Free Dance Research Articles

Dancing in the Modus of Self-Identification

The main idea of the article is to address the phenomenon of dancing as a type of creative activity in the modus of self-identification. Sociocultural (self-)identification within the framework of art is taken as the process and space of forming an outline — personal and collective — in relation to certain groups of values, norms and traditions, as a way to discover the boundaries of reflexivity and the possibility of their representation in an artistic act. Basing on the interpretation of reflection as self-directed thinking, this article solves the problem of showing the potential of art in general, and dancing in particular, in the aspect of formation and preservation of identity parameters. The identity is considered as the result of constructing metaphysical supports and methods of self-representation in the widest range: national, religious, ideological, gender, but above all — the actual artistic-stylistic one. In addition to the obvious value of beauty and harmony, the article highlights expressiveness and authenticity as the main axiological guidelines for the art of choreography. The author analyzes the high communicative potential of dancing as a type of artistic activity both at the professional and amateur levels. The article focuses on the specifics of self-identification procedures in the space of modern dance, interpreted in this context in a wide chronological field — from the emergence of “free dance” by Isadora Duncan to current trends in postmodern dance, “contemporary dance” and performative practices. The study concludes that dancing has a high axiological potential as an artistic activity that combines physical and metaphysical practices.

Free dance as a cultural-historical practice of improvisation

Background. Plastic, expressive aspects of human behaviour remain underresearched by psychologists. The focus on practices of improvisation is determined by the fact that they show most vividly how expressive movement comes into being. Objective. The aim of the study is to provide psychological analysis of improvised dance action, to identify the conditions of its generation. The hypothesis put forward concerns the formation of overall personal attitude that makes one ready to perform expressive movement in the context of musical-motional improvisation. It seems probable that the principles of movement organisation within free dance practices concern the formation of attitude that lets one perceive spontaneous, involuntary impulses to movement, changes of tonus and breath. Design. The study is a piece of theoretic-psychological analysis of improvisation dance practice. In terms of methodological and theoretical basis the study relies on cultural-historical psychology and theory of action, as well as on N.A. Bernstein’s conception of movement building. There theories allow to reconstruct the conditions of expressive movement generation in the context of musical-motional improvisation. Results. The analysis performed has shown that the principles of movement organisation, the technical aspects of the practices studied are aimed at increasing the degree of freedom of movement. It allows to enhance the receptivity to spontaneous reactions and impulses and to widen the orientation within the context of musical-motional improvisation. It makes one move in a more meaningful way and to integrate the personality into improvisation. Conclusions. Alongside with the practices of structured dances and reproductive approaches to mastering expressive movement, there are cultural-historical practices of improvisation dances. The analysis of such practices allows to single out psychological conditions and and peculiarities of movement organisation that make one generate spontaneous actions, find and try new objectives, plastic forms. Generation of spontaneous movement and musical-plastic improvisation are possible due to tuning up the whole human personality. Openness as personal attitude has its meaningful as well as motional component.

- QUALITY OF LIFE OF INTELLECTUAL NEEDS PRACTICING DANCE

Considering the importance of dance, it makes possible the charm and magic of feeling the movements of dominating your rhythm, feeling the emotions and feelings in the choreography and in free dance. The goal is to know the quality of life of the needy intellectuals who practice dance. The population and sample of the referred study are dance practitioners from APAE, Campina Grande - Pb, whose analysis will be performed by their caregivers, who will answer the Quality of Life questionnaire. This is a descriptive and exploratory study, which aims to identify the quality of life of the needy intellectuals who practice dance. The statistical procedures will be performed using the Microsoft Excel for Windows 10 program, and presented in the form of tables and graphs, by means and standard deviations.

