American Dance Research Articles

ФОРМУВАННЯ ТЕХНІКИ ВИКОНАННЯ ТА МЕТОДИКИ ВИКЛАДАННЯ ЄВРОПЕЙСЬКИХ ТА ЛАТИНОАМЕРИКАНСЬКИХ ТАНЦІВ МІЖНАРОДНОГО СТИЛЮ: ІСТОРІОГРАФІЧНИЙ АСПЕКТ

Метою статті є історіографічний аналіз навчально-методичної літератури з техніки виконання та особливостей викладання європейських та латиноамериканських танців міжнародного стилю у мистецтвознавчому контексті; простежити етапи формування технічних аспектів виконання бального танцю та висвітлити сучасні напрацювання згідно з виданнями Міжнародної асоціації вчителів танцю (IDTA), Імперської спілки вчителів танцю (ISTD) та Всесвітньої федерації танцювального спорту (WDSF). Методологія дослідження. У дослідженні використано органічна сукупність базових принципів дослідження: об’єктивності, історизму, багатофакторності, системності, комплексності, розвитку та плюралізму. Крім того, застосовано методи наукового пізнання: проблемно-хронологічний, конкретно-історичний, статистичний, описовий, логіко-аналітичний. Наукова новизна статті полягає у визначенні головних засад формування технічних аспектів виконання та особливостей викладання європейських та латиноамериканських танців міжнародного стилю протягом ХХ ст. та на сучасному етапі. Висновки. У результаті проведеного аналізу техніки виконання та особливостей викладання європейських та латиноамериканських танців міжнародного стилю, розглянуто етапи формування технічних аспектів виконання бального танцю протягом ХХ ст., удосконалення систематизації методичних рекомендацій та технічних положень, зміни та доповнення внесені у найавторитетніші видання, згідно зі змінами затвердженими Комітетами європейських та латиноамериканських танців Імперського товариства вчителів танцю (ISTD), Міжнародною асоціацією вчителів танцю (IDTA), Всесвітньою радою танцю (WDC), Альянсу Сполученого Королівства (UKA) та Всесвітньої федерації танцювального спорту (WDSF) у процесі еволюціонування бального танцю.

Abstracts from the 2018 Research and Thesis Poster Session of the 53rd Annual American Dance Therapy Association Conference, Salt Lake City, Utah

The Research and Practice Committee of the American Dance Therapy Association (ADTA) has sponsored the research poster session at each annual conference for the past 23 years. The studies represented in the following abstracts were presented at the 2018 Research and Thesis Poster Session of the 53rd Annual ADTA conference in Salt Lake City, Utah and feature a wide range of scholarly works in current dance/movement therapy research. The following sixteen studies have been selected for their quality and contributions to dance/movement therapy literature.

I am Here. Where Are All the Other (Straight White) Male Dancers?

In the demographics of the American dance world—both professional and social—one group appears to be underrepresented: straight white men. Despite being the second largest group of Americans and over-represented in many other fields of endeavor, they are proportionally the least represented in social dance. Those men that do dance often began later in their lives than their female peers. Why are so many straight white men missing-in-action on the dance floor; and why, despite boundaries built by social pressure and a lack of enthusiasm or desire to change that fact, do some of “us” slip through and onto the floor? Through oral accounts, personal experience, and literature research, the research examines why so many men refuse to dance, and the motivations of those men that do dance—like me.

The Dancer from the Dance

Valda Setterfield is 86. She comes on stage at the HAU theatre in Berlin—hobbles, really—and begins to speak. She stutters. She repeats herself, phrases loop in on each other, long silences sit heavy in the air. Only re-watching the video do I see how carefully the slow, snowballing monologue is structured. And then Gus Solomons Jr. enters and begins his daily exercise routine: touche. Hungarian choreographer Ezster Salamon has titled the piece Monument 0.1: Gus and Valda, pointing with a wink and a nod to how fragile a monument might be. At the end of the performance, the two dancers list their accomplishments, and they are many: professional roles and life experiences running together in a kind of performative slurry. But dance itself as a medium complicates Gus and Valda’s status as a kind of living archive of 20th century American dance—the choreographies live inside their bodies, but when the bodies are gone? ‘I will always remember, I will always remember, I will always remember how I learned to do that step’ chants Satterfield as Solomons marks the movement, working restrained versions of old scores. They walk offstage arm in arm to the rhythm of Setterfield’s hopeful refrain. This essay is a meditation on Salamon and Wavelet's Monument 0.1 & 0.2 and the questions that they raise about aging, ephemerality, and the archive in the context of contemporary European performance.

