Theses and Dissertations from UMD
Permanent URI for this communityhttp://hdl.handle.net/1903/2
New submissions to the thesis/dissertation collections are added automatically as they are received from the Graduate School. Currently, the Graduate School deposits all theses and dissertations from a given semester after the official graduation date. This means that there may be up to a 4 month delay in the appearance of a give thesis/dissertation in DRUM
More information is available at Theses and Dissertations at University of Maryland Libraries.
Browse
9 results
Search Results
Item TONIGHT WE MAY WIN: CHALLENGING THE UNIVERSAL IN QUEER EMBODIMENT AND PERFORMANCE(2024) Steinberg, Rebecca Anne; Keefe, Maura; Dance; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)I sit in this chair how I always do, snug to the left side. I feel the warm hum of my laptop resting on my thighs. I feel the external rotation of my hips that allows my legs to casually cross with my feet cradled by the ottoman. I feel the spiral of my spine supporting a slightly forward head that looks down at the computer screen as I simultaneously sense the weight of chronic pain pooling heavy in my tired bones. I come to write words on this page through a commitment to embodiment as a state of profound possibility. As dance scholar Susan Foster suggests in her essay Choreographing History, “I am a body writing, I am a bodily writing.” I write through, with, and from embodiment. I define embodiment as a state where one has a heightened consciousness of their sensorium through acknowledged sensation. This state of awareness through sensation grounds the “self” in the body. Through this lens, embodiment is a mobilization that has the power to redefine how queerness is enacted and perceived through the medium of live performance. My dance thesis work, Tonight, we, may win, wields the social commentary of this position of audience privilege as farce. In this work, the dancers engage in what I’ve named “performing performativity.” Performing performativity makes transparent the exchange of currency between audience member and performer. Performing performativity functions in Tonight, we, may win as both a lens through which to view the performance and a performative state the dancers enact. The performers and the choreographer together have the power to enact possibility through this viable exchange. The potential of this enacted possibility is extensive, complex, nuanced, and political. It is an exchange that requires a book of its own to justly unpack. Although this is not the space for that unpacking, this is a space where I utilize my thesis choreography as a primary example where the power of possibility through embodiment is examined thoroughly through various theoretical lenses and multiple works of performance art. The epicenter of this physical and theoretical research revolves around the development and execution