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Part I: Preliminary Information

Title: Challenging gender representations within codified dance styles: The staging of original

dance pieces with pre-performance exploration of dancer agency

Names: XXXXXXXXXXX

Abstract:

Since the resurgence of feminism in the 1980s, choreography has been noted as an ideal medium

for studying gender representation. Scholars in this medium agree that codified dance styles

present certain gendered ideals, but choreographers have yet to investigate the dancer’s role as a

rhetor who actively constructs gender images. Drawing on recent research about dancers’

rhetorical agency, I will examine Elon dance majors’ ability to actively construct gender

representations within codified dance styles. I will design and implement kinesthetic rhetoric

labs: creative, reflective sessions which allow dancers to explore and manipulate the gender

ideals embedded in dance styles. My goal will be the creation and production of dance

performances drawing on lab dialogue, as well as an analytical essay for submission to

appropriate journals. By focusing on the intersection of embodied style and gendered

communication in performance, I hope to spark a broader discourse about dancers’ agency and

voice.

Personal Statement:

Though I have always been a dancer, my intellectual curiosities are often piqued by language. I

was an avid writer and voracious reader growing up, and I opted to pursue the writing-intensive

International Baccalaureate Diploma in high school. Because I was simultaneously training pre-

professionally in ballet, modern and choreography, I nurtured an enthusiasm for merging

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academic and creative ideas. That enthusiasm has continued and developed in Elon’s dance

major and Honors Fellows program.

The “Fellows College Writing” course I took during spring of my freshmen year

introduced me to the language of rhetorical analysis. I was drawn to the idea that writers are

rhetors: agents crafting their language to convey meaning (Wardle, 2011). Interestingly, all

rhetors have deeply embedded and often unconscious approaches to writing (Perl, 1979). If

rhetors are agents of communication, how do their writing patterns impede or influence their

ability to communicate? I began applying these questions about rhetorical analysis to dance. The

more I read and reflected on this potential connection, the more interested I was in designing a

dance-as-rhetoric approach for my final choreographic thesis.

In addition to giving me the foundational tools for dance technique and choreographic

approaches, Elon’s dance major program has prompted me to question dance as a language. The

“Choreography I” course I took my sophomore year challenged me to examine my movement

vocabulary. In one exercise, we explored where we hold tension in the body, and what those

tensions could convey to an audience. Clearly movements originating from my own body tell my

body’s story truthfully. But as I began choreographing a project on two of my classmates, I

wondered how dancers can maintain movement ownership when they are directed by an outside

force: a choreographer. During my rehearsal process I shared movement and themes with the two

dancers, encouraged improvisation between the dancers, and then edited their natural movement

tendencies to suit my intentions for the piece. Even though I was in a controlling role, I played

with how much control I could give to the dancers themselves. This experience deepened my

curiosity about dance-as-rhetoric, specifically the role of a dancer as a rhetor. Through “College

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Writing,” I had asked how dancers can draw on rhetors’ skills; after delving into choreography, I

wanted to know if dancers can be rhetors in their own right.

I am most interested in the ways in which dancers accept, reject, and otherwise interact

with their training in dance styles. Elon dancers come from diverse training backgrounds, and all

of us balance two opposing goals: embody and improve technique in codified styles such as

ballet and postmodern dance, then consciously depart from technique to move organically and

create inventive movement. How my peers navigate this conundrum, both learning and

unlearning style, is worthy of deeper examination. Interestingly, while studying Dance History in

Florence I have found that styles emerge from certain cultural conditions, crafted to present

particular ideologies about gender and power. Today’s dancers may benefit from understanding

where and why their movement vocabularies were first codified, and how they can harness those

vocabularies to communicate with agency.

I view this project as an entryway to making a positive impact on the world. Dancer

agency is a line of inquiry that I could extend into graduate work with professional dancers or

nonprofit work with disenfranchised groups. A Lumen Prize would enhance my inquiry in three

crucial ways: supporting my research with Elon dancers; allowing me to collaborate with

choreographers in the field; and providing a foundation for the pursuit of national fellowships,

graduate study in choreography, and a career in dance studies.

Part II: Project Description

Focus:

This choreographic research will explore the relationship between Elon dance majors’ learned

movement techniques and gender representations in performance, with an overarching goal of

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increasing dancers’ agency as rhetors1. In order to probe these relationships, a preliminary three-

pronged research methodology2 will be necessary: I will develop a functional understanding of

rhetorical analysis and its newly articulated relationship to dance; I will study the cultural origins

of movement techniques embodied by Elon dancers3; I will find further inspiration by studying

theories of gender representation in performance. Supported by this three-pronged research, I

will design and lead three kinesthetic rhetoric labs.

Each kinesthetic rhetoric lab will consist of bi-weekly reflective, playful, and

experimental sessions which allow dancers to explore and manipulate the gender ideals

embedded in dance styles. These creative spaces will encourage movement invention and foster

dialogue about the dancers’ capacity to communicate meaning. My roles will be to facilitate

discussion and movement improvisations, teach thought-provoking movement phrases, oversee

choreography, and document the dancers’ experiences and questions4. For example, in one

session I may present an idea, guide improvisation based on that idea, create choreography, and

lead a reflective discussion. In one kinesthetic rhetoric lab, the bi-weekly sessions will progress

from movement play to meaning-making to manipulating the cultural implications of style. The

three kinesthetic rhetoric labs will each work toward the creation and staging of a dance piece

1 For this research, a rhetor will be defined as “an orator, a speaker” who “has agency or power to make choices that affect not only the way the work comes to life, but also how the audience interprets the movement” (Roses-Thema, 2008, p.1).

2 Dancemakers have been challenged to use theory as “a set of questions that provides the motor for research and reflection,” supplementing and enriching creative projects (Daly, 2000, p.40).

3 The main techniques at Elon are Modern (postmodern release, Bartinieff fundamentals, and Afro-fusion) and Ballet (a broad survey of classical and contemporary approaches), with additional courses in Jazz, Tap, World, and Somatic Theories. My preliminary study will focus on Modern and Ballet techniques, but a functional understanding of other techniques’ histories will be necessary in kinesthetic rhetoric labs.

4 Research methods for documentation will likely be based on Roses-Thema’s (2008) methodology, which combines ethnography and interpretive phenomenology.

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based on the movement and dialogue generated throughout the biweekly sessions. The

discoveries and questions made in each kinesthetic rhetoric lab will support and structure

subsequent labs. The first kinesthetic rhetoric lab will grow from my “Choreography II” course;

the second will be performed in the 2014 DanceWorks concert; the third will be a year-long

process within the “Senior Seminar in Dance I-II” courses. In conjunction with the kinesthetic

rhetoric labs, I will write and seek to publish an essay detailing salient questions and findings

from my research. My aim is that I will contribute to an understanding of the dancer’s potential

to communicate, focusing on the ideologically complex representations of gender in different

movement styles.

Since the resurgence of feminism in the last 1980s, choreography has been noted as an

ideal medium for studying gender representation (Thomas, 2003, p. 158). Dance scholars and

choreographers have been particularly interested in the relationship between prominent Western

theatrical dance styles5 and performed gender roles. They have generally agreed on a hierarchy

which places classical ballet as most constrictive, modern dance as a flawed improvement, and

post-modern dance as best able to allow non-essentialist gender inventions (Thomas, 2003,

p.164). Daly (1991) proposed the importance of “training and cultural conditioning in the

construction of female and male body images in dance,” noting that body images in ballet or

modern change in tandem with cultural shifts (p.3). Dempster (1995) agreed that dance styles

are ideological constructions on anatomical planes, using the human body to perform gender

ideals (p.37). Through learned dance styles, Reed (1998) summarized, “cultural ideologies of

gender difference are reproduced” on dancers’ bodies (p.516).

Several dance critics have asserted that while bodies are conceptualized differently across

dance forms, dancers themselves have the agency to respond to those forms and rewrite

5 “Western theatrical dance styles” refers to ballet, modern, and post-modern dance.

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culturally crafted aesthetics of movement (Novak, 1995, pp. 179-180; Banes, 1998, p. 4; Wolf,

1990, pp. 134-5). This idea of dancer agency is particularly interesting when applied to

university-level dancers. Dance majors are juggling multiple styles, and each style uses

movement that was crafted to communicate the gender ideals of a particular time and culture.

The challenge of navigating the cultural implications of style is not often the dancer’s

responsibility in a choreographic process. Dancers are usually subject to the choreographer’s

design, making it easy to ignore the challenge of personal meaning-making. However, even

when working within someone else’s choreography, dancers are ultimately the agents perceiving,

creating, and performing each movement. Dance critics have addressed this agency in written

critique, but there has not been sufficient choreographic research investigating dancers’ ability to

create meaning.

My research on dancer agency will be bolstered by the dancer-as-rhetor concept: a highly

topical interdisciplinary approach to dance studies. Roses-Thema (2008) presented, for the first

time, research on the dancer’s role as a rhetor in performance. Roses-Thema’s study interviewed

dancers immediately post-performance to optimally assess their agency within the performance.

She viewed the dance performance as a rhetorical situation in which rhetors consciously

communicate with audience. In assessing the dancers as rhetors, Roses-Thema found that

dancers are not robots executing a choreographer’s vision; they use complex, dynamic

perception systems to embody movement. They actively perceive their relationship to the

choreographer, audience, internal and external stimuli, and meaning-making strategies. This

groundbreaking research has opened a new field of inquiry in dance studies. My project takes her

work a step farther by investigating dancers in the pre-performance stage, crafting choreography

informed by the way dancers navigate styles. I will assist a group of dancers in recognizing their

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amalgamated stylistic experiences and harnessing those experiences to work deliberately,

perform authentically, and recognize their power to communicate meaning. The construction of

performed gender identity through movement style will be the focus of my project, an entry point

for speaking more broadly about dancer agency and voice.

Proposed Experiences:

In the summer of 2013 I will begin a three-pronged research methodology analyzing dance

styles, gender representations in dance, and the intersection of rhetorical theory and performance.

In conjunction with academically-informed research, I will participate in several dance-making

intensive programs in New York City. Keigwin & Company’s intensive uses “improvisational

and compositional tools in a playful environment,” which will provide an example as I design

my kinesthetic rhetoric labs. Parson’s Master Choreography Workshop offers involvement in

another professional company’s rehearsal process, enriching my conception of dance-making.

MELT intensives at Movement Research involve classes in technique, composition, and

improvisation. Supported by both academic and experiential research, I will be poised to start the

first kinesthetic rhetoric lab at Elon in the fall.

My junior year will focus on two kinesthetic rhetoric labs: their processes, performances,

and written evaluations. The first lab will take occur within Professor Chris Burnside’s

“Choreography II” course. Its product will be presented in the Choreography Salon, where it may

be selected for presentation in Elon’s Dancing in the Black Box concert or at the American

College Dance Festival. While enrolled in Professor Rebecca Pope-Ruark’s “Introduction to

Professional Writing,” I will gain a functional understanding of rhetoric to support my first

kinesthetic rhetoric lab. For additional choreographic practice, I will submit my dance piece from

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last fall’s “Choreography I” course to North Carolina Dance Alliance’s Student Showcase in

October. Over winter and spring, I will implement a second kinesthetic rhetoric lab with a larger

group of Elon dancers. This kinesthetic rhetoric lab’s product will be submitted to Elon’s

DanceWorks Concert in March.

In 2014 will apply for a summer Choreographic Residency with San Francisco

Conservatory, practicing choreography in a professional environment. In fall and spring of my

senior year, I will craft a year-long rehearsal process as part of Professor Lauren Kearns’s

“Senior Seminar in Dance I-II” course. This collaborative course will place my final kinesthetic

rhetoric lab’s choreographic product within my cohort’s capstone dance production in May 2015.

Proposed Products:

The creation and performance of a cumulative dance piece is the end goal of this project, and it

will fulfill requirements for my Honors thesis and “Senior Seminar in Dance I-II” course. This

piece will be accompanied by a concise written statement in the program. At each stage in my

research I will also produce written reflections and analyses which, in aggregate, will serve as

the written component of my Honors thesis and will ultimately be edited for publication in

appropriate journals.6 This paper will be of interest to choreographers, dancers, and educators,

particularly at the university level. It will also be relevant to any scholars of performance theory

and gender studies.

Part III: Feasibility

Feasibility statement:

6 Movement Research’s Critical Correspondence publication accepts writings on long-term, process-based choreographic research; their readership will be an appropriate audience for my essay.

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As much of my research is process-based, the majority of my project will not require costumes,

props, lighting or other technical elements. Performances in the Choreography Salon and the

DanceWorks concert offer lighting, but require choreographers to obtain costumes, set, or prop

pieces. I have included $300 in my budget to accommodate the purchase of necessary technical

elements for these two kinesthetic rhetoric labs’ performances. Due to the collaborative nature of

Elon’s “Senior Seminar in Dance I-II” course, the final kinesthetic rhetoric lab’s product will

almost certainly be performed in concert with the works of my peers. This concert ensures that

my final piece will have a performance space, technical attention from lighting designers,

potential aid from costume designers, and collaborative effort from my dance major cohort. I will

also have support from dancers, other student choreographers, tech designers, and dance faculty.

I have included $200 in my budget to purchase supplemental technical elements for the final

piece.

When filming my cumulative dance piece for submission to external conferences and

showcases, I will require the expertise of a student videographer to create an appropriate video

reel. I have included $50 in my budget for the purpose of hiring a student videographer to film,

edit, and produce several copies of a reel.

While the construction of gender expression through dance style will be the clear focus of

my written essay, that focus will serve as the structural spine7 of my choreography. Therefore,

the subject matter of each kinesthetic rhetoric lab’s performance may or may not demonstrate the

relationship between dance style and gender expression. Kinesthetic rhetoric lab dialogues will

7 Choreographer Twyla Tharp’s postulate on the spine suggests that any creative work may rely on an idea for coherence while choreographing; however, that structural idea may or may not be related to the content, aesthetic, or perceived meaning of the piece (2005).

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guide each piece’s development structurally and conceptually, but the narrative subject matter of

the work may develop into some seemingly unrelated topic.

Budget:

2013 Keigwin and Company Intensive – $950

o Five days of Keigwin and Company Intensive tuition - $500

o Housing in New York City from June 9 to June 14 - $390

o Transportation to New York City - $60

2013 David Parsons Master Choreography Workshop – $1,145

o One week of David Parsons Master Choreography Workshop tuition – $695

o Housing in New York City from June 15 to June 20 – $390

o Transportation from New York City – $60

2013 MELT Intensive with Movement Research – $830

o One week of MELT Intensive tuition – $320

o Housing in New York City for six days – $390

o Transportation to and from New York City – $120

2014 Choreographic Residency with San Francisco Conservatory – $3,975

o Choreographic Residency Audition Fee - $30

o Choreographic Residency Tuition - $2,200

o Transportation to San Francisco for Choreographic Residency – $660

o McAllister Tower apartment in San Francisco for four weeks – $1085

Unforeseen additional choreography classes and workshops – $300

Choreography showcase application fees – $60

o North Carolina Dance Alliance – $30

o Young Choreographer’s Showcase – $30

Hiring student videographer – $50

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Digital voice recorder and microphone for kinesthetic rhetoric lab interviews – $440

Costumes, props, or other technical elements in performance – $500

o First Kinesthetic Rhetoric Lab – $150

o Second Kinesthetic Rhetoric Lab – $150

o Third Kinesthetic Rhetoric Lab – $200

Additional supplies for kinesthetic rhetoric labs – $100

Books - $450

o Rhetorical Moves: Reclaiming the Dancer as Rhetor in Dance Performance by Cynthia Roses-Thema; Choreographing Difference: The Body and Identity in Contemporary Dance by Ann Cooper Albright; The Knowing Body: The Artist as Storyteller in Contemporary Performance by Louise Steinman; Gender Trouble: Feminism and the Subversion of Identity by Judith Butler; The Body, Dance and Cultural Theory by Helen Thomas; Excitable Speech: A Politics of the Performance by Judith Butler; Performance Studies: An Introduction by Richard Schechner; Theories of Performance by Elizabeth Bell; Of the Presence of the Body: Essays on Dance and Performance Theory by Andre Lepecki – $267

o Additional books and journals – $183

Tuition

o 2013-2014: $3,100

o 2014-2015: $3,100

Tuition: $6,200 Expenses: $8,800 Total: $15,000

Timeline:

Proposed Experiences Proposed ProductsSummer 2013 Participate in one week of

Keigwin and Company’s summer intensive June 10-14.

Participate in one week of David Parsons Master Choreography Workshop June 17-21.

Participate in one week of MELT intensives with Movement Research program

Written analysis of three-pronged methodology

Written design for the first kinesthetic rhetoric lab

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August 5-10.

Begin three-pronged preliminary research methodology, gaining a functional understanding of rhetorical analysis, dance style, and gender representation in performance.

Fall 2013 (1 research credit hour)

Submit Hollow Hands, Charming Armies (piece from the “Choreography I” course) to North Carolina Dance Conference.

Enroll in Professor Chris Burnside’s “Choreography II” course, and apply first kinesthetic rhetoric lab to a quintet.

Present the “Choreography II” piece in Choreography Salon.

Enroll in Professor Rebecca Pope-Ruark’s “Introduction to Professional Writing and Rhetoric” course.

One 10-12 minute dance piece

Written reflection and analysis of the first kinesthetic rhetoric lab’s process and performance

Winter 2014 Design and implement a second kinesthetic rhetoric lab with a larger group of Elon dancers.

Submit the second kinesthetic rhetoric lab’s product to the DanceWorks Concert.

Audition and apply for a Choreographic Residency with the San Francisco Conservatory.

One 5-8 minute dance piece

Written reflection and analysis of the second kinesthetic rhetoric lab’s process

Spring 2014 (2 research credit hours)

Hold biweekly sessions for the second kinesthetic rhetoric lab.

Present the second kinesthetic

The presentation of the second kinesthetic rhetoric lab’s product

Written reflection and analysis of the second kinesthetic rhetoric lab’s performance

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rhetoric lab’s product at the DanceWorks Concert.

Summer 2014 Complete a Choreographic Residency with San Francisco Conservatory June 6 – July 10

Continue three-pronged research methodology, evaluating the first two kinesthetic rhetoric labs and planning the final kinesthetic rhetoric lab.

Cumulative written analysis of first two kinesthetic rhetoric labs’ processes and performances

Written plan for the final kinesthetic rhetoric lab

Fall 2014 (3 research credit hours)

Enroll in Professor Lauren Kearns’s “Senior Seminar in Dance I” course.

Hold an audition-interview session to build my final cast of 8-12 dancers.

Hold biweekly sessions for the final kinesthetic rhetoric lab.

The first 10-15 minutes of the final 30-minute dance piece

Written reflection and analysis of the final kinesthetic rhetoric lab’s process

Winter 2015 Hold biweekly sessions for the final kinesthetic rhetoric lab.

Begin consultations with lighting and costume designers.

Oversee the filming of the piece for submission to choreographic events.

Submit a section of the piece to the Young Choreographer’s Showcase in New York City.

The composition of one complete 30-minute piece

Additional written reflection and analysis of the final kinesthetic rhetoric lab’s process

Spring 2015 (2 research credit hours)

Enroll in Professor Lauren Kearns’s “Senior Seminar in Dance II” course.

Hold bi-weekly sessions for the final kinesthetic rhetoric lab.

Submit final written product to

The presentation of one 30-minute piece

Written reflection and analysis of the final kinesthetic rhetoric lab’s process and performance

The compilation of all written reflections, edited into an essay for publication in appropriate journals

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be considered for publication in Critical Correspondence.

Apply to Critical Correspondence internship with Movement Research program.

List of sources:

Banes, S. (1998). Dancing women: Female bodies on stage. London: Routledge.

Daly, A. (2000). Feminist theory across the generational divide. Dance Research Journal, 32 (1),

39-42. Retrieved from: http://www.jstor.org

Daly, A. (1991). Unlimited partnership. Dance Research Journal, 23 (1), 2-5. Retrieved from:

http://www.jstor.org

Dempster, E. and Goellner, E and Murphy J.S. (Eds). (1995). Women writing the body: Let’s

watch a little how she dances. Bodies of the text: Dance as theory, literature as dance.

New Brunswick: Rutgers U P.

K + C Summer Intensive at the Julliard School. Available from:

http://www.keigwinandcompany.com/calendar/event/KC-Summer-Intensive-2013-06-10

Movement Research MELT Intensives. Available from:

http://www.movementresearch.org/classesworkshops/melt/

Novak, C.J. (1995). The body’s endeavors as cultural practices. In S.L. Foster (Ed),

Choreographing history (177-184). Bloomington: Indiana University Press. Available

from: http://books.google.it/books.

Parsons Dance 2013 New York City Summer Intensives. Available from:

http://www.parsonsdance.org/calendar/summerworkshops/

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Perl, S. (1979). The composing processes of unskilled college writers. Research in the teaching

of English, 13(4), 317-336. Retrieved from: http://www.jstor.org

Reed, S. (1998). The politics and poetics of dance. Annual review of anthropology, 27(1), 516.

Retrieved from: http://www.jstor.org

Roses-Thema, C. (2008). Rhetorical moves: Reclaiming the dancer as rhetor in a dance

performance. Saarbrucken: VDM Verlag.

San Francisco Conservatory of Dance Choreographic Residency. Available from:

http://www.sfconservatoryofdance.org/summer-intensives/choreographic-residency

Tharp, T. (2005). The creative habit: Learn it and use it for life. New York: Simon & Schuster.

Thomas, H. (2003). The body, dance and cultural theory. Houndmills: Palgrave Macmillan.

Wardle, E. & Downs, D. (2011). Writing about writing: A college reader. Boston:

Bedford/St.Martins.

Wolf, J. (1990) Reinstating corporeality: Feminism and body politics. Feminine sentences:

Essays in women and culture. Oxford: Blackwell Publishers. 134-135.