Body Rhetorics and Kinesthetic Empathy in the Video Game Bound (2016)

Dance is found in every known human culture as part of religious, social and healing ceremonies. The increased interest in the role of dance in western psychology corresponds with the creation of the American Dance Therapy Association (ADTA) founded by Marian Chace, and the beginning of the dance movement therapy (DMT). The Association introduced the dance and the dance-based movement as part of the therapeutic process, in order to explore the relationship between the expression of individual emotions and movement. Drawing both from the visual rhetorics approach (Patterson and Corning 1997) and the game studies (Fernández-Vara 2009) I will analyze the multiple narrative layers in the Bound video game (2016), pointing to the mutual relationship the player and the game have on each other (Keogh 2018) decoding the game as a metaphor for the therapeutic effects of dance.

Building an authentic cultural curriculum through tertiary cultural dance

This study identified a range of pedagogies developed to promote global citizenship within a university Latin American dance unit. It implemented changes to teaching and learning approaches in the unit using the Biological Sciences Curriculum Study (BSCS) 5E Instructional Model, supporting learning that privileges transcultural connections to Latin America. The action research used a range of dance teaching pedagogies that were adapted, and evaluated, using the Structure of Observed Learning Outcomes (SOLO)Taxonomy, to support a culturally enriched student learning experience. The findings challenge traditional dance teaching pedagogies through meaningful engagements with the local Latin American dance community and a range of student and teacher reflective approaches.

Choreographing Copyright: Race, Gender, and Intellectual Property Rights in American Dance, Anthea Kraut (2015)

Choreographing Copyright: Race, Gender, and Intellectual Property Rights in American Dance, Anthea Kraut (2015)

국가대표 댄스스포츠(Latin & Modern) 선수의 신체구성과 등속성 근 기능, 균형 및 유산소 능력의 비교

The purpose of this study is to compare the body composition, isokinetic muscle function, balance and aerobic capacity of national athlete in dance sport (Latin & Modern). The participants were selected as a couple for the national dance sports in 2018. The results are as follows. There was no significant difference in the body composition and balance of national dance sport athletes. In the Latin American Dance sport athletes, the peak torque of the flexor muscles knee joint and the left ankle joint was significantly lower than that of the Modern Ballroom Dance sport athletes (p.05). The peak torque ratio of the right ankle joint was significantly higher than that of the Modern Ballroom Dance sport athletes (p.05). HRmax of Latin American Dance sport athletes was significantly higher than that of Modern Ballroom Dance sport athletes (p.05). These results suggest that training for strengthening the quadriceps muscle of national Latin American Dance sport athletes is necessary and rehabilitation program should be prepared suggesting possibility of injury in Ballroom Dance sport athletes.

Dance/movement therapy & warrior wellness: A pilot case study

Dance/movement therapy (DMT) is “the psychotherapeutic use of movement to further the emotional, cognitive, physical, and social integration of the individual” (American Dance Therapy Association, 2016), has been researched as a therapeutic intervention for various diagnoses and disorders, and exists in many healthcare settings across the United States. Despite its presence, dance is still widely misunderstood and undervalued as a therapy. The need for integrative mental health services has given rise to an interest in non-pharmacological approaches for treating various conditions, specifically within the veteran and military population. Arts-based methods in particular are being explored on the levels of practice, policy, and research in response to this need. This pilot case study is an analysis of an existing dance/movement therapy-based mind-body wellness program that is part of a larger integrative program for military service members with traumatic brain injury (TBI) and psychological health conditions. Data has been triangulated from patient surveys, clinical notes, the researcher-practitioner’s embodied observations, and historical programmatic data. The results of the analysis indicate potential increase in mind-body awareness for patients as well as a possible shift in movement flow. Inconsistencies in organization/internal messaging suggest further exploration of the critical tenets of integrative medicine.

