Dance Theatre Research Articles

Attention, Music, Dance: Embodying the “Cinema of Attractions”

In this essay I take up the question of whether the “cinema of attractions,” as identified and analyzed by film scholars Tom Gunning and André Gaudreault, might be a useful tool for critical analysis not only of early silent film, its exhibitionist aesthetics, and approach to spectatorship, but of theatrical dance from the period. Certainly, as for its general historical currency, the “cinema of attractions” is thought to encode the culture of modernity from which it arose: the visual spectacle, sensory fascination, bodily engagement, mechanical rhythm, violent juxtapositions, and new experiences of time and space available within the modern urban environment. Moreover, that cinema relied in no small part on dance itself: as a performing art, dance was central to the “attractions” industry, prime raw material starring The Body in Motion, a favorite fascination of contemporary art and popular entertainment. My aim is to push the analogy further, suggesting how cinema and theatrical dance might cue a similar mode of attention: that is, despite the former’s reliance on the camera, its reproductive aesthetic and industrial mechanicity, and the latter’s live theatrical aspect. Indeed, in the latter, I argue, music can be analogized to the camera itself, helping determine and sustain a particular attention economy, while pointing to itself—just as filmed objects stare at the camera—as artifice or contrivance.

A magyarországi táncszínházi nevelés

The purpose of the paper is to give an overview of dance theatre education related to Hungarian contemporary dances and relying on the results of current and still ongoing research. The paper surveys the embeddedness of participational dance education programmes in the structure of prose/drama theatre education, as well as the historical antecedents of its diverse methodology, its forms of financing throughout times and its activities.

DANCE SCENES IN LEVANTINE ROCK ART (SPAIN): A CRITICAL REVIEW

SummaryWe argue here that it is possible to study dance in prehistoric societies by analysing how it was depicted in rock art. For this research to be effective, subjectivity must be minimised by analysing the images systematically. We adapt a series of criteria first established in Garfinkel’s ‘archaeology of dance’ and apply them to our case study of dance representations in Spanish Levantine rock art. We conclude that only twelve scenes fit the typical parameters of dance representations. By studying this set of images, we are able to identify dances with a single individual, couples and groups. We suggest that dances took place in more than one context and followed specific cultural patterns, among which we highlight gender identity.

A Study of Kitsch Elements of a Theatrical Dance Form Hallyangmu

A Study of Kitsch Elements of a Theatrical Dance Form Hallyangmu

"Raus aus dem Elfenbeinturm!"

The Tao are one of sixteen recognized indigenous groups in Taiwan who live on Ponso no Tao, which literally means "the island of human-beings". Since the 1950s, many policies by the Taiwanese government have aimed to support "development" and "modernization" of ethnic minorities. As a consequence the Tao veered away from their traditional religion and cultural practices, for example by using the economic and monetary system imposed by Taiwan since 1967, and in 1971 the island was opened for tourism. These lifestyle changes resulted in a loss of traditional vocal music as well as the knowledge of history, views of life and taboos which had traditionally been transmitted through song. In 1980, an "intermediate deposit" for weak radioactive waste was established on the island through close cooperation and fraudulent practices between the Taiwan Power Company and the government. In 2009, radioactive substances were found outside of the dumpsite on Orchid Island. This article evaluates the social and political implications of two applied ethnomusicological projects developed together with the indigenous group of the Tao. These are the concert project "SoundScape - Island of Human Beings" (2014), which brought together Austrian, Taiwanese and Tao performers and composers, and the dance theatre production Maataw - The Floating lsland (2016) developed in collaboration with the Formosan Aboriginal Song and Dance Troupe (FASDT). Both projects are based on the author's dissertation "Music in the Life ofthe Tao: Tradition and innovation" (2015). These projects posed questions such as: how can anthropological and ethnomusicological approaches and methods be applied during the creative processes of composition and choreography in order to interpret the Taos ecological and political issues on the stage? What insights can be gained from the practice-based collaboration and discussions, during and after the performances? And how do these artistic projects reflect back on and potentially change current political and social situations?

If napkins could talk: women’s action sketching at the Ballets Russes

ABSTRACT Action sketches hold vast communicative potential as windows into the historical details of dance events. This article foregrounds sketchbook images depicting ballet dancers created in the 1910s by British artist Laura Knight (1877-1970) and French artist Valentine Hugo (1887-1968) to show how the quick line drawings inscribed during live performances translate nuances of spectator-performer dynamics. Analyzing various instances of women’s action sketching serves to elevate the activity as an independent form of artistic expression alongside established visual cultural practices such as painting. Knight’s and Hugo’s geographically distinct yet thematically coinciding works prove that action sketching does more than draft silhouettes: it forms a network of microcosms which enhance perceptions of the time, place, and atmosphere of dances and their surroundings. By advocating for a deep reading of the sketch as a major dance reception method, I highlight the ways ballet audiences saw their emotional and material conditions reflected onstage in the early twentieth century. Ultimately, I argue that a serious consideration of the woman spectator as an active participant in theatrical dance performance, through her own artistic practice, is indispensable to building a more holistic view of ballet’s role in reinventing the modernist subject-object relationship.

