Laban/Bartenieff Movement Studies for Dance Professionals

<abstract><title style='display:none'>Abstract</title>Dance competitions–events where local dance studios that are focused on contemporary, jazz, ballet, hip hop and tap compete in regional and national events for awards–are not simply venues for entertainment; they are a microcosm of the social and cultural values in the United States. Competitors need to persevere despite personal challenges, the open entry system for competitions makes it seem that anyone who can pay the entry fee has an equal chance at winning first place, and the construction of a glamorous performance all reinforce the myth of the American Dream—if you work hard, you can achieve fame.Drawing on original and previously published theoretical and empirical studies of the culture surrounding dance competitions, this article investigates dance competition culture in relation to shifting United States democratic ideals. If the dance competition culture does in fact reflect broader United States socio-cultural and political values, what does this mean in relation to Donald Trump’s ascendency and the emerging political values of ‘Generation Z’, or those who were born after the year 2000 (the key participants in dance competition culture). Examining both the dancing that occurs in and the frameworks and practices that support the dance competition culture raises valuable questions about the performance of United States democratic ideals on the dance competition stage.</abstract>

Dancing the ‘American Dream’: Dance Competition Culture in Times of Shifting Values

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This article analyses Ekman’s ballet <italic>A Swan Lake</italic> from the perspective of new materialism, which is understood as the agency of the non-human, particularly the role of water in the creation of movement and in the script of the ballet. The question guiding this article concerns how the materiality of water takes place in Ekman’s ballet. I propose that by paying attention to the corporeality of dance itself as a discursive practice (Barad 2003), it is possible to appreciate the creation of a kind of language or code that can be interpreted. Following Barad, a discursive practice not only is language or what is said but allows certain things to be said. Here, both the bodies of the dancers and the water allow things to be said. In other words, encounters of the materiality of the human, that is, the bodies of the dancers with the non-human agency of the water, provoke new ways of moving and therefore form part of the choreographic composition, thus co-creating the ballet itself.
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<italic>A Swan Lake:</italic> Exploring the Materiality of Water in Alexander Ekman’s Ballet

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This article discusses how the term ‘curiosity’ emerged as a leading element in the development of the action performance research project <italic>Microgravity</italic>. The focus is on the effect of curiosity as an activator of movement in a participatory performance in which participants are invited to explore new bodily conditions for the first time (in this case, reduced gravity through a vertical dance technique). I begin with an account of what vertical dance is, its origin, and my personal experience as a vertical dancer. Through the connection between vertical dance and space exploration and an encounter with the terms ‘awe’ and ‘wonder’ (in connection to space travel), I move on to pedagogical and creative decisions regarding ways to create a participatory performance that, due to its complete physical involvement of participants, I now refer to as an ‘action performance’. I will elaborate on the creative partners who joined the research and the interplay of curiosity and humility in relation to the terms ‘awe’ and ‘wonder’ based on the book <italic>A Neurophenomenology of Awe and Wonder</italic> (Gallagher et al. 2015), which was the initial inspiration for the use of these terms and the establishment of the imaginary universe of <italic>Microgravity</italic>. I will also employ my own interpretation of these terms as a researcher, drawing on first-hand participatory experiments and data gathered from participants between 2019 and 2022.
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Unfolding Microgravity and the Interplay Between Awe, Wonder, Curiosity, and Humility in Artistic Research

<abstract><title style='display:none'>Abstract</title>This article explores nuances in the meanings and applications of the term ‘dance technique’, by looking at how students in modern and contemporary dance articulate their understanding of the term, and by discussing this in relation to dance research articles on the theme. The article draws on a section of my on-going PhD project on the experiences in modern and contemporary dance of students at the Norwegian College of Dance. The project is informed by hermeneutic phenomenology (van Manen 1997), based on students’ logbooks and interviews. In one set of interviews, the students were asked to define the term ‘dance technique’. I have analysed the answers and discerned five approaches to the term: As <italic>a system</italic>, as <italic>knowledge or practical skills</italic>, as <italic>something set</italic>, as <italic>goal-oriented work</italic> and as ‘<italic>only technique</italic>’. The conjoining of students’ experiences with dance research articles shows both similarities and differences in comprehension of the term. I suggest that there is an ambiguity in the understanding of the term, touching upon different dichotomies existing in dance, and with parallels to a change between a modern dance tradition and a contemporary dance tradition. Clarifying taken-for-granted concepts can be of value for both dance education and dance research.</abstract>