Вигадка в обґрунтуванні "справжності": як радянські хореографи обґрунтовували народний характер своїх творів

Over the decades, starting from the late 1930’s, soviet journalistic reportage about professional and mainly amateur folk dance groups from central European regions of the USSR and Siberia, Ukraine, Transcaucasia and other parts of the Soviet Union were full of reports about choreographers’ "ethnographic expeditions" down the country and their desire to "learn from the people" dance technique. Why did "field collection" of the choreographic material hold a prominent place and deserve special mention in the stories about amateur folk dance arts? Weren’t numerous stories about folk trips the invention? In the article subsequent steps are undertaken to answer these questions. Firstly, the place of amateur dance art performance in the official soviet culture and the specialists’ role of choreographic business in its development are outlined. Secondly, there is an explanation of reasons of author’s doubts in authenticity of soviet choreographers’ numerous stories about "going to the people". Thirdly, the art of dancing soviet experts’ motives, that frequently inspired them to the fictional stories about the collection of choreographic folklore are explained. Therefore, it makes an attempt to renew folk dance soviet specialists’ logic of notion about the subject of their passion, liking and professional activities. In the issue the author comes to the conclusion that ritualized stories about the analysis of folk sources by choreographer-directors were the significant argument in corroboration of "folk roots" of the soviet choreographic creative work. As the result, in the soviet discourse of folk dance the stories about choreographic "going to the people" paradoxically made instrumentalization of fiction in substantiation of "authenticity".

The Cake Walk Photo Girl and Other Footnotes in African American Musical Theatre

On 22 August 1897, theAmerican Woman's Home Journalpublished seven photographs of “The Cake Walk as It Is Done by Genuine Negroes” in which “Williams and Walker Show How the Real Thing Is Done before the Journal Camera.” In this series, the African American stars Bert Williams, George Walker, Belle Davis, and Stella Wiley perform their popular cake walk act with situational humor in medias res before an unknown photographer in a nondescript space. Among the seven selected poses, one intriguing photograph in the lower right-hand corner depicts the encircled dancers gazing down upon an empty space in the center. The subject of their gaze becomes apparent when comparing the magazine images with the seven “Post Cards” Franz Huld published as part of his “Cake Walk/Negro Dance” series around 1901. Although the performers’ poses are the same, the postcard includes extra space between Wiley and Walker to feature a young girl of mixed racial heritage bending forward while hiking the back of her dress with her smiling face proudly held high (Fig. 1). If standing upright, she appears to be less than four feet tall and perhaps five to nine years of age. Given the obscure date and location of her photo shoot, her birth year could range anywhere from the mid-1880s to the early 1890s. Like Thomas F. DeFrantz, an African American dance theorist who gazes upon two 1920s photographs of other dancing girls, my gaze leads me to wonder about her identity, how she met and socialized with these four dancers, and whether she pursued a theatrical career.

Africanist Aesthetics, Jazz Dance, and Notation Walk into a Barre

ABSTRACTThis article focuses on the development of a theoretical framework for jazz dance in which researchers hypothesized how motif notation concepts from Laban Movement Analysis (LMA) and Language of Dance® (LOD) could be used to help learners understand how the roots and branches of jazz dance styles are related. We began by investigating the Africanist aesthetics of jazz dance to better grasp how each element influences the feel of jazz as it exists within various jazz dance styles. To differentiate between the styles, we deciphered how the Africanist aesthetics blend with Europeanist aesthetics and movement vocabulary to merge into a variety of distinctly American dance forms. Notation-based dance theory offers a unique lens for analytical observation that helps to support theory discussion surrounding the essence of jazz as it is felt in the body. The Africanist aesthetic framework we created provides conceptual tools for comprehending the scope of jazz dance and a movement analysis perspective that might contribute to social, concert, and commercial or entertainment research. We hope this framework proves useful to others in their jazz inquiries by offering fertile conceptual ground for jazz dance research and pedagogical development within academic and artistic practices.