Arts Engagement Programs improves Health in Community-Dwelling Older Adults

We examined how different arts engagement programs compared to control affect health in community-dwelling older adults. 64 adults(71.3 + 4.6years; Dance n=23, Music n=17, Control, n=24) took part in free Dance(Ballroom), Music(Ukulele), or Control(Active social conversation) sessions 2 times/week for 10 weeks. We assessed cognition(Montreal-Cognitive-Assessment-MoCA), physical(Short-Physical-Performance-Battery-SPPB), and Health‐Related Quality-of-Life(HRQoL‐SF‐20) 3 times: (1) before(pre), (2) at the end of 10 weeks(post-1) and (3) 1-month after intervention(post-2). Separate 3(Time)x3(Group) ANOVAs and Bonferroni-pairwise-comparisons examined changes across groups and time(p<.05). Participants’ physical health improved equally across groups(p=.4) and over time(p<.001), specifically from pre(10.5 + 1.4) to post-1(10.7 + 1.3; p=.002), and pre to-post-2(11.3 + 1.0;p<.001). Participants’ cognition improved equally across groups(p=.6) and over time(p<.001) from pre(26.3 + 2.8) to post-1(27.3 + 2.5; p=.002), and pre-to-post-2(27.5 + 2.5;p=.001). Participants’ HRQoL remained similar over time(p=.6) and across groups(p=.7). Overall, participants’ health improved after taking part in arts engagement and social conversation programs. Study findings offer insights about successful implementation of arts-engaged programs in community-dwelling older adults.

Changing the Game: College Dance Training for Well-Being and Resilience Amidst the COVID-19 Crisis.

The COVID-19 pandemic has disrupted all aspects of life, from health to financial to social. College students in particular have faced difficulties adjusting to an entirely virtual atmosphere, compounding the normal stressors that come with full class loads and transitioning into more independent adult lives. In response to the onset of the COVID-19 crisis, a faculty member at the University of South Florida's College of Public Health designed impromptu, free dance lessons offered through a virtual video platform to the college and broader community. The lessons were offered with the intent of providing a healthy and engaging environment to help students and others in the community cope with lockdown stress, depression, and anxiety throughout spring and summer 2020. This article summarizes the structure of the intervention, lessons learned throughout implementation, and the broader practice potential during the COVID-19 pandemic and beyond.

Pendet Memendak Dance in Kerambitan village, Tabanan, Bali

The purpose of this study is to find out and understand Pendet Memendak Dance in Kerambitan Village, Tabanan, Bali. This research is carried out dur to the imbalance between assumptions and reality that occurs in the field. Advanced and modern societies usually prefer dances which are beautiful and presented in a modern way. However, the reality shows a different thing. Although Pendet Memendak Dance is very simple and traditional, the people in Kerambitan Village stil preserve it. This fact raises two questions: (1) How is the form of the Pendet Memendak Dance? (2) What is the function of this dance for the local community? This study utilizes a qualitative method. The data sources of this research are Pendet Memendak Dance, related informants, and the results of the previous research. All data collected by observation, interview, and library study techniques are analyzed using aesthetic theory, religious theory, symbol theory, and structural functional theory. The results of the study showed that: (1) Pendet Mendendak Dance in Banjar Tengah, Kerambitan, Tabanan is performed in the form of a free dance (without any play or characters). It can be seen from the way of performing, choreography, makeup and clothing, and the music; (2) Pendet Memendak Dance is still preserved by the people in Kerambitan Village because it has a function as a means of ceremonies, a binder of social solidarity, and one of efforts to preserve the art and culture of the community in the village. Keywords: Form, Function, Pendet Memendak Dance, Dewa Yadnya Ceremony at Saren Gong Temple in Kerambitan Village, Tabanan, Bali.

Empathy, Entrainment, and Perceived Interaction in Complex Dyadic Dance Movement

The current study explores how individuals' tendency to empathize with others (trait empathy) modulates interaction and social entrainment in dyadic dance in a free movement context using perceptual and computationally derived measures. Stimuli consisting of 24 point-light animations were created using motion capture data selected from a sample of 99 dyads, based on self-reported trait empathy. Individuals whose Empathy Quotient (EQ) scores were in the top or bottom quartile of all scores were considered to have high or low empathy, respectively, and twelve dyads comprised of four high-high, four low-low, and four high-low empathy combinations were identified. Animations of these dyads were presented to 33 participants, who rated the degree of interaction and movement similarity for each stimulus. Results showed a significant effect of empathy combination on perceived interactivity and perceived similarity. High-low stimuli were rated as significantly more interactive than either high-high or low-low stimuli, while high-high stimuli were rated as significantly less similar than high-low and low-low. Dyads’ period-locking, bodily orientation and amount of hand movement were all significantly correlated with rated amount of interaction, while rated similarity only related significantly to period-locking. Results suggest that period-locking is important for social entrainment to be perceived, but that other signals such as bodily orientation and hand movement also signal social entrainment during free dance movement.