Dance Technique–Meanings and Applications

<abstract><title style='display:none'>Abstract</title>Somatics is a field of practice that consists of approaches to bodywork that aim at psycho-physical integration and enhance the well-being of an individual. This is mainly done through appreciating the first-person perspective on the body. Don Hanlon Johnson (1995; 1994) suggests that, in the Europe and North America of the 20th century, the evolvement of diverse somatic practices could be viewed as a historical movement of its own. The inter-links that the Pilates Method has with this movement are not generally known. Joseph Pilates created an exercise method that he himself called <italic>Contrology</italic> during the early and mid 20th century, while working both in Germany and the United States. This paper delineates the evolution of Contrology by linking it to the German Body Culture of the late 19th and early 20th centuries. In so doing, it suggests that, while promoting especially functional and aesthetic efficacy of human movement, the Pilates Method shares historical roots with the somatic field. It likewise shares some principles with somatic education in that it enhances clients’ body awareness and supports the improvement of their movement patterns.</abstract>

The Evolvement of the Pilates Method and its Relation to the Somatic Field

Inkludering i dans

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This study concentrates on an art project in a teacher training program where dance art students and student teachers together develop an art event that is implemented in the school as part of the student teacher’s practice, through The Cultural Schoolbag (TCS).
In the design of the art event, the dance art students contributed a segment from another dance production, which served as artistic input in the event. The student teachers contributed with specialised knowledge about the pupils, the curriculum, teaching planning and classroom management. The goal of the art event itself was to create an aesthetic and interactive experience for the pupils.
Within the theoretical framework of «the third space», we explore what the students negotiate about in the development of the art event, and how these negotiations are expressed through three qualitative paint-interviews.
We describe our empirical material and use art-based methods to analyze this. Through the analyses, we find that the students negotiate feelings, use of time and roles in relation to the artistic expression and the pupil, in the development of the art event. We discuss these negotiations against the significance of «the third space» and the development of competence through «mutual transformation». What the students negotiate about is visualized to identify the negotiation spaces within each individual student, within the subject areas and between the students’ subject areas. We conclude with some reflections on art-based research methods and the need to practice applying them, as well as the potential for nuanced knowledge production as a creative process.
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Vi hadde litt ulik forståelse av tid – Forhandling og samarbeid om utviklingen av en kunsthendelse i dans for elever i skolen

Writing Choreography: Textualities of and beyond Dance

The Dancer and the Dance: Practices, Education, Communities, Traditions and Histories

Editorial

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This article explores a choreographic approach to the creation of mobile mixed-reality (MR) experiences in public space, with specific attention to how archival material in a cultural heritage context can be turned into a repertoire of site-specific situations. This approach can be described as a montage technique that triangulates the embodied audience member, the digital media via a mobile device, and the site with the aim of evoking somatic and kinaesthetic responses, making the experience felt in the body. To demonstrate this, the creation process of <italic>ENTER Mölndal – Kvarnbyn</italic>, a site-specific MR walk commissioned by Mölndals Stadsmuseum, is discussed. The films, photos, facts, and stories are seen as ‘energetic forces’ that evoke emotional and creative responses. In the MR walk, they become a repertoire of actions and situations experienced performatively by the audience. I share examples of the creative process and choreographic composition strategies applicable to an expanded practice of choreography in the realms of cultural heritage, mobile technology, and public space. Such a choreographic approach can contribute to experiences that activate our senses and critical reflection in an embodied way, which in turn can contribute to keeping our social relations alive.
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A Choreographic Approach to Mixed Reality: Archival Materials as Site-Specific Situations in Kvarnbyn

<abstract><title style='display:none'>Abstract</title>In Norway dance in school is mainly placed within the subject of physical education. This paper is based on a study conducted together with students in physical education teacher education. The main focus is to explore experiences in dance improvisation and contact improvisation as described by physical education student teachers. The study is influenced by phenomenological thinking. The analysis makes evident that the students experienced the subject of dance improvisation and contact improvisation in many different ways. Yet, how the student teachers express their experiences can be divided into the different roles of <italic>student-dancers</italic> experiencing dancing and <italic>student-teachers</italic> trying to decide whether what they do in the dance classes can be used in teaching in schools.</abstract>

Dance in Physical Education: Experiences in Dance as Described by Physical Education Student Teachers

<abstract><title style='display:none'>Abstract</title>The purpose of the article is to illuminate the experiences of young dancers working with their own individual training in a context of contemporary dance education. Through a three-year programme, the students have kept logbooks and developed material based on the question: What were the essential experiences of individual training today? From having a focus on training strength, mobility, resilience, stamina and balance in the beginning, they often reoriented their training so as to give themselves the space to relate to and create confidence that their own subjective and relational experiences have validity in a professional dance context. As young, prospective professionals they learn gradually that what they experience is “not wrong”, but an expression of “where they are”. Their experiences contribute to the questioning of “narrow” definitions which a number of dance researchers also do today.</abstract>

”To allow oneself to dance….”

