Western Dance Research Articles

The essence of dance. A study of Chinese and Western dance philosophy: socio-cultural, historical and educational aspects

ABSTRACT The art of dance is an intangible cultural heritage that occupies a special place in the social and cultural policy of China. The purpose of this research is to identify the specifics of Chinese and Western dance philosophy. The dance philosophy is a complex notion, which is possible to study through various research methods, including the following: dialectical, semiotic, specific historical, socio-cultural and analytical as well as expert evaluation. This study concludes that the philosophical framework of Chinese and Western dance art plays an essential role. The authors developed a conceptual framework for understanding Chinese and Western dance philosophies. The research revealed that the unique traditions of Chinese national dance are an integral part of the country’s cultural heritage and reflect the philosophical aspects of dance within the multicultural environment. The research results can be used in dance pedagogy, choreography, and dance lessons to improve the techniques and skills of dancers. Further research is needed to compare the philosophies of Chinese folk dances and Western folk dances from different countries and historical periods.

Disordering Dance: Foundations of an emerging neuroqueer choreography

The neurodivergent embodied psyche challenges dance to extend beyond neuronormative conventions. Considerations with how to securely hold divergent modes of thinking, feeling, learning, being and behaving within both the choreographic process and moment of performance are essential. As a choreographer with dyslexia, dyspraxia and ADHD (with autistic traits) – alongside significant experience of exclusion and trauma from normative dance environments – this inquiry forms the basis of my practice and now the discussion of this article, as I articulate core foundations of my doctoral research and emergent neuroqueer choreographic aesthetic. Instead of focusing on how to support the neurodivergent bodymind in systems of exclusive dance practice, such an aesthetic seeks to radically resist neuronormative performance and creatively embrace neurodivergent embodiments and consciousnesses. This article adopts a critical stance of disordering to challenge taken-for-granted neuronormative assumptions and traditions of mainstream western dance culture. Concepts of neurodiversity are elucidated and practices of neuroqueering are introduced, whilst my own positionality of ‘neurodivergent outsider’ exposes neuronormative tensions within dominant western dance culture. Discussion unfolds that situates neurodivergent modes of mindbodily being through a choreographic lens, embodying neurodivergent-centred practices that support non-neuronormative wellbeing, identity and embodiment for both artist and audience in the present moment of dance performance.

The effects of a culturally informed community-based dance movement therapy programme for persons with Parkinson’s disease in India

Dance and movement therapy (DMT) and Western dance forms have been advocated for the effective management of Parkinson’s Disease (PD). This study focuses on including culturally relevant Indian dance concepts in developing and evaluating a community-based DMT programme for PD. This is the first comparative study on DMT for PD conducted in India, with a control group of a ‘physical exercise programme’. 34 People with Parkinson’s Disease (PwPs) were assigned to a ‘DMT intervention’ or a ‘Physical exercise group’ using convenience sampling and they attended weekly 90-minute sessions over 12 weeks. Mood, physical and cognitive functioning, and quality of life were measured pre-and post-interventions. Results and subjective feedback from PwPs suggest that DMT intervention was more effective in improving positive mood and reducing depression in PD as compared to the control group. This study concludes that culturally informed community-based DMT programmes hold promise as a supportive intervention for PwPs in India.

Hybrid choreographic femininities: DanceSport, physical culture, and performative corporeality in contemporary China

ABSTRACT The integration of conventional Western styles and Chinese (physical) cultural elements has become an increasingly utilised choreographic trend in Chinese DanceSport. In major competitions and televised events, choreographers have sought to create distinctive performance-based identities and practices that at once adhere to Western stylistic and competitive conventions but also incorporate traditional Chinese physical and cultural aesthetics. In this study, we draw from Foucault’s theorisations of power and knowledge and disciplinary techniques to offer a dispositive analysis of the bodily performances of Chinese female DanceSport dancers – specifically analysing 19 prized dance pieces in two national competitions. Through the analysis of discursive, non-discursive, and material choreographic elements, we seek to examine how the bodies of Chinese female dancers interact with multiple forms of Western DanceSport and Chinese socio-cultural and political power/knowledge. We conclude that Chinese female dancing bodies are subject to the anatomical knowledge regarding the physical execution of Western technical skills as well as adhering to the norms of Western feminine aesthetics. However, our analysis illustrates how Chinese female dancers strategically utilise Western dance movements and techniques to navigate and potentially negotiate with traditional Chinese norms. Yet, these practices may still function within an anatomopolitical framework of female dancing bodies that is shaped through the promotion of Chinese national identity by the state.