Bedhaya Bedhah Madiun dance as a tourism superior asset in puro Mangkunagaran

&lt;p&gt;This research aims to describe responds and cultural practice that happened in Mangkunagaran based on the repression of tourism world. This research is an analytical research based on ethnographic study. Triangulation data is collected from the interviewees together with the manuscript of dance performance and direct observation of Bedhaya Bedhah Madiun dance. Classification of tourism dance is responded by Puro Mangkunagaran as the objectification of Bedaya Bedhah Madiun as a free dance. The cultural response potentially alters the semiotic sign system associated with ‘bedhaya’ sign. This is a sign to Bedhaya to add the profanity of Bedaya as a tourist attraction. The objectivity of Bedhaya Bedhah Madiun by Puro Mangkunegara also has a potency to deconstruct the understanding of Bedhaya Bedhah Madiun as a tourist attraction, Bedhaya Bedhah Madiun is not an imitation from the origin and it is not full of variation. Cheap or expensive the dance is, becomes relative. Furthermore, secrecy does not exist in the stage reality, but moves to hyper reality (in the fantasy and nostalgia of the audience). Respond and cultural practice of indicated Puro Mangkunagaran as a cultural institution which is active in doing the production-reproduction of meaning and the tourism enhancement.&lt;/p&gt;

Searching for context – 1984

Abstract An overview of the pivotal personalities on the Zagreb dance scene as related to the programming of the first Dance Week Festival in 1984. These are the School of Rhythmics and Dance, Contemporary Dance Studio, Free Dance Chamber Company and Zagreb Dance Company. By making a note on the progress of these entities, aesthetic orientations and positions in the social environment and reviewing the performances, a dynamics of the scene of the period is delineated.

Scott Moir’s “Funny Face”: Make Belief, Camp, and Masculine Performance

Despite the high number of homosexual male athletes involved in figure skating, heteronormative performance is integral to the sport, particularly in ice dance which requires teams or “couples” to portray a close relationship on the ice. In their 2012 free dance programme, Canadian ice dance champions and Olympic gold medalists Tessa Virtue and Scott Moir facilitated their portrayal of a romantic relationship by skating to music from Funny Face, a 1957 Hollywood musical starring Fred Astaire and Audrey Hepburn. Using Richard Schechner’s distinction between “make believe” and “make belief” performances and Susan Sontag’s definition of camp, I argue that Moir not only wants to “make believe” that he is performing the role of Fred Astaire, but also wishes to “make belief” that he is as skilled as the American dancer in presenting his partner. Moir, though, introduces a camp aesthetic into the performance through his exaggerated facial expressions and gestures which causes him rather than Virtue to be the feminized object of the gaze. This element of camp thereby introduces a queer resistance to the heteronormative gender roles demanded in ice dance and highlights how male figure skaters have to make belief in their masculinity.

Short Reviews

Gabriele Brandstetter's Poetics of Dance has remained unavailable to English-language readers until now. Widely considered a landmark book of dance scholarship when it first appeared in Germany in 1995, this provocative analysis of the early twentieth-century avant-garde in Europe is sure to continue to influence a new audience. The book's initial publication advanced the application of critical theory and interdisciplinary approaches to dance that now constitute the field of critical dance studies. Caringly translated by Elena Polzer with Oxford Studies in Dance Theory series editor Mark Franko, this work remains a unique analysis of modernity that illuminates dance as an “act of transmission,” a bridge through theatre, literature, and visual arts altering relationships to how movement is reproduced and how space is conceptualized. Brandstetter's central premise expands through reading body imagery as a historically specific context from which the iconography of pictorial patterns open up perceptual concepts. The interdependency between new models and vocabularies of modern dance and literature appearing at the turn-of-the-twentieth century brace the argument that avant-garde aesthetic debates and concerns moved through body imagery and figurations in space. The poetics of free dance (and later forms of Expressionist dance appearing in Germany) as it took shape in Europe foregrounds the dancer's movement as a transformative language and symbolic system of cultural deconstruction and renewal.