Troubling national commemoration in Dublin, London and Liverpool: ANU Production and CoisCéim Dance Theatre’s These Rooms

The cultural production These Rooms challenged traditional nationalistic commemorations of war and rebellion during the ‘Decade of the Centenaries’. Created by the Dublin-based ANU Productions and CoisCéim Dance Theatre, and funded by the Irish and UK governments, this series of theatre/dance performances, installations and public outreach projects in unconventional urban venues ran from 2016 to 2019 in Dublin, London and Liverpool, cities with mixed British and Irish populations. Fragmentary, embodied stories about the 1916 Easter Rising in Dublin communicated the perspectives of working-class Irish civilian women and confused young British soldiers through intimate domestic encounters that productively disrupted heroic narratives. Audiences were instead invited to create temporary communities of encounter and ‘unlearn’ dominant concepts supporting colonial, imperial and national spaces‐times. As a critical agonistic artistic intervention, These Rooms offered more inclusive ‘potential histories’ and forms of belonging across political, social and temporal borders during the geopolitically uncertain times associated with Brexit.

Breaking at the Edges: Carolee Schneemann's Desires for Dance

Abstract During the late 1950s and early 1960s, Carolee Schneemann primarily identified as a painter. But she was a keen and cutting observer of dance. This article considers Schneemann's audacious performance work for the Judson Dance Theater and reflects on its ongoing importance both at the time of her death and in a world forced apart by the novel coronavirus (COVID-19).

Winner of the William M. Jones Award at the 2021 Popular Culture Association Conference

An array of 22 dancers stride cheerfully in unison across the proscenium stage toward a jam-packed audience, often as richly diverse as the dancers themselves. Audience members take to their feet, singing, clapping, dancing in the aisle, an experience--that by choreographer's intention--recalls the celebratory abandon of a Black church revival. The magnetism of Ailey's Revelations has captivated audiences worldwide for over six decades. Through extensive domestic and international touring by the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, Revelations has appeared on six continents since its premiere. Revelations (1960) is the most performed and most viewed choreographic work of the twentieth century. During the Covid-19 pandemic in 2020 and 2021, a full-length recording of Revelations streamed on YouTube for over a year, providing hundreds of thousands of viewers free access to the piece from their computer screens.

Contributors

Contributors

ОПЫТ ПРОЧТЕНИЯ КНИГИ ГАБРИЭЛЫ КЛЯЙН «ПИНА БАУШ. ИСКУССТВО ПЕРЕВОДА»

This article reviews a book by the German art historian and dance researcher Gabriele Klein, Pina Bausch. The Art of Translation, one of the first monographs on Pina Bausch to be published in Russian (see also the book published by Garage in 2021). The key concept of the book is the praxeology of translation, which addresses not the subject of translation, but the way it is performed. Thus translation is understood in a broad way as the transfer of the Wuppertal Dance Theatre event into the languages of the audience and critics, into other technical media, into other cultural and historical contexts. Particular attention is paid to the mechanisms of this transfer. The author of this book does not analyze the dramatic narrative of dance, as it is common in theatre studies, but explores dance as gesture delivered with the help of the latest technologies.

Dance theatre as a form of dance movement psychotherapy for male cancer survivors

ABSTRACT Dance therapy and dance theatre are innovative interventions for patients with a chronic disease such as cancer. In this pilot study we investigate both how dance theatre as a supportive intervention may influence the mental health and quality of life of male cancer survivors and how participants experience this type of intervention. We used a pre-post design with two points of measurement based on a mixed-methods approach including quantitative and qualitative data. The sample (N = 16) included male cancer survivors and men indirectly affected by cancer. The results show that the level of distress and depressive symptoms slightly improved during the project. Anxiety symptoms showed a significant reduction. The results of the interviews revealed positive effects of the dance project in terms of coping with late effects, physical strengthening, emotional disclosure and developing personal empowerment and increased self-esteem. The results are preliminary and encourage validation in future studies.

Atlantic, Man Went Down

Both “Atlantic” and “Man Went Down” were first drafted during Lena’s time at Boston University. Lena’s mother having been a dancer who trained with the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theatre, the music and choreography of Ailey’s Revelations has always been a great source of inspiration to her. This is proven particularly true in the poem “Man Went Down,” which is a story of memory, home, and spiritual return that alludes to Revelations’ “Wade in the Water,” as well as the Spiritual that lends the dance piece its name. “Atlantic” is an intergenerational story of Black womxnhood and emotional encumbrance. Matriarchs in many Black cultures carry both great stature and great burden, thus informing and complicating the dialogue surrounding what it means to be a Black (Atlantic) womxn in the digital age. “Atlantic” then locates itself amongst the writer/speaker’s memories of visiting the ocean as a child and how those memories transformed into adulthood.

Dance in West Africa: Analysis and Description in Relation to Aspects of Communication Theory, Ulrike Groß

Reviewed by: Dance in West Africa: Analysis and Description in Relation to Aspects of Communication Theory by Ulrike Groß Dana Vanderburgh BOOK REVIEW of Groß, Ulrike. 2020. Dance in West Africa: Analysis and Description in Relation to Aspects of Communication Theory. Münster: Waxmann. 176 pp. €29.90 (paper). Dance in West Africa: Analysis and Description in Relation to Aspects of Communication Theory seeks to “make a narrative of dance and derive a context of movement and movement sequences” (10) through an analysis of the Adzogbo dance from the Ewe people of southern Ghana. Grounding her research within a genealogy of dance scholarship and communication theories, Ulrike Groß contributes to the growing literature on how dance is a mechanism for nonverbal communication. While she does an excellent job showing how dance is “a unique form of communication and of equal purpose [to spoken language]” (44), her reliance on structural communication theories and pictographic notations of an individual body does not allow for investigating how Adzogbo communicates to participants in the dance event (see Royce 1977). Reducing each section of the dance to a series of still frames and singular textual summary sentences, Groß reinforces a Saussurean interpretation, wherein collective meaning is seen to derive from individual steps that are made into larger sequences following structural rules (Saussure [1915] 1966). What is therefore lost in Groß’s analysis is the holistic bodily experience of dance, including “senses of balance, kinaesthesia,1 and affects such as pleasure, pain, and other generalized ‘feelings in the body’” (Potter 2008, 445), which many scholars have shown to be crucial elements of the communicative power of dance for dancers and audiences alike. One of Groß’s strengths is her ability to trace the parallel developments of the study of dance and the study of language in relation to the concept of nonverbal communication. She does so through a careful layout of sections that, while focusing on theories of dance and communication, provide succinct summaries of relevant theoretical work, revealing ways in which both fields have sought to address questions of nonverbal versus verbal forms of communication. It may have been more beneficial to place the corresponding chapters—chapter 3 and chapters 7–8—in closer proximity to each other, but Groß demonstrates the ways in which various research trajectories in dance and communication have been investigating similar questions and should be studied together. The ability to demonstrate the commonalities between theories of dance and communication studies supports Groß’s integrative approach. Similarly, after detailing the definitions of dance present within dance scholarship in chapter 2, Groß arrives [End Page 151] at a compelling one: while acknowledging the impossibility of fully defining dance, she says it “is a special form of corporal ‘doing,’ a universal, and yet culturally-specific expression, and a predominantly social act” (15). The idea of dance as “corporal doing” is particularly intriguing as a point of departure for future inquiry. All this theoretical work is complemented by three sections (chaps. 4–6) that provide a general ethnographic overview of the Ewe people of Ghana. Particular attention is paid to the role of religion in Ewe society and the ways in which missionary activity has affected Ewe dance. By coupling detailed ethnographic and historical detail with theories of dance and communication, Groß avoids the common tendency to essentialize African peoples and dance forms—which tends to reduce traditional African dance to a static cultural artifact that can be observed and commodified (Bizas 2014, 77), instead of a dynamic communicative practice. The latter view can contribute to better understandings of individual and collective forms of nonverbal communication. Groß presents a strong theoretical background in dance scholarship and communication theory, but her work does not acknowledge the current shift toward examining the intangible and affective aspects of communication that occur through dance (Biehl and Volkmann 2019; Bunker, Pakes, and Rowell 2013; Hanna 2015; LaMothe 2015; Reed 1998; Sheets-Johnstone 1999, 2011, 2012, 2018). This is reflected in her bibliographic sources, which almost exclusively draw on dance scholarship conducted before the mid-1990s. She acknowledges that “dance motion and motion in general are ephemeral,” but this does not carry over into her analysis. Part of her inability...

Creating Thinking: Immersive Dance Theater as 4E Cognition in the Wild

ABSTRACT The creative dancing body is an ideal exemplar of the embodied mind. However, creativity research has ceased to develop due to a lack of study of the embodied mind in cognitive science. Thus, much can be gained through exploring ways in which we maximize students’ creative potential by engaging 4E cognition through rich dance experiences. In my secondary dance classroom, 4E cognition is most evident in our annual immersive dance theater project. The project presses creators to make an art event that encourages cognition “in the wild,” or in real-world problem-solving situations. This article briefly explores cognition through a 4E lens, and discusses ways immersive dance theater projects catalyze and capitalize on each E. It then draws connections between 4E cognition, radical embodied cognitive science, and immersive dance theater to suggest future creativity research may benefit from extensive study of the genre in K-12 education.

An extensive review of computational dance automation techniques and applications

Dance is an art and when technology meets this kind of art, it is a novel attempt in itself. Many researchers have attempted to automate several aspects of dance, right from dance notation to choreography; from dance capturing to dance generation. We define and illustrate the concept of ‘Dance Automation’ in this paper. Furthermore, we have encountered several applications of dance automation like e-learning, heritage preservation, medical therapy, etc. Despite decades of continuous attempts by many researchers in various styles of dance all round the world, we found a review paper that portrays the research status in this area of ‘dance and computers’ dating to 1990 (Leonardo 1990 Computers and dance: A bibliography , pp. 87–90). Hence, we decided to compose a comprehensive review article that showcases several aspects of dance automation and document contributions of researchers in marrying creativity with logic. This paper is an attempt to review research work reported in the literature, categorize and group significant research work completed in a span of 1967–2020 in the field of automating dance. We have explicitly identified six major categories corresponding to the use of computers in dance automation, namely, dance representation, dance capturing, dance semantics, dance generation, dance processing approaches and applications of dance automation systems. We classified several research papers under these categories according to their research approach and functionality. With the help of proposed categories and subcategories, one can easily determine the state of research and the new avenues left for exploration in the field of dance automation.

A Motivational Transformation and Exploration of Symbolism in Person–Based Theatrical Dance in History

A Motivational Transformation and Exploration of Symbolism in Person–Based Theatrical Dance in History

Body and camera in motion — a dialogue between film and contemporary dance theater based on the experience gained in the making of the experimental art documentary Tensity

The paper presents the relationship between the worlds of film and dance theater, and the ways in which the medium of the performing body can be translated onto the screen by the director and cinematographer. By analyzing his own experiences and related artistic decisions made during the realization of the experimental documentary Tensity, the author looks at the clash of two different media and the relations that may result from the effort to translate dance theater performance into traditional film medium. Along with the change of medium, the nature of the work also changes and a completely new artistic value is created, enriched with elements unknown to theater, such as film editing, camera work and, finally, screen time. A film work based on the theatrical medium becomes a separate artistic creation, allowing the director and the cinematographer to build upon the foundation of the performative art of the actor/dancer.

Injury Incidence and Severity in Musical Theatre Dance Students: 5-year Prospective Study.

Dance injury research has mainly focused on ballet and modern dance with little data on musical theatre dancers. The purpose was to assess the incidence and severity of injuries in a musical theatre dance college over a 5-year period; 198 pre-professional musical theatre dancers (3 cohorts on a 3-year training course) volunteered for the study; 21 students left the course over the study period. Injury aetiology data were collected by an in-house physiotherapy team. Differences between academic year and sex were analysed using a Poisson distribution model; significant difference was set at p≤0.05. In total, 913 injuries were recorded, and more injuries occurred in academic year 1 than year 2 and 3. Overall injury incidence was 1.46 injuries per 1000 hours (95% CI 1.34, 1.56); incidence significantly decreased between year 1, 2 and 3 (p<0.05). There was no significant sex difference for incidence or severity. Most injuries were classified as overuse (71% female, 67% male). Pre-professional musical theatre dancers report a high proportion of lower limb and overuse injuries comparable to other dance genres. Unlike other studies on pre-professional dancers, injury incidence and severity decreased with academic year, even though workload increased across the course.

Dream weaving: A conversation with Jennifer Irwin

In December 2019 as I made my way through Bangarra Dance Theatre’s exhibition Knowledge Ground, Australia was in the early stages of a devastating bushfire season and Sydney was shrouded in a cloud of smoke. It was Bangarra Dance Theatre’s 30th anniversary and I was fully immersed in a theatrical display of set pieces, soundscapes and costumes from landmark productions by Australia’s premier First Nations performing arts company. Bangarra’s body of work draws on over 65,000 years of Indigenous culture and fuses the language of traditional and contemporary dance to create a compelling narrative based on a shared knowledge of country. These works have served as markers of revelation in the development of my own understanding of Australia and have made Bangarra an internationally acclaimed source of powerful story telling. They have also fuelled a long-lasting appreciation of the costumes designed for the company by Jennifer Irwin with whom I shared a series of discussions.