mRNA vaccinated healthcare workers (HCW) with different SARS-CoV-2 infection histories. B and T cell immunity against previous variants of concern was enhanced in triple vaccinated individuals, but magnitude of T and B cell responses against B.1.1.529 spike protein was reduced. Immune imprinting by infection with the earlier B.1.1.7 (Alpha) variant resulted in less durable binding antibody against B.1.1.529. Previously infection-naïve HCW who became infected during the B.1.1.529 wave showed enhanced immunity against earlier variants, but reduced nAb potency and T cell responses against B.1.1.529 itself. Previous Wuhan Hu-1 infection abrogated T cell recognition and any enhanced cross-reactive neutralizing immunity on infection with B.1.1.529

Quantitative, multiplexed, targeted proteomics for ascertaining variant specific SARS-CoV-2 antibody response

Determining the protection an individual has to severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus-2 (SARS-CoV-2) variants of concern (VoCs) is crucial for future immune surveillance, vaccine development, and understanding of the changing immune response. We devised an informative assay to current ELISA-based serology using multiplexed, baited, targeted proteomics for direct detection of multiple proteins in the SARS-CoV-2 anti-spike antibody immunocomplex. Serum from individuals collected after infection or first- and second-dose vaccination demonstrates this approach and shows concordance with existing serology and neutralization. Our assays show altered responses of both immunoglobulins and complement to the Alpha (B.1.1.7), Beta (B.1.351), and Delta (B.1.617.1) VoCs and a reduced response to Omicron (B1.1.1529). We were able to identify individuals who had prior infection, and observed that C1q is closely associated with IgG1 (r > 0.82) and may better reflect neutralization to VoCs. Analyzing additional immunoproteins beyond immunoglobulin (Ig) G, provides important information about our understanding of the response to infection and vaccination

Participant spectator meeting places

During 2013–2014, visual and performing artists from the Australian dance collective, Remnant Dance, were invited to make a contemporary dance film together with young people from a Children’s Centre in Myanmar. The experience of the Australian artists moving together with Myanmar youth enabled dialogue through expressive gestures. The dance-making was visceral, generating embodied engagement for participants who were both performers and spectators in the act of dancing together. The creation and exhibition of a dance film about places of meeting in/through dance, and as contextualized within a larger body of artistic work, illuminated how each individual might be a participant, performer, collaborator, and/or spectator. Questions concerning spectatorship were raised as the young Myanmar participants became performers and then spectators of their own work. International touring of the evolving artistic work, Meeting Places, then invited new audiences to reflect on how dance-making with others might challenge assumptions as to who the collaborators, participants, performers and/or spectators are in art-making and performance experiences

Conversations on the frontlines of the body

The Australian performing arts collective Remnant Dance has a partnership with a charity organisation that supports an orphaned community in Myanmar (Burma). The creation of a contemporary dance film with this community generated a performance in which young Burmese participants were encouraged to tell their own stories. The film was set in an abandoned glass factory in Myanmar, using glass as a metaphor for a surface that invites reflection as well as open transparency with the young people from the children’s centre. The story of making the dance film Meeting Places offers a case study for reflection on ideas of interconnection through dance making; and a site for engagement with social justice concerns within diverse communities. The creation of new dance through cross-cultural, multi-arts forms and inter-disciplinary contexts enables narratives to emerge through the frontline of dance’s unique communication

Sites of justice: Face-to-face encounters through dance-making in Meeting Places

The Australian performing arts collective, Remnant Dance, has a partnership with the charity organisation, MyKids Incorporated, which supports a community of orphaned and abandoned youth at the Andrew Youth Development Centre (AYDC) in Yangon, Myanmar. During 2013-2014, young people from the AYDC were invited to make a contemporary dance film together with Remnant Dance artists. The film, called Meeting Places, evolved as part of a developing body of visual and performance art works that sought to explore collaboration in a dance collective. The dance film was set at the AYDC and in the disused Nagar Glass Factory in Yangon, using glass as a metaphor for a surface that invites reflection as well as open transparency between participants. My initial research question, ‘where is my front?’ was situated in the dance of interconnectivity, and referred to the primary site of communication with others. I wanted to investigate how this ‘front’ shifts, and alters in response to others and in particular how the frontline separates performers from their audience. The contemporary dance film, Meeting Places, became the centrepiece in a body of interdisciplinary art work that was devised through cross-cultural collaborations. My research into dance as a dialogue of interconnectedness led me to expand the idea of frontlines, asking how examination of dance-making can be a site for social justice arts praxis. Driven by a reflexive practice-led research methodology, this research delves into dance-making as a mechanism for social engagement, whilst illuminating the problem of how to articulate dance research as an intuitive inquiry. The spaces between the bodies of the participants, both the children and professional dancers, allowed unique connectivity and exchanges of corporeal knowledge across cultural boundaries, inviting conversations that, I suggest, overcame linguistic differences. The language of dance ruptured dualistic notions of knowledge production, creating a hybrid space through tacit, non-linguistic experiences of movement. The research began with an exploration of connectivity through practice in the dance studio, as well as an analysis of collaboration and the effectiveness of the collective practice. The dance film, Meeting Places, emerged as an invitation to engage with dance as a form that argues for the body as a site of agency, unpacking Emmanuel Lévinas’ concepts of the ‘face’ as a critical encounter with being. The idea of the ‘front’ thus became invested with new meaning, and with this shift, the reflective capacity for examining what I refer to as moments of consensus and dissensus within the collective was enhanced. The process of making the contemporary dance film has been examined through a philosophical frame informed by the work of theorists such as Mikhail Bakhtin, Judith Butler, Gilles Deleuze, Michel Foucault, Elizabeth Grosz, Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak, Slavoj Zizek and particularly, Emmanuel Lévinas, along with contemporary thinkers on social justice in the arts. The cultural exchange between Remnant Dance artists and youth at the AYDC in Myanmar revealed that the social justice imperative, rather than being merely a by-product of artistic engagement, was actually the heart of the dance-making. The significance of arts research in this context includes knowledge creation in the body, with others, and that a space of agency is created for ethical engagement, specifically through the language of dance. The creation of new dance through cross-cultural, multi-arts forms and interdisciplinary contexts enabled space for narratives of justice to emerge along the frontline of dance’s particular mode of communication

Managing Maternal Substance Use in the Perinatal Period: Current Concerns and Treatment Approaches in the United States and Australia

Substance use in pregnancy can have adverse effects on mother and fetus alike. Australia and the US are countries with high levels of substance use and policies advising abstinence, although the Australian approach occurs within a broader framework of harm minimization. Less attention has been paid to treatment of the mothers' substance use and what is considered gold standard. This is despite evidence that prior substance use in pregnancy is the most important factor in predicting future substance use in pregnancy. This paper draws together information from both the peer-reviewed and gray literature to provide a contemporary overview of patterns and outcomes of the three main drugs, alcohol, tobacco, and cannabis, used in Australia and the US during pregnancy and discusses what are considered gold standard screening and treatment approaches for these substances. This paper does not set out to be a comprehensive review of the area but rather aims to provide a concise summary of current guidelines for policy makers and practitioners who provide treatment for women who use substances in pregnancy