From Totenmal to Trend: Wigman, Holm, and Theatricality in Modern Dance

This article examines the development of theatricality in modern dance by comparing two dances: Mary Wigman's Totenmal (1930) and Hanya Holm's Trend (1937). By looking at the interplay between group and solo choreography, lighting design and themes, this paper will show how Holm combined the skills she learned codirecting Totenmal at the Dancers’ Congress in Munich to her work with American dance artists at the Bennington School of the Dance to create her first important work. It will examine why Trend was successful as a collaborative project, as well as show how it diverged ideologically from Wigman's work in the 1930s.

History of a Shiver: The Sublime Impudence of Modernism by Jed Rasula

<i>History of a Shiver: The Sublime Impudence of Modernism</i> by Jed Rasula

Turning the World Upside Down

A particular movement – inverting the body to a tail-over-head orientation and fleetingly taking weight on the hands – has been a staple of postmodern dance training and choreography since the early 1990s, yet it remains unnamed and uncodified. Taking a material culture studies approach, I examine this movement closely, using interviews, observation, historical analysis, and a survey of dance practitioners to situate this not-exactly-a-handstand within the field of American postmodern dance. These multiple perspectives yield new insights into the field, its practitioners, and its relationship to the larger cultural picture. I find embodied in this transitional, upside-down movement not only postmodern dance's countercultural and eclectic inheritance but also the conflicted cultural space it occupies. Postmodern dance is old enough to have a tradition, but doesn't want to relinquish its maverick identity; meanwhile, its meaning-making codes are inaccessible to much of the general public even as it begs a bigger audience in order to thrive.

Functional muscle asymmetries and laterality in Latin American formation dancers.

Despite the high popularity of Latin American dance and the specific movement patterns characteristic of this dance discipline, studies on the physical effects of these dance style specific movement patterns are still lacking. The purpose of the present study is to analyze strength level differences and shortening of relevant muscle groups resulting from formation dance, taking performance standard and gender into consideration. Furthermore, the correlation between the findings of muscle function tests (MFT) and the occurrence of lumbar spine complaints is evaluated. A total of 66 participants (m: n= 31, f: n= 35) volunteered for this cross-sectional study (examination group, n= 39, m: n= 19, f: n= 20). The control group consisted of n= 27 participants (m: n= 12, f: n= 15). Besides isometric maximal strength tests (Digi Max system, mechaTronic), relevant muscle groups were examined for shortenings (hip flexors, hamstrings). The male participants in dance sport reached a significantly higher strength level in the muscles of the spine region (p= 0.011) than the participants of the control group. The female elite dance athletes developed a significantly higher strength level in the knee flexors on the right side than the dancers of the advanced group (NL) (p= 0.021). At that, muscle shortening were observed that seem to be specific to dance sport. In addition, gender specific differences were observed both in strength levels and in tendency to shortenings. The specific requirements profile of Latin American formation dance seems to produce affects in the form of muscular imbalance on both sides of the body. These differences of muscular status were mainly observed between dance sport competitors and non-dancers rather than between performance levels. Future investigations with higher numbers of participants would be necessary here.

Physical Load Intensity in Standard and Latin American Sports Dancing Programmes for Juvenile Dancers

Research background and hypothesis. Sports dances at the contest intensity demand great athletic fitness and functional capacity from dancers We still lack research about changes in the heart rate in the group of juvenile dancers’ while dancing Standard and Latin American dances. The present study aims at verifying the hypothesis that while juvenile dancers dancing contest programmes, the heart rate is changeable and can reach to 160–190 beats/min and above, sports dancers consume much energy.Research aim was to investigate changes in the heart rate and energy consumption in the group of juvenile dancers while dancing Standard and Latin American dances. Research methods. The research participants were 16 dancers (8 girls and 8 boys). The age of girls was 9.88 (0.83) years, and that of boys – 9.86 (1.07) years. We established changes in the heart rate dancing Standard and Latin American dances. During continuous dancing we registered the heart rate using “Polar S 610” Heart Rate Monitor (Finland) with computer data registering system. According to the indices received from the heart rate monitor we calculated the average, maximal and minimal heart rate values and energy consumption (kcal) during the period of sports dancing programme. Research results. The data of HR analysis showed that during a 10-min model practice session dancing Standard and Latin American dances, the heart rate which remains the longest is 160–190 beats/min. During Latin American dances, energy outlay for girls was greater than that for boys (p &lt; 0.05), but lower compared to those when the girls danced the Standard programme. Discussion and conclusions. In contest programmes of sports dancing, physical loads are of changing intensities and thus they have a big impact on the cardiovascular system of young dancers. At the threshold of anaerobic intensity, some moments of the dance are performed at greater intensity then the anaerobic threshold, and even critical intensity limit is reached.Keywords Standard dances, Latin American dances, intensity of physical load, heart rate, energy consumption.

