Doctor of Philosophy, The Ohio State University, 2011, Dance Studies

This dissertation investigates Jewishness, radicalism, and modernism, and the interplay and connections among these ideas, in selected dances by Anna Sokolow (1910-2000) between 1927-1961. As an American choreographer of Russian Jewish heritage known for her leftist leadership and socially conscious dances, whose early work was highly representational of working-class and Jewish identity, Sokolow could have been labeled as “ethnic” low art. Instead, she came to be embraced by influential mainstream dance critics, such as John Martin, Walter Terry, Louis Horst, and Doris Hering. I ask how Sokolow's work came to be regarded as “modernist,” thus transcending racial and class markers to become “American” in the 1950s, and I analyze the change over time in how her work was regarded. I examine Sokolow's work within the historical arc of 20th-century concert dance while using it as a point of departure for important discussions in 20th- and 21st-century dance, Jewish, and gender studies. I show that all of Sokolow's work—not solely those dances labeled Jewish by critics and historians—was informed by her heritage, and is, in effect, Jewish. I argue that Sokolow intended to respond to the political zeitgeist through her choreography; her Jewishness and her politics were contingent upon one another. Finally, I demonstrate how the development of Sokolow's choreographic aesthetic and the change in the way U.S. critics reviewed her work in the 1930s-1960s, from being integral to the workers movement, to making dances with overtly Jewish themes during the Holocaust, to reflecting postwar alienation, to directly addressing the Holocaust's atrocities during the Cold War, reflects the assimilation of her generation of Jews into American society. I frame this study within discourses of radicalism, modernism, Jewishness, race, gender, representation and the body, identity politics, and performativity. I use these ideas as lenses through which to conduct a textual analysis of Sokolow (open full item for complete abstract)

Bachelor of Fine Arts (BFA), Ohio University, 2017, Dance

Dancenoise was created by Lucy Sexton and Anne Iobst after graduating from Ohio University in 1983. They worked as an active part of the downtown dance scene—a group of avant-garde dance artists—where they established themselves as prominent members with a fusion of performance art and dance. Due to the explicit feminist perspective embedded in their work and their prominence in the downtown dance scene, it is curious that they have not been the focus of a dance and feminist studies project. This thesis analyzes two of their works Half a Brain (1988) and Open Season (1996) and argues that Dancenoise disrupts and subverts Western culture's heterosexist attitudes towards the body. There are three theoretical paradigms used to analyze how Sexton and Iobst transgress hegemonic culture. Through gaze theory, particularly male gaze theory, I assert that Sexton and Iobst challenge patriarchal representations of women through their fast-paced scene structure and use of nudity in tandem with dialogue. To further argue that they transgress hegemony, I assert that they disrupt the subjugation and docility of the body in the West by utilizing Michel Foucault's theorizing on “docile bodies”. Furthermore, I use Judith Butler's theory of gender performativity to argue that they challenge and subvert bodily norms of behavior, refuting traditional, sexist ways of using the body. To conclude, I assert that Dancenoise adheres to a poststructuralist decentered subjectivity. This is at the heart of their subversive tendencies.

Doctor of Education (EdD), Ohio University, 2015, Educational Administration (Education)

This dissertation examined the state of senior high school (SHS) music and dance education in the context of a growing economy and current socio-cultural transitions in Ghana. The research analyzed the experience of educational administrators, teachers, and students. Educational administrators included professionals at educational organizations and institutions, government officials, and professors at universities in Ghana. Teachers and students were primarily from five SHSs, across varying socioeconomic strata in the Ashanti Region, the Central Region, and the Greater Accra Region. The study employed ethnographic and multiple case study approaches. The research incorporated the data collection techniques of archival document review, focus group, interview, observation, and participant observation. Four interrelated theoretical perspectives informed the research: interdisciplinary African arts theory, leadership and organizational theory, post-colonial theory, and qualitative educational methods' perspectives. The incorporation of multiple theoretical frameworks allowed for diverse perspectives on education to be acknowledged. The dissertation consists of five chapters, which include an introduction, literature review, methodology, presentation of findings, and analysis. The major findings of this study are organized into five thematic categories that examine: (a) the significance of music and dance education in Ghanaian SHSs, (b) the challenges of music and dance education in Ghanaian SHSs, (c) the influence of Ghanaian economic development on music and dance education in SHSs, (d) the role of educational administrators, teachers, and students in decision-making regarding music and dance education in Ghanaian SHSs, and (e) Ghanaians' vision of the future of music and dance education in SHSs and the recommendations offered by study participants.