Dance Education in the Public Sector: A History of Nashville's Metro Parks Dance Division

ABSTRACTIn 1965, Metro Parks and Recreation of Nashville, Tennessee, added a Dance Division to offer a wider variety of recreational programming in the public sector. The program started humbly, with few resources beyond teacher salaries, and offered classes in community center gymnasiums and on playgrounds in the summers. As the program began to build steam and a regular student base, Metro Parks and Recreation also received more robust federal funding, and they were able to add additional dance instructor positions as well as put on performances. At its peak, free dance classes were offered in every community center in Nashville. In the 1980s, federal funding dried up and the program had to start looking for other sources of revenue. They began charging nominally for classes, and Metro took a small percentage of the money earned. In the 1990s, even as the breadth of programming diminished, a core, high-quality classical ballet program emerged. Shortly thereafter, the nonprofit organization Friends of Metro Dance formed to support the program beyond the scope of government funding. They provided state-of-the-art facilities for the program and purchased costumes and set pieces for the program's signature performance and fundraiser, the Mini-Nutcracker, as well as the popular performing group, the Swinging Seniors. Today, the program is in another period of growth and is evolving to support more expansive programming once again through public–private partnerships.

A CONTRIBUTION TO DESIGNING EFFECTIVE AND ENJOYABLE PHYSICAL ACTIVITY PROGRAMS FOR INDIVIDUALS WITH SCHIZOPHRENIA

Schizophrenia is one of the most debilitating diseases among psychiatric disorders. Additionally, these individuals present high mortality rates and sedentary lifestyles. Physical activity is an important factor for reducing morbidity and mortality among individuals with schizophrenia. However, to develop motivational strategies to increase the participation of individuals with schizophrenia in physical activity is necessary. The goal of this pilot study was to determine which type of physical activity (walking, dancing and small-sided games) is the most enjoyable and effective for individuals with schizophrenia. Nine outpatients with schizophrenia (men = 5 and women = 4; M = 37.0 yrs., SD = 7.10 yrs.). Different types of physical activity sessions (walking, dancing and small-sided games) were performed. The three sessions occurred during one week with a-one day interval between each session. The duration of each session was of approximately 60 minutes. The walking session consisted in: stretching, walking and breathing exercises. The dance session consisted of: stretching exercises, choreographed dance, free dance, and breathing exercises. The small-sided games session consisted of: stretching exercises, small-sided games (2v2, 3v3, 4v4), basic skills, abdominal exercises and, breathing exercises. Physical activity levels, heart rate and type of PA preferred were assessed. The walking sessions were the most effective (72% of the estimated HRmax). Most of the participants (n = 7) chose the small-sided games session as the most enjoyable. Physical activity programs specifically designed for individuals with schizophrenia should offer both small-sided games and walking. An increase of the sessions’ duration (i.e., to over 60 minutes) can also be suggested in order to increase the time spent in vigorous physical activity.

Recognizing Induced Emotions of Happiness and Sadness from Dance Movement

Recent research revealed that emotional content can be successfully decoded from human dance movement. Most previous studies made use of videos of actors or dancers portraying emotions through choreography. The current study applies emotion induction techniques and free movement in order to examine the recognition of emotional content from dance. Observers (N = 30) watched a set of silent videos showing depersonalized avatars of dancers moving to an emotionally neutral musical stimulus after emotions of either sadness or happiness had been induced. Each of the video clips consisted of two dance performances which were presented side-by-side and were played simultaneously; one of a dancer in the happy condition and one of the same individual in the sad condition. After every film clip, the observers were asked to make forced-choices concerning the emotional state of the dancer. Results revealed that observers were able to identify the emotional state of the dancers with a high degree of accuracy. Moreover, emotions were more often recognized for female dancers than for their male counterparts. In addition, the results of eye tracking measurements unveiled that observers primarily focus on movements of the chest when decoding emotional information from dance movement. The findings of our study show that not merely portrayed emotions, but also induced emotions can be successfully recognized from free dance movement.

Effect of Movement Therapy on Academic Stress in Physiotherapy Students

Aims and objectives: To study effect of short-term movement therapy on levels of academic stress in female students studying in final year of physiotherapy. Methodology: A convenient sample of 50 final year female physiotherapy students was divided into two groups—group 1 (experimental group) and group 2 (control group) after obtaining informed consent. Academic stress level was measured using students academic stress scale (SASS) in both groups. Group 1 underwent 1 month training with movement therapy, three times per week for a duration of 45 minutes per session which included 10 minutes of stretching warm up exercises, 30 minutes of conditioning phase of free style dance move ments at 75 to 80% age related heart rate max and 5 minutes of passive cool down. The control group was instruc­ ted to continue their routine activities. Students Academic Stress Scale was scored in both the groups after 1 month of training and thereafter movement therapy was discontinued. Students were scored again on SASS after 1 month of discontinuation of movement therapy. Results: Group 1 demonstrated statistically significant reduc­ tion (p = 0) in stress level after 1 month of move ment therapy vs group 2, which did not show any change. In group I, after discontinuation of therapy, stress levels increased again though they remained lower than basal values. Group 2 main tained a fairly constant SASS score throughout the time duration.

