Dancing with Ouroboros
Document Type
Master's Thesis
Graduation Year
2025
Writing Track
Narrative/Poetic Medicine
Degree
Master of Fine Arts
Program
Creative Writing
Program Director
Judy Halebsky, PhD
First Reader
Judy Halebsky, PhD
Second Reader
Brian Tierney
Description
Dancing with Ouroboros explores the world of ballet through themes of bodies, beauty, myth and gender. Utilizing both a historical and a personal lens, Deidre Cavazzi weaves together stories of classical ballets, famous dance figures and personal recollections. She employs poetry to examine beauty standards and theatrical expectations, objectified female bodies, gender roles in European fairytales, power dynamics, the competitive gaze, her own adolescent struggles with disordered eating and body dysmorphia, and the performative nature of ballet from the studio to the stage.
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