Doctor of Philosophy, The Ohio State University, 2015, Dance Studies

In this series of qualitative case studies, I study current conceptions of “dance literacy,” and explore dance literacy as contextualized within various studio practices. Literacy has traditionally meant reading and writing alphabetic texts, but more recently has stood in for knowledge about a particular field or meaning-making processes. I ask “how are dancers literate” across several different kinds of studio activities (teaching and learning technique, making choreographic work, re-staging repertory, documenting artistic process) and how these dance literacies contribute to creating dance specific knowledge. I examine dance literacy in three areas: reading, writing, and uses of written scripts. Through multimodality — visual, kinesthetic, aural/oral, tactile, verbal/linguistic, alphabetic/textual modes of communication — dancers process sensate information about what they see, feel, hear, and sense. I also examine how dancers produce notational and alphabetic residual texts in support of their movement texts. I explore both dance literacy and interactions between dance and literacy. Dance literacy scholarship has typically fallen on two sides of a literacy/orality binary, defining dance literacy either as multimodal processes of dance-making or the use of and fluency in written dance notation systems. Rarely have dancers or dance scholars considered these two seemingly opposing definitions in relation to one another. By drawing connections between traditionally defined literacies and multimodal literacies to examine how they produce dance-specific knowledge and affect meaning-making in the studio, I problematize the conception of dance as an “oral-only” enterprise and reveal an oral-literate continuum that subverts the literacy/orality divide.

Doctor of Philosophy (PhD), Ohio University, 2012, Curriculum and Instruction (Education)

The purpose of this study was to address a lack of reporting and description of dancers' experiences in college dance programs. Although an area largely unexplored and undocumented, available information suggested that dance training in academe can be distressing for young dancers. This research explored the overarching research question: How do dancers describe experiences of being dancers at “C College?” This qualitative case study examined the experiences of dancers at a small, liberal arts institution in an effort to specifically explore: a) How (or is) previous dance training acknowledged or marginalized? b) How (or does) community inform experience, b) How (or does) the curriculum provide individualized learning experiences? and d) How (or does) one's dance identity evolve or change? Over the course of seven months and four field visits, naturalistic inquiry was used to collect data via individual interviews, observations, focus groups, and document analysis. The study included a total of 13 dancers and 3 dance faculty. Extensive coding and thematic analyses were used to analyze and compare data that largely satisfied the research questions but did not confirm the researcher's a priori expectations. This study revealed that participants placed significant emphasis on the openness of the dance program which made previous training seem unnecessary or insignificant; identified practices within this academic community that supported dancers; believed that dance curriculum and faculty encouraged personal investigation; and, recognized that dance identity evolves over time and in tandem with personal growth. Currently, the necessary precursors to study dance in academe are neither clearly defined nor widely understood because there is vast disparity in what constitutes dance training prior to college. Therefore, this study surfaced important implications and recommendations for current or prospective dance students, dance faculty and college dance programs and dir (open full item for complete abstract)

Doctor of Philosophy, The Ohio State University, 2024, Dance Studies

This dissertation examines the dance studio and its built environment, exploring the dynamic relationship between dance and space. The focal point is the concept of the dance studio, analyzed through the urban landscapes and the experimental art practices in the city of Zagreb from the 1950s to the 2010s. The study investigates the dance studio through the histories of spatial structures, dance history, and the history of cinema. Shaped by these processes, dance is specifically entangled with spatial structures and is expanded by their horizons, outcomes, and histories. The dance studio here is a hypothesis built in the process—a space that exists at the intersection of context and time, with dance emerging as an archival record embedded in spatial and societal change. The dissertation argues that this very process constitutes the dance studio's structure: a space, practice, and environment made possible—reimagined, shaped, and hypothesized through the lens of dance and its experimental inquiry. The study approaches the dance studio from the vantage point of the long contemporaneity, extending across both modernism and postmodernism while facilitating the juxtaposition and productive friction of these terms. The city of Zagreb is approached as a dynamic multitude, encompassing a range of developments in the socialist and post-socialist periods that influenced, challenged, and shaped art, dance artists, and their spaces between 1949 and 2010.