The Role of Dancing in the Educational Process

The aim of this work is to show how dancing, as well as other disciplines, may help to fully shape a person by acting at a physical, psychic and intellectual level simultaneously. We talk about educational dance, which looks at the person rather than at the dancer training and refers to a specific environment, the school context.The reviewed reference literature analyses the so called Free Dance or Modern Dance, a revolutionary movement consolidated in the artistic field at the beginning of the 20th century. It questions the dichotomy mind-body and support a corporeality free from conditioning. Thanks to its pioneers we witness the gradual access of dancing into physical education programs.Therefore, our inquiry on the relation Dance-School in Italy starts, taking in consideration the earliest normative references: the National Programs 2012.The carried analysis fosters us to review the methodological approach commonly adopted in the school context, for it is still too fossilized on the cognitive aspect and poor of bodily-playful-creative doing. As a result, we believe the teaching workshop is the best solution to prompt the practice of dancing in the school.Because it contemplates either the bodily and psychic aspect or the emotional and cognitive one, more than any other expressive languages, dancing can teach children to “dwell” their own body and find out the untapped potential, heightening the self awareness. Furthermore, the flexibility of dancing allows to link it primarily with music but with other disciplines as well, therefore facilitating their bond and contributing to the achievement of a global vision of knowledge.

Shifting: Worker Culture and Life Reform in the Madzsar School

This recent exhibition in Budapest assembles a fascinating documentation of the life and work of Dr. Alice Madzsar-Jászi (Photo 1), who, from her first opening of a dance school in 1912 to her untimely death in 1935, wove an intricate path through the cultural, political, and artistic avant-gardes of modern Hungary. At the turn of the century, just ten years before Madzsar launched her school, Isadora Duncan had made her solo debut in Budapest, where her improvisation to Strauss's “Blue Danube Waltz” had affected the Hungarian audience like “an electric shock” (Duncan 1927: 74). Madzsar was one of the key figures to channel that early modernist shock into the collective body electric in an increasingly diversified set of dance-related body practices, including free dance, movement culture for women's health, avant-garde theater, worker's sport, recitation choruses, and collective spectacles (Photo 2).

Expressing Induced Emotions Through Free Dance Movement

The aim of this study was to examine the effect of two basic emotions, happiness and sadness, on dance movement. A total of 32 adult participants were induced to feel emotional states of either happiness or sadness and then danced intuitively to an emotionally ‘neutral’ piece of music, composed specifically for the experiment. Based on an Effort-Shape analysis of body movement, full body movement was captured and seven different movement cues were examined, in order to explore whether differences in corporeal articulations between the happy and sad condition existed. Results revealed that in the happy condition, participants moved faster, with more acceleration, and made more expanded and more impulsive movements than in the sad condition. Results are discussed with respect to possible consequences for future research on human movement.

Dance-plyaskain Russia of the Silver Age

The present paper focuses on the semantic and cultural meaning of plyaska as a distinct and influential phenomenon of the Silver Age. In particular, the cult of dance-plyaska was responsible for both the welcome accorded to Isadora Duncan in Russia and the proliferation of groups, studios and theatres of free dance in Russia in the first decades of the twentieth century. The article will trace the rise and fall of the utopia of plyaska into the early Soviet years

Politics Promote Dance: Martha Graham in Finland, 1962

In 1962 the Martha Graham Dance Company visited Helsinki, Finland, where Graham's work had previously been little known, as part of the international cultural exchange program of the United States during the Cold War. This liaison of politics and dance created an unusual situation, in which political forces were at work in the introduction of a new dance style of the modern dance genre in Finland. The Finnish media gave the visit considerable publicity, and this analysis of the reception of the Graham Company shows how critics, influenced by a climate of receptivity to Western cultural ideas and a domestic critique of Finnish free dance as undeveloped—as well as by Graham's carefully planned publicity and promotional materials—responded to Graham as a legend of dance. They particularly valued the technical and expressive advances she brought to the genre of modern dance.