Dance and the Violated Body: Trauma-Informed Frameworks for Dance in Non-Clinical Settings

ABSTRACT Little is known about how individuals with histories of sexual trauma experience dance in non-clinical settings. Dance educators outside of the clinical sphere, such as in dance studios and higher education dance programs, may lack knowledge surrounding how the experience(s) of sexual trauma can alter one’s movement and involvement in the dance space. Although a growing body of research exists, specific guidelines for developing a trauma-informed curriculum are needed. This study utilized 21 qualitative interviews with dancers who had experienced sexual violence to explore how various Western dance styles intersect with their sense of mind-body connection, agency, and bodily autonomy. We explore how these dancers describe their understanding of empowerment, relationship to space, bodily disconnect, and kinesthetic perceptions, both pre- and post-trauma. Results indicate a distinct discomfort and pulling away from the body for dancers, followed by a regained sense of safety in movement when accompanied by trauma-informed atmospheres and curricula. Guidelines for establishing a trauma-informed curriculum are provided.

Choreographing Proximity and Difference: Vassos Kanellos's Performance of Greekness as an Embodied Negotiation with Western Dance Modernity

Countering the historiographic under-representation of Greek modern dance, this article focuses on early twentieth-century dance artist Vassos Kanellos. Combining Western/European choreographic inputs and local, often traditional, elements, Kanellos rearticulated the inscription of Greek dance in historical time—beyond a sole focus on antiquity—and anchored it in a nationally marked space and in the specificity of a posited Greek “race.” Informed by new modernist studies, this article reads Kanellos's practice as a reflection of the country's process of constructing a hegemonic national identity against a background in which Greece constituted both Europe's subaltern periphery and the foundation of its genealogical narrative.

Inculcating of sasak local cultural values in learning at elementary school

This study aims at exploring information about inculcating Sasak local cultural values through learning. Designed using descriptive qualitative through interviews, observations and documentation, this study used teachers, principals, and students in the district of East Lombok as informants that chosen randomly. The data obtained can be described as follows: first, the majority of local sasak cultures are almost extinct due to the rapid development of technology that exhibits external cultures that are easily accessed by the younger generation, while the local culture of the Sasak cannot keep up with these technological developments. Second, the inculcation of local culture through learning at school cannot be carried out because there are no guidelines as a reference for curriculum and policy development from the government (east Lombok education department). Third, there is no Sasak local culture curriculum that can be used as a reference in learning in elementary schools. Most elementary school students do not know Sasak culture because most schools cannot instill Sasak cultural values through learning as a culture that must be understood and as a guide in students’ daily life. As the results, Elementary school students are more familiar with various types of Indian and western dance and food rather than their their own culture.

Antonia Mercé “La Argentina” in the Philippines: Spanish Dance and Colonial Gesture

This article examines Antonia Mercé La Argentina's stay in Manila in 1929 and the creation of her solo La Cariñosa as a case study to analyze the place of Spanish dance as both colonizing and colonized on the basis of the cultural legacies since Romanticism, when Spanish dance was an exoticized and racialized “Other dance” in relation to the canon and hierarchies of Western dance. La Argentina's supposed homage to the Filipino people in the creation of a solo that stylized their national dance performed for Western audiences continued the exercise of colonial power. The result of those processes of appropriation would be the creation of a repertoire of “Hispanic essences” of that constructed postcolonial “community”; a catalogue equivalent to the rock-hard monumentality of a Hispanidad—the commemoration through Columbus statues and colonial architecture—now celebrated from the body, its performativity, its symbolism, and its gesture.

Hijikata Tatsumi and Ohno Kazuo

Hijikata Tatsumi and Ohno Kazuo

Memory, Dance and Archive: How an Archived Performance Inspired the Creation of the Dancefilm Does the Dancing Have to Stop?

The aim of this article is to delve into memory and dance, and to show how the archive can contribute to definitions of dance. It offers a personal journey into the records of my dance career, where I revisit and reclaim the past framed through the perspective of a mature dancer now aged in my sixties. Using the medium of dancefilm, my position is of observer, dancer, recaller, and bearer of my archive. I experiment with traces of the past, overlaid with the present, to introduce a dialogue about how this investigation can address the aging body as a site of archive. Through my research, I assert that as a dancer, my archive is housed within my body. I am using my dance history and my memories as the vehicle to address the issue of aging from a Western dance context.

Independent beats to global feet: the evolution of English tap jams

This article maps the evolution of early tap jams in twenty-first century England from twentieth century tap jams in the United States. Tap jams are informal performance events featuring improvised tap dance and live music. Historically, tap jams in the United States provided tap dancers the opportunity to train with mentors and cultivate improvisation skills within a social context to enhance their employability. This article explores how the English tap jams evolved, and how English tap dancers use improvisation at the tap jams to develop their performance skills outside of a Western dance studio environment. While the format of English tap jams reflects the American events, the intention has shifted. Utilising a symbolic interactionist approach, the English tap jams showcase how improvisation is a process of physical and musical interactions that produce constantly evolving relationships between community members, musicians, and the audience. The English tap jams act as both a performance opportunity and social event that allows individuals to shape their onstage identity and their role within the tap community. The article also investigates how the English tap jams are adapting to digital platforms in the current global pandemic.