Bachelor of Arts (BA), Ohio University, 2024, Music

Transitive Property was a structured improvisational performance that explored spontaneous co-creation through music and dance. The project sought to explore interdisciplinary relationships using coexistent, process-based, and collaborative creative methods inspired by Shultis, Cage, and Cunningham. In addition, the project explored how the use of collaborative improvisation in performance can incorporate the audience and physical environment in creative ways. The rehearsal process for Transitive Property occurred over six weeks and included collaborators specializing in music and dance. Rehearsals were planned based on improvisational and pedagogical methods of Reeve, Morgenroth, and Hahn, and ongoing feedback and responses from the collaborators were essential throughout the process. The rehearsal process resulted in the hour-long performance Transitive Property. Two performances of this work (Spring 2024) investigated the inherent musicality of dance and speech, the dance-like qualities of artists drawing or musicians playing, the visual artistry of written language and scores, and the performance of everyday action. Transitive Property demonstrated that process-based artmaking in the form of interdisciplinary and collaborative improvisation can be an effective way to strengthen inter-performer relationships and create meaningful experiences for performers and audiences.

Bachelor of Fine Arts (BFA), Ohio University, 2023, Dance

This Honors Tutorial College thesis project involved the creation of three new artistic works that explored questions influenced by queer dance frameworks about what it means to negotiate queer intimacy through artistic practice, the importance of incorporating trauma-informed practices in rehearsal processes, and how we can continue to create, support, and maintain queer communities in artistic practice. In the creative process, I developed aesthetic and choreographic forms of and for queer intimacy; asked questions about community, queer experience, and what it means to create queer dance; and explored how the incorporation of dance dramaturgy and trauma-informed tools and practices can garner new ways of building these queer communities in dance spaces. This paper recounts the creative process of this project through analysis and subsequent reflection to demonstrate how Trust, Empowerment, and Community were three main themes that emerged during the project.

Doctor of Philosophy, Case Western Reserve University, 2021, Musicology

Dance is famously ephemeral, and historians of dance must therefore grapple with an astounding number of gaps and uncertainties in the historical record. Often, researchers focus their attention on cultural context, reception history, or the musical score of a dance as the best ways to get close to a choreographic work that has not survived. I propose an alternative approach that centers on the theoretical frameworks that shaped these works. Through an exploration of technologies of representation that were used to record dance in France between 1852 and 1912, including notation, scientific graphs, photography, and film, I demonstrate how dance theory interacted with broader historical discourses concerning representation, temporality, and the body. Attempts to record dance, I argue, reveal how dancers, theorists, and choreographers situated their art in the context of these developments. I also show how methods of dance notation can be taken as a part of a larger history of media and representation in the years around 1900. Chapter One examines three texts that interlock to strengthen our understanding of the world of dance theory and notation: Arthur Saint-Leon's La Stenochoregraphie, which was re-imagined decades later in Friedrich Albert Zorn's Grammatik der Tanzkunst and Enrico Cecchetti's Manuel des exercises. Stepanov notation, the subject of Chapter Two, turned away from the fashioning of dance theory as grammar. Author Vladimir Ivanovich Stepanov justifies his methods through reference to the ideas, words, and inventions of two French scientists, the neurologist Jean-Martin Charcot and Etienne-Jules Marey, champion of graphical representation. In Chapter Three, I consider the role of cinematic technologies as a medium used to record dance in the first twenty years of its existence. A case study, the comic film Le Piano irresistible (1907, dir. Alice Guy Blache) illustrates my arguments concerning dance, silence, and humor. I conclude in Chapter Four with (open full item for complete abstract)

Masters of Science in Kinesiology and Health, Miami University, 2020, Kinesiology, Nutrition, and Health

The following study is a phenomenological qualitative analysis of collegiate dancers' experiences with and perceptions of body awareness and somatic movement. Semi-structured interviews explored what kinds of experiences dancers have had in the realm of body awareness, what their perceptions of these experiences are, and what kinds of effects they believe body awareness can have on their health or dance practice. Results of this study could be used to improve dance education at the college level, advance the level of inquiry into the benefits of somatic practices, and ultimately contribute to the improved health of dancers as a population. Results show that participants defined body awareness as a complex process of mirroring, noticing, knowing, and controlling the body. Experiences with yoga and injury taught participants to learn more about their body's structure and limits, and enjoyment of dance was described as the primary driver in dance participation. Formal experience with somatic movement techniques was limited, but looked upon favorably by all participants; all expressed a desire to practice more somatic movement. In summary, modern and contemporary dancers at the college level have complex ideas of what "body awareness" means and would benefit from earlier and increased education in specific somatic techniques

MLIS, Kent State University, 2020, College of Communication and Information / School of Information

