Little is known about the 19th Century painter Francois Leupalle and his 1832, oil on canvas painting, Marie Taglioni and Joseph Mazilier in the First Scene of La Sylphide. Despite Leupalle’s obscurity, many Romantic Ballet history books reproduce the painter’s La Sylphide as visual evidence for Romantic Ballet. Leupalle’s painting, then, represents not only La Sylphide but also the Romantic ballerina. In the 19th Century, the ballerina usurped the danseur and reached celebrity status. Through her pointe work, Taglioni helped to facilitate this radical shift. If her pointe work symbolized this sea change, why then does Leupalle illustrate Taglioni barefoot? Lithographs of this period predominantly portray dancing ballerinas, framing their pointe work; yet Leupalle’s barefoot ballerina kneels beside a kilted Scotsman, who slumbers in an armchair, surrounded by a vista of mist, light and foliage. This paper examines how Leupalle’s choice to portray Taglioni as barefoot affects scholars’ use of the painting as visual evidence for Romantic Ballet. Through analysis of the painting and archival documents, this research critiques the use of this image as visual evidence of the Romantic ballerina using male gaze and visual pleasure.

Do we embody our social identities? It is well known that men and women are taught to speak differently, but they also learn to move differently. Like in spoken language, differences exist between both individuals and groups of people in how they communicate non-verbally. Men and women have generally distinct sex differences which result from acculturation; how much is a result of biological factors and how do these overlap? I will undertake research that examines how sex is perceived based on movement alone. Using Kinect technology to document subjects performing movement prompts in the form of gender-ambiguous animations, I will solicit responses from viewers of the animations to determine how accurately the viewer judges the sex of the mover. I will measure the accuracy of their perceptions against several factors, which might influence gender performance including: the dance-experience of the mover, the music played for the mover, the movement prompt, and whether the mover is actively trying to embody a particular gender. This research will contribute to research on non-verbal expression of identity and inform representations of gender in the performing arts.

"...And earlier today she had us dancing!" enthused a young teen, who had previously been sullen and uncooperative.  Now she reassured the new-comer that the Secure Crisis Residential Center (SCRC) they now inhabited, was not really that bad.  While working as a counselor at this SCRC, I came to suspect that teaching dance led to improving the attitudes of its residents.  An SCRC is not an incarceration facility.   Police or case workers bring teens to the centers when there are no charges against them, but they are nonetheless unable to return home for whatever reason, i.e. no adult is home or accessible, they are homeless/run-away, they have been kicked out of their parental, group, or foster home etc.  The facility provides safe, temporary transitional room and board for up to 15 days. It also offers residents services addressing housing, educational, family, health, legal, and other needs.  This facility's ability to deliver services depends directly upon cooperation between residents and staff.  Multiple studies have demonstrated dance programs' benefits in inner city school rooms.  This study addresses the question: does providing dance classes in this SCRC, reduce the number of reported incidents and/or improve cooperation?  The study consists of teaching two classes per week for ten weeks.  I will compile data from both the facility's current measures regarding the number and severity of incidents, and also from brief questionnaires of staff members about levels of cooperation experienced on their shift.  Data will be compared between dancing and non-dancing days.  I hope and anticipate that my research will generate much needed support for the survival and expansion of dance programms in faclilities like this one, thereby strengthening benefits delivered to the at-risk youth they serve.

A dance, a piece of art that is naturally ephemeral, is very difficult to preserve. Though it can be partially captured through film or notation, neither of these two-dimensional forms of archiving fully encapsulates the experience of a dance for either audience or performer. The only way to truly bring a dance to life is to perform it. Because a dance is at once a living participant and observer of the cultural context in which it was created, as well as a work of art, by researching and performing historical dances we can reach a more complete appreciation of culture past and present. A great part of the research done to better understand the historical role and importance of a dance will in fact come through the act of meticulously recreating the art work in the present day. This year the Chamber Dance Company researches and performs eleven works of dance by choreographers Ethel Winter, Helen Tamiris, Mary Wigman, Ruth St. Denis, Jean Erdman, Susan Marshall, and Louis Falco. We look for insights that elucidate historical issues of the time through embodying the movement. For example, in St. Denis' work we see cultural appropriation of Orientalism; in Tamiris we look at how and why a white Jewish American woman made dances about African American oppression; and in Wigman's work how dance was able to slip through the iron fist of Nazi censorship. This presentation will be a preview of the choreographed works to be performed by the Chamber Dance Company in October 2012.

A profound irony underscored the Cold War-era U.S. government’s clandestine support of American dance and film; the main innovators in these forms were Russian immigrants themselves. One of these was Maya Deren, a largely unacknowledged avant-garde filmmaker, theorist, and creator of the “dance for camera” genre. She was born Eleanora Derenkowsky in Kiev, Ukraine and immigrated to the U.S. in 1922. Defying mainstream Hollywood trends, which followed linear, cause-and-effect story arcs, Deren created unique “dance for camera” films that emphasized the movements of the dancer and the camera. Her films created dances that could not exist in a live performance by utilizing film’s ability to cut instantly between scenes and play footage in reverse. Deren viewed film as “an art which makes its statement in terms of time and movement. This medium is not so much concerned with any single instant as with the change from instant to instant.” A dancer would begin a movement in one scene and complete the same movement in a different space entirely. In a single moment, the dancer could traverse space and time. By using such film tools, Deren expanded the limits of the human body.  Though many films today reflect her influence, mainstream film theory histories ignore Deren’s contributions. By analyzing Deren’s A Study in Choreography for the Camera (1945) using her own writings as well as contemporary film theory, I attempt to recuperate Deren to film theory history.

Ghanaian Concert Parties are live theater showcases that travel around to different cities in Ghana. Actors, dancers and musicians express their talent to audiences for many hours engaging with members by poking fun at spectators and by playing popular music. They are inspired by events in an actor’s everyday life or events in society. The stories showcase the natural and the supernatural worlds, infusing stories with commentary on Christianity and indigenous religions. Upon my research, I found some ambiguities surrounding the research of Ghanaian Concert Parties.  The transformation of Ghanaian Concert Parties presents various research questions: Why did this form originally designed for upper class become a lower class art form? What changes have taken place in the art form when the socioeconomics of the audience changed? My research examines five articles: “Comic Play in Ghana” written by K.N. Bame, “Comic Opera in Ghana” and “Ghanaian Christianity and Popular Entertainment: Full Circle” both written by E.J. Collins, “The Political Relevance of Ghanaian Highlife Songs since 1957” written by Kofi E. Agovi, and “Concert Parties: Paintings and Performance” written by Michelle Gilbert. These articles are from five different decades from the 1960s to the 21st century. I chose these articles because they detail changes on the scholarly perspective of Ghanaian Concert Parties. I used the historiographical method to compare and contrast their portrayals and how they have changed over time. The research is significant because it creates a historiographical model for further study on postcolonial African art forms.