School of the Arts & Design
Permanent URI for this communityhttps://hdl.handle.net/11274/15786
Browse
Browsing School of the Arts & Design by Author "Akinleye, Adesola"
Now showing 1 - 3 of 3
- Results Per Page
- Sort Options
Item Ch-Ch-Changes: Change in solo improvised dance making(2024-05) Wass, Andrew 1973-; Akinleye, Adesola; Gamblin, Sarah; Fuchs, JordanThis research project focuses on methods to notice, describe, and theorize the notion of change in the movements of a dancer engaged in solo-improvised dance-making (SIDM). Using grounded theory and phenomenology, the research drew on the experiences of five dancers well-versed in dance improvisation to develop a substantive theory to describe changes in movement in solo-improvised dance-making. The development of this substantive theory for change in solo improvised dance-making provides a palette of vocabulary for the observation and creation of dances. It was found that change in movement occurred through three processes - variation of inspiration, variation of action, and the reduction of parameters. It is hypothesized that these processes can be used to observe dance practice as a means for reflection on, and articulation of a dancer’s improvisational process to expand and extend their engagement with dance improvisation. By providing more nuanced language for discussion and theorization about change in movement in solo improvised dance-making, this substantive theory of improvisation in dance can extend practice-based discussions around the notion of change within dance improvisation. Although there is very little written scholarship on the notion of change from the perspective of dance, these research findings contribute to the theoretical discussion that is pertinent to dance and also beyond the dance studio to wider socio-political, cultural, and historical discourses, adding an embodied perspective to wider cross-disciplinary engagements with the notion of change.Item Dancing woman(ist)/black feminist aesthetics: An embodied epistemology of sweat and spirit(August 2023) Woods Valdés, Andrea Ellen 6/16/1964-; Candelario, Rosemary; Wells, Charmian; Akinleye, AdesolaABSTRACT ANDREA E. WOODS VALDES DANCING WOMANIST/BLACK FEMINIST AESTHETICS: AN EMBODIED EPISTEMOLOGY OF SWEAT AND SPIRIT DECEMBER 2023 This qualitative narrative study explores Black aesthetics as embodied affirmation of Black life through the performative work of three women choreographers in dialogue with me as a dance artist and researcher. The participants are Michelle N. Gibson, Michelle Grant Murray, and Dr. L’Antoinette Stines. In this dissertation, I posit that centering Black women’s spirit experiences and the rigors of creativity, or what I refer to as sweat, enable us to theorize embodied Black aesthetics not only as a concept but as an activity that manifests knowledge. I relate to dance scholar Luana’s definition of Black aesthetics as sensibilities that inform Black art creation; however, I center art creation as dynamic and embodied cultural production through sweat and the presence of spirit. I contend that attention to sweat and spirit as generative Black aesthetics opens up attention to Black women’s embodied work and their inner landscapes, including their self-perceptions, values, and beliefs. Moreover, through aesthetic risk and aesthetic agency, the participants’ distinct sweat and spirit work shapes Black experience as critical embodied cultural production. I examine the participants’ lives and teaching, performing, and choreographing through interviews and videos of their work. Our creative and life experiences generate theories and discourse from the fields of Black aesthetics, Black performance, womanism, and Black feminism. I engage in this study to amplify Black aesthetic discourse with Black women’s presence as dynamic and integral to Black experience.Item Happy, healthy, and making new friends: Guangchangwu and the lived relationships of participants(August 2022) Keller, Tanya; Candelario, Rosemary; Williford-Shade, Mary; Akinleye, AdesolaGuangchangwu 广场舞, or square dancing, is a mass dance practice performed in public squares that has become extremely popular among the middle-aged and elderly in China, especially women. The narrative surrounding guangchangwu online and in media presents the participants as cranky, outdated, belligerent troublemakers. But after participating with a group of guangchangwu dancers who met every evening in the park located in my apartment complex in Shenzhen, I understood this representation to be undeserved. Noting that the voices of the participants were largely missing from the narrative, this dissertation shares the voices of guangchangwu participants in Shenzhen, China, as they describe their experiences of dancing in large groups in public spaces. This ethnographic study explores the practice of guangchangwu, describing how participants use the practice to stay “happy, healthy, and making new friends.” It examines embodiment within the practice of guangchangwu and how this relates to the role of dance in China and what it means to be Chinese; the distinct Chinese experience of public space and how guangchangwu participants subvert said places for their own personal and group needs; and how the experiences of the guangchangwu participants influence their engagement, exploration, and performance of the aging female body. My findings suggest that contrary to the negative representation of guangchangwu I had initially found online, my participants were warm, welcoming women craving camaraderie, health, and happiness within a community of their own creation. This research is important because it puts into conversation the often-neglected voices of the dance participants with the voices of journalists and researchers observing and writing about the dancing event.