This project to design a conceptual model for the community folk dance tradition of contra dance resulted in the construction of a domain ontology. The study concluded that ontological modeling and semantic technologies were well-suited to structure information about contra dance, and the ontology would serve as the infrastructure for a knowledge base to safeguard and disseminate contra dance history and culture. Insights gained in the development of the ontology also provided a number of suggested principles and standards to aid future intangible cultural heritage (ICH) domain modeling research. Prompted by the safeguarding paradigm initiated through the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) 2003 Convention for the Safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural Heritage as well as a perceived lack of domain models serving as preservation methods for intangible cultural heritage in North America, this research examined a New England / Appalachian form of country dance, a form of social dancing with roots in 17th century England. A survey of dance resources was conducted, reviewing examples of choreography notation and instructions, records of dance events, and video recordings of dance performances. Domain and content analysis were performed on the resources to determine concepts and themes regarding choreographic components and their relationships, the structure and function of cultural works, their creative expressions and performances, and the evidence of their expressions in documents and recordings. Ontology building methodology and previously developed models for cultural heritage domains guided the ontology development, revision, and testing phases. The model carried out in the ontology presented a way to represent the flexible, modular nature of contra dance choreography as structured data through establishment of a standard vocabulary and syntactical structure, as well as the sequential order of movements. It simultaneou (open full item for complete abstract)

Doctor of Philosophy, The Ohio State University, 2018, African-American and African Studies

This dissertation lays the ontological and epistemological groundwork for an Africanist and diasporic orientation to contemporary theatrical dance performance. It develops a theoretical lexicon with which to understand and analyze such dance along with Africana embodied creative practices. Evidence is drawn from ethnographic engagements with contemporary Africana dancers, close readings of key works in Africana and Dance Studies, as well as the author's own praxis, experiences and insights as an artist-scholar. The thesis is also a work of scholarly criticism, mobilizing Africanist and Africana theories and concepts, emphasizing the cosmological and spiritual orientations of transnational African studies, to critique the hegemony of a historical Western discourse about the body that desacralizes its substance, rationalizes its expression, and racializes its exterior. In this manner, this dissertation advocates for an embodied approach to Africana Studies and demonstrates possible methodological approaches for such an

Doctor of Philosophy, The Ohio State University, 2014, Dance Studies

Postmodern dance demonstrates characteristics and choreographic conventions that differ radically from those of the commercial theatrical dance that pervades our culture. In this study, I address the question of how people--dancers and choreographers, but especially audience members--make sense of this sometimes arcane and inscrutable dance form. Centering on the April, 2012 performance of choreographer John Jasperse's Canyon at the Wexner Center for the Arts in Columbus, Ohio, I use interviews with Jasperse and his dancers and with audience members as well as my observations of Canyon rehearsals and performances to begin to answer this question. While audience members make the performance meaningful for themselves in diverse ways--social, emotional, intellectual--I focus on the aesthetic sense they make of Canyon. That is, I examine the strategies and codes they employ to interpret the work, to determine its "aboutness." I find that the codes that are most successful, that allow the viewer the most satisfaction and the least frustration, are, like its characteristics, unique to postmodern dance. For example, viewers who are not overly concerned with the choreographer's intention and who employ a logic of metonymy rather than one of metaphor or narrative make sense of Canyon with relative ease. "Dance insiders"--those who are involved in the world of dance themselves and attend concert dance often--employ these strategies more fluently, but I find "dance outsiders" also calling on them in varying measures. In addition, I find that underlying all successful aesthetic meaning-making of Canyon is an ability to discern the formal elements of dance: its spatial configurations, actions, timing, relationships, qualities, and choreographic structures. The implications of this study resonate in concentric circles. They are important for the choreographers and presenters who bemoan the size of the audience for postmodern dance. Awareness of how a dance performance "wor (open full item for complete abstract)

Master of Arts, The Ohio State University, 1965, Graduate School

Master of Arts, The Ohio State University, 1965, Graduate School

Doctor of Philosophy, The Ohio State University, 2024, Dance Studies

This dissertation examines how late medieval dance serves as a medium for creating and performing communal belonging in Augsburg, Germany and the surrounding region in southern Germany. I analyze how the regulation and practice of dance in Augsburg between 1300 and 1550 C.E. helped define the city's urban communities in the late medieval period, and how the ongoing remembrance of premodern dance today in southern Germany helps reaffirm or redefine Germanness in the cultural imaginary. Employing methods from dance, performance, history, and critical race studies and building upon recent work on racialization in medieval studies, this dissertation challenges predominant narratives of late medieval dance that centers elite Christians as the main agents of dance and other movement practices. By plumbing the legacies of medieval dance—in archival traces, reenactments, and popular imaginings—my work further examines how the memory and practice of medieval dance continues to transmit the multi-layered embodied politics of medieval southern Germany. Through archival methods and discourse analysis, I examine city laws, chronicles, and pictorial sources to ascertain how people in the medieval era approached, practiced, and regulated dance. Municipal records evidence that elite, Christian city leaders legislated dancing to construct and enforce a patriarchal and hierarchical social order within the city. Examining Jewish archives, the spatial landscapes of medieval cities, and depictions of the moresca dance in Jewish and Christian sources, I trace how Jewish and Christian residents used dance to form their own communities and how dance fostered Jewish-Christian relations. Finally, by working through these archival tracings of medieval dance, I consider how the reception and interpretation of medieval dance archives shape understandings of historical and contemporary community in the Bavarian region. In particular, I examine how medievalist narratives, built partially from t (open full item for complete abstract)