Transcendence Via Active Imagination: Ritual, Culture and Choreographic Offerings

This paper concentrates on the presentation of a California Bay Area Jungian focused study group for the 50 Anniversary of the American Dance Therapy Association Annual Conference. Examining the evolution of Jung’s basic psychoanalytic perceptions over the years, this panel of presenters offered an in-depth study of related topics via lecture in the morning and its amplification via authentic movement in the service of dance/movement therapy in the afternoon. The latter included embodying and transforming remnants of participants’ morning reflections, channeled via authentic movement (AM). Panelist took turns leading an AM experience related to her morning’s topic and concluding by pairing or grouping participants to demonstrate and relate his/her personal journey. The final presenter initiated a process of transcendence in which the parts are amplified into choreography. Our panelists demonstrated a clinical approach to healing in which authentic movement stokes active imagination, elevating unconscious problematic issues to conscious awareness. Overtly expressed in choreographic form, such revelations can enable integrated therapeutic closure to group dance/movement therapy sessions.

ТВОРЧІСТЬ МАРТИ ГРЕМ В КОНТЕКСТІ СТАНОВЛЕННЯ ТАНЦЮ МОДЕРН

Martha Graham is one of the founders of modern dance. During the XX century, she was the director of more than 180 ballets. She is famous for a significant contribution to modern dance and American culture. This article explores the influence of Martha Graham’s creativity on the formation and development of the American dance school. The creative way of the dancer is considered and the author’s technique contraction and reliese, which dancer has gradually formed for many years and which is the basis of modern dance today, is analyzed. Trying to understand the truth, the dancers of “dance modern” were interested in the issues of the future fate of the people, how it will affect the historical past, how it will affect its formation of traditions, life circumstances, etc. All this inspired Graham for new productions. Turning to the past, the dancer wanted to find an important truth for herself. In the 1940s, M. Graham’s works received enormous and rebellious psychology. This is not just a concert work, but a whole emotional theatrical performance. M. Graham, in her productions, was able to glean subtlely and transfer to dance techniques exactly the emotional side that people at that time could not publicly demonstrate. It was very close to the background of the culture of postmodern American society, which emphasized subconscious motivations. Confidently moving toward modern dance, M. Graham creates her own “Martha Graham Dance Company”, which was not like any other, thanks to an individual style and bold experiments. Seventy years a renowned dancer devotes herself to choreographic art. She was the first who traveled through her art beyond the sea, who had the honor at the time to appear in the White House and the first to receive the highest civilian award – the Presidential Medal of Freedom. Thanks to Graham, the dance became a plot that was not typical of classical choreography, ballets and productions, was saturated with subtle philosophy and psychology, which created emotional tension, and the bodies of dancers were most liberated in the reproduction of natural emotions. As a result, her technology is reduced and the release is mastered by many followers and occupies a significant place in the context of modern choreography.

“As Long as They Have Talent”: Organizational Barriers to Black Ballet

This article investigates the relative absence of African American ballet dancers and the field’s slow integration. It counters scarcity theories—not enough interest, money, or opportunities—demonstrating a demand for ballet in postwar black communities. Further, it argues that postwar funding, private sources from the Ford Foundation and national programs under the National Endowment for the Arts, unintentionally strengthened boundaries between white and black dancers through racialized funding, as evidenced in support patterns for the Dance Theatre of Harlem. Instead of normalizing mixed-race companies or questioning racial limits, funding bolstered old stereotypes regarding “looks” and choreographers’ preferences as aesthetic law.