Architecture and/as Choreography: Concepts of Movement and the Politics of Space

Dance projects exploring and interpreting architecture through choreography have become increasingly popular over the past two decades. This article takes a similar but theoretical approach, using the concept of choreography as a lens to look at the underlying scripts that shape the ways in which subjects move in, and are being moved by, architecture. Typically associated with the field of dance, choreography refers to spatial ordering principles, evoking highly political questions of authorship and authority, interpretation, improvisation, appropriation, accessibility, inclusion, and exclusion. Applying historical and comparative analysis, this article focuses on seminal examples from the fields of 20th-century Western dance and architecture. By mapping out evolving concepts and constellations of architecture and/as choreography, it aims to help create awareness of the spatial politics of architecture and their historical situatedness.

Learning and Practicing Dance Phrases with and without a Mirror: A Comparative Study

ABSTRACT Mirror visual feedback increases neural activity, enhances performance, and induces neuroplasticity; however, mixed results have been observed during the learning of motor skills. While mirrors are commonplace in Western dance education, further research is needed to determine how mirrors are used when learning dance phrases. This study measured the movement accuracy and timing performance of 20 experienced dancers, randomly placed into three groups, with mirrors present/absent during different learning phases while learning thirty-two counts of modern dance movements. Results showed group one (mirrors during demonstration and explanation only), had the best accuracy, while group two (mirrors only during practice) had the best timing. Group three (mirrors during the demonstration and practice phase) had the most errors in accuracy and the second-most timing errors. These data suggest there may be learning benefits from removing the mirror during either the demonstration or the practice phase.

If submitting to a peer-reviewed section of the journal, the instructions in Ensuring a Blind Review have been followed.

Research topic on “The Study of Students’ Satisfaction with Online Teaching and Learning During The COVID-19 Epidemic, Case Study: Fundamentals of Western Dance Course, Performing Arts Program, Chiang Mai Rajabhat University” which their objectives including: 1. To study students' satisfaction in the management of online learning and teaching in 4 areas, the researchers studied information from the academic documents and collected information in the field trip by using the survey instrument then the results were combined and analyzed according to the objective.
 The results were found that students’ satisfaction with the management of the online teaching and learning format in all 4 areas. Area 1 item 1, overall satisfaction 1) overall satisfaction of students towards teaching and learning management which the level of satisfaction level was at 4.13 points, item 2 divided into 4 areas, 1) content and practice which the satisfaction level was at 4.4 points. 2) the online teaching and learning models which the level of satisfaction was at 3.99 points. 3) the measurement and evaluation, the satisfaction level was at 4.22 points and 4). information technology, the satisfaction level was at 3.91 points, so the level of satisfaction was at the high level in 3 areas and the level of satisfaction level was at the highest level in 2 areas.

A body of work

This article examines the paradigm of ageing regarding older professional dancers who prolong their careers, challenging the normative standards set down in western dance culture. With interest gaining momentum in introducing dance to an ever-increasing ageing population, it seems ironic that the older professional dancer continues to be undervalued or often invisible. The established aesthetics that persist within classical ballet, but less so within contemporary dance, supports the rejection of the bodies of these disenfranchised dancers, who embody a palimpsest of lived danced experience. It is undoubtedly an example of corporeal politics, the lack of exposure of seeing older dancers performing, a loss of identity tempered with the dilemma of the acceptance of youth and intolerance of decline. The aim is to acknowledge through film documentation and interviews the artistry these older dancers embody and to commend the positives surrounding ageing.

Curt Sachs Is No Longer Number One! Confronting Chinese Students’ Expectations of Essentialist Theorizing in Dance Research

ABSTRACT Chinese postgraduate dance students can be surprised by epistemological expectations when commencing research degrees outside China. This can result from translations into Mandarin of very dated dance scholarship from Europe. Specifically, Curt Sachs’ 1933 book World History of the Dance continues as a pervasive representation of Western dance scholarship in current dance research published in Mandarin. Within this article we collate key examples of academic literature published in Mandarin during the last twenty years to show how World History of the Dance continues to be used to support essentialism in dance research in China. We connect this with critical arguments from international dance scholars, identifying why Sachs’ publications from the early 20th century have been rejected within English language academic journals. While this comparative analysis of dance scholarship reveals deep epistemological differences across learning cultures, this paper further evidences how essentialist theories can construct cultural hierarchies in dance.