Bachelor of Fine Arts (BFA), Ohio University, 2023, Dance

The primary purpose of this study was to explore how teachers can better facilitate creative movement and to analyze how imagery might be an entry point for young children to make creative choices. The duration of this study was five weeks and included weekly classes. The classes explored pedagogical approaches that incorporated creative choice, discussion, and invitation. Data analysis of researcher observations, teacher reflections, drawing artifacts, and participant surveys, revealed three important themes that emerged from that data to facilitate an inclusive environment: 1) Building Student Confidence, 2) Autonomy and Decision Making, and 3) Relationships and Rapport. This research found that it might be worthwhile to continue examining how dance educators could expand student-centered teaching practices to invite student curiosity, discussion, and engaged learning.

Bachelor of Fine Arts (BFA), Ohio University, 2022, Dance

This creative research project explores how embodied knowledge in dance deals with structures of authority, power, relationship, and collectivity as they manifest in practices of group movement improvisation. Through critical reference, expert interviews, and experimental workshops, the research discusses how "togetherness" is facilitated and negotiated through the lens of group improvisation in dance. The research highlights how elements of group improvisation practices can be used as tools for shifting habitual or traditional ways of structuring authority into new, collective ways of "being in togetherness," using the term "generative practices" to develop these concepts.

Doctor of Philosophy, The Ohio State University, 2018, Dance Studies

“Ethnic and Racial Formation on the Concert Stage: A Comparative Analysis of Tap Dance and Appalachian Step Dance” is a revisionist project that explores the shared aesthetics and historical trajectories of these two percussive dance practices, which have ultimately developed into two distinct forms of dance. This dissertation investigates the choreographic and representational strategies choreographers use to transfer the histories and legacies of tap dance and Appalachian step dance to the stage, namely through a process I call concertization. In each analysis, I pay particular attention to representations of the complex ethnic and racial identities affiliated with each form and ways concertization highlights or obscures such affiliations. Additionally, I aim to understand the relationship between the practices of tap dance and Appalachian step dance and what I see as a contested idea of “America” as it is represented through choreography. My analyses suggest the migration of rhythm tap dance and Appalachian step dance from vernacular and social contexts to the concert stage is in tension with the ways these dance forms, as vernacular practices, also engage in the consolidation of ethnic and racial identities. As a result, concertized versions of tap dance and Appalachian step dance may inadvertently whitewash the racial projects of dancing in-situ in favor of presenting a unified vision of America. One strategy dance artists engage to disrupt whitewashed representational hegemony in concert dance contexts is to reassert the ethnic and racial affiliations of these dance forms specifically by making what I call their “dancestry” visible through their choreography and improvisation. To undertake this investigation, I employ parallel analytical frameworks, which enable me to address the physical movement legacies of the practices within their social, cultural, and historical contexts. Examining what I call aesthetic philosophies, localized values, and dancestry, (open full item for complete abstract)

Master of Arts, The Ohio State University, 2017, Theatre

The Radio City Rockettes are one of the most famous dance troupes in the United States, having performed at Radio City Music Hall since 1932. This thesis serves as the first stand-alone, expansive history about who they are, what they represent, and how they developed under the leadership of founder Russell Markert (1899-1990). This study will trace how the Rockettes began as an emblem of modernity and developed into a symbol of nostalgia under the leadership of one man from their Missouri inception in 1925 through his retirement in 1971. Intrinsically linked to the design and vision of Radio City Music Hall, the company was a symbol of American ingenuity and national pride. As an embodiment of industry, precision dance was first introduced by the British Tiller Girls, and codified by Markert into a technique that Rockettes still carry on today. Besides their iconic status, Rockettes also benefitted from the familial environment of Radio City Music Hall and paternal affections of Markert, both which contributed to a workplace that offered stability, safety, and a dependable income to the women who sought an independent life in the dance world. This line of thirty-six dancers who perform as one unit will reach its centennial anniversary in 2025, and their longevity demands a closer look at why they remain beloved despite fluctuations in popularity and what they have represented to the American people throughout the decades.