<abstract><title style='display:none'>Abstract</title>In this article, Isto Turpeinen and Ralph Buck reflect on reasons why dance remains relatively inaccessible for boys. They note that constructions of dance and masculinity are relatively narrow. They note that while these meanings are evolving, within the classroom context, the words ‘dance’ and ‘boy’ continue to raise many issues for teachers. In the following, Isto and Ralph draw upon their own teaching experience and speak to practices that might make a difference.Boys do dance, but who cares if they don’t? Within education contexts and within society, males have ample opportunities for success, achievement and fulfilment. It seems that many boys who want to dance can, and those boys who want to play ice hockey and rugby can. Do boys need to dance? This article reflects on Turpeinen’s (2015) research on teaching boys in Finland and a key finding that draws attention to the power of dance in fostering and expressing love, most importantly the expression of love between fathers and sons.As professional male dance educators, both Isto and Ralph have taught boys and girls for over 30 years in Finland and New Zealand. This article takes the view that dance does matter for boys and girls, in various ways.</abstract>

Dance Matters for Boys and Fathers

<abstract><title style='display:none'>Abstract</title>This article contemplates how the cultivation of breath through specific body awareness techniques might be understood to support a dialogical and ethical relatedness between collaborators constructing a performance through an open-ended process. The article introduces a teaching experiment based mainly upon exercises drawn from strands of body psychotherapy that took place within a larger experimental and cross-artistic workshop and performance project. This project aimed at enhancing the collaborative, creative, and critical skills of MA students in dance and theatre pedagogy of the Theatre Academy of the University of the Arts Helsinki. The article discusses the overall artistic project as well as the kind of bodywork the teaching experiment involved, and it makes a phenomenologically oriented reading of the written interview material gathered from the students. The specific theoretical perspective taken on the topic draws from two phenomenologically inspired thinkers, namely, Luce Irigaray’s and Timo Klemola’s views on the influence that cultivation of breathing can have on subjectivity. The article suggests that exploring and cultivating breathing through compassion can support the evolution of ethical collaboration in open-ended performance processes.</abstract>

Priming the Body: Breath as a Foundation for Exploring Ethical Performance Practice

<abstract><title style='display:none'>Abstract</title>In this article the author dialogues with two contemporary dance teachers about how the practical-pedagogical knowledge of the teacher is embodied. The focus is on how the dance teacher functions as a <italic>lived body</italic> (Merleau-Ponty, 1962/2002) while in the teaching moment. The analysis of the empirical material shows that there is a continuous exchange between the dance teachers’ bodily experiences, inner dialogue and teaching choices while teaching. It is argued that its is not wrong to say that all these two dance teachers do as teachers is bodily grounded. The ways in which the practical-pedagogical knowledge of the two contemporary dance teachers is embodied can be summarized as a <italic>bodily listening, bodily tutoring</italic> and <italic>bodily ambiguity</italic> surrounded by constantly and rapidly changing <italic>body tunes</italic> throughout their teaching. These larger themes are divided into nuances which are presented and discussed in the article. The study is also a method study in how to study <italic>in</italic> and <italic>with</italic> the arts. The research process is understood as an <italic>iterative cyclic web</italic> (Smith and Dean 2009), where practice and theory take place in every sub-process of the study. Outcomes of the study are both theorisation as this article and artwork in the form of choreographies by the two dance teachers. These can be seen at <italic><ext-link ext-link-type="uri" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink" xlink:href="https://vimeo.com/40433953">https://vimeo.com/40433953</ext-link></italic> (Mari) and <italic><ext-link ext-link-type="uri" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink" xlink:href="https://vimeo.com/40075211">https://vimeo.com/40075211</ext-link></italic> (Ingeborg).</abstract>

The Embodied Teaching Moment:

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