Влияние Н. М. Сокольского на ранний китайский балет

The article discusses N. M. Sokolsky’s impact on the early Chinese ballet. He created the ballet troupe “Russian Ballet in Shanghai” thereby contributing to the spread of classical dance throughout China. The paper also mentions a pleiad of the talented Chinese artists - N. M. Sokolsky’s disciples - who made a great contribution to the development of the national dance culture. It is noted that Sokolsky’s initiative changed aesthetic perception of Shanghai public, accelerated spread of the western dance culture in China and strengthened its impact on the professional community. Relying on memoirs of Sokolsky’s disciples, the researcher examines principles of his pedagogical work in the Central Academy of Drama (the first higher theatrical education institution in China). Finally, the author draws conclusion about Sokolsky’s impact on the early Chinese ballet.

Fit to Dance Survey: Elements of Lifestyle and Injury Incidence in Chinese Dancers.

The Fit to Dance survey has been conducted using primarily Western participants and has provided foundation data for other studies. The purpose of the current study was to replicate the Fit to Dance 2 survey focusing on features of health and injuries in pre-professional and professional Chinese dancers of different genres. The survey was translated into Chinese with several new and modified questions. The survey was posted online for a 3-month period. A total of 1,040 individuals (82.8% female) completed the questionnaire, including 871 dance students (83.7%) and 169 professional dancers (16.3%), with focus in Chinese folk dance (44.4%), Chinese classical dance (25.6%), ballet (10.2%), and contemporary dance (9.8%). Compared to the Fit to Dance 2 survey, alcohol consumption (29% vs 82%; p<0.01) and smoking (13% vs 21%; p<0.05) were significantly less in Chinese dancers, but a higher percentage reported using weight-reducing eating plans (57% vs 23%; p<0.01) or having psychological issues with food (27% vs 24%; p<0.05). Reported injuries in a 12-month period prior to data collection were significantly lower in Chinese dancers (49% vs 80%; p<0.01). The type of injury (muscle and joint/ligament) and perceived cause of injury (fatigue, overwork, and reoccurrence of an old injury) were the same in both the current and previous survey. Mean injury rate ranged from 4.9 injuries/dancer (contemporary) to 3.4 injuries/dancer (Chinese folk dance), which is comparable to previously reported data on Western dance populations. This report provides the first comprehensive data on the health and injury incidence of Chinese dancers.

서양 근대춤의 수용과 변용 양상 : 배구자를 중심으로

이 연구는 서양춤의 이입과 변용 통해 어떠한 장르적 파생이 나타나는지 배구자를 통해 살펴본 것이다. 배구자의 1928년 개인발표회는 한국근대무용의 효시라 일컬어지는데 창작무용 <아리랑>, 발레 <빈사의 백조> 등을 선보이며 전통성과 동시대성을 함께 담아낸 점에서 의미가 있다. 이후 배구자는 배구자악극단을 통해 이 땅은 물론이거니와 일본 공연을 통해 한국 문화의 확산과 생산성을 보여주었고, 연극 전용극장인 동양극장을 만들어 한국 근대 대중문화의 토대를 마련한 인물로도 기억될 수 있다.<BR> 이렇게 배구자는 동시대 근대적 공연 양식을 체화하고, 한국적 현실에 맞게 변용시켜 한국 근대 무대공연예술 선구자로 연구의 가치가 있다. 이는 무대공연예술의 기반이 제대로 이루어지지 않은 현실에서 그를 통해 근대무용, 레뷰, 발레, 악극 등의 발현이 이루어졌기 때문이다. 또한 그의 공연은 시대정신과 향토성을 바탕으로 대중과 소통하며 시대고(時代苦)를 잊게 만든 상징적 기호라는 측면에서도 의미가 있다.

Camels, Temples, and Jewels: Representing Middle Eastern Movement in Canadian English

ABSTRACTThe English-language nomenclature that is used to designate belly dance movement is a vital site for the expression of ideas, fantasies, and fears about the Middle East and North Africa, the homelands of this dance genre. Belly dance has no classical tradition or named set of standardised movements in its cultures of origin, so, as the dance form has become globalised, English speakers have invented their own movement names to conform to a Western dance pedagogical tradition that relies on nomenclature. Based on a survey of 154 Canadian dancers, this paper analyses the forms these coinages have taken and assesses how movement terminology has changed since the rise of studio belly dance instruction in North America in the 1970s. The ‘camels’, ‘temples’, and ‘jewels’ of early nomenclature are giving way to terminology that instead incorporates personal names, particularly the names of Middle Eastern and North African dancers, and auditory imagery. These terminological shifts challenge dominant Orientalist discourses that portray Middle Eastern and North African cultures as static, monolithic, and fantastical.