All Conference Presentations, Performances and Exhibits
Bottled Water: Dance and Definition
Location
Guzman 114
Start Date
4-14-2016 7:00 PM
End Date
4-14-2016 7:30 PM
Student Type
Undergraduate - Honors
Faculty Mentor(s)
Gay Lynch, Ph.D
Presentation Format
Oral Presentation
Abstract/Description
The opportunity to create a dance presents an opportunity to decide what a dance is- what happens when an audience sits down in front of a group of moving bodies- what possibilities are inherent in this environment? bottled water as a piece of dance attempted to utilize surprise, humor and discomfort to make the audience revalue their understanding of dance. The research for the piece developed primarily over four events that I attended beginning Spring semester 2015.
The piece’s development began as an idea from basic research in Postmodern Literature, a course taught by Professor Graham Guest in Spring 2015, specifically in the idea of hyper objectivity; this idea continued throughout the piece to highlight the easy and distrustful use of definition- literally of what dance means and what is allowed socially in our current understanding of the context of “dance.”
Further research was developed and gathered over the summer during a foreign exchange course through Dominican University of California to Menri Monastery in India, were ideals of non-attachment, essentialism and definition cemented their way into the development of the piece and a desire to play and make fun of social context became evident.
The third event that developed this work was attending the Pilobolus Dance Theatre Summer Workshop and the Hope Mohr Dance Bridge Project with Jeanine Durning. Both of these workshops presented new and diverse was to create movement through incessant task and game based development and improvisation. Jeanine Durning in particular presented research that forth rightly questioned “what is worthy enough to be deemed dance?” and the idea of non-stop, both of which were highly essential to the work.
The fourth part of research was the process of creating the work with eight Undergraduate dance majors of the Dominican/LINES Ballet BFA Program. Their development of ideas, their eagerness to explore bottled water’s themes, and the personal research each dancer bought to the piece was instrumental in its creation.
Throughout the essay I will breakdown first the research that preempted the work and then the work itself- revealing my choices in the structure in the context of my research and highlighting the space I attempted to develop for my dancer’s personal voices within a structured piece of dance.
Bottled Water: Dance and Definition
Guzman 114
The opportunity to create a dance presents an opportunity to decide what a dance is- what happens when an audience sits down in front of a group of moving bodies- what possibilities are inherent in this environment? bottled water as a piece of dance attempted to utilize surprise, humor and discomfort to make the audience revalue their understanding of dance. The research for the piece developed primarily over four events that I attended beginning Spring semester 2015.
The piece’s development began as an idea from basic research in Postmodern Literature, a course taught by Professor Graham Guest in Spring 2015, specifically in the idea of hyper objectivity; this idea continued throughout the piece to highlight the easy and distrustful use of definition- literally of what dance means and what is allowed socially in our current understanding of the context of “dance.”
Further research was developed and gathered over the summer during a foreign exchange course through Dominican University of California to Menri Monastery in India, were ideals of non-attachment, essentialism and definition cemented their way into the development of the piece and a desire to play and make fun of social context became evident.
The third event that developed this work was attending the Pilobolus Dance Theatre Summer Workshop and the Hope Mohr Dance Bridge Project with Jeanine Durning. Both of these workshops presented new and diverse was to create movement through incessant task and game based development and improvisation. Jeanine Durning in particular presented research that forth rightly questioned “what is worthy enough to be deemed dance?” and the idea of non-stop, both of which were highly essential to the work.
The fourth part of research was the process of creating the work with eight Undergraduate dance majors of the Dominican/LINES Ballet BFA Program. Their development of ideas, their eagerness to explore bottled water’s themes, and the personal research each dancer bought to the piece was instrumental in its creation.
Throughout the essay I will breakdown first the research that preempted the work and then the work itself- revealing my choices in the structure in the context of my research and highlighting the space I attempted to develop for my dancer’s personal voices within a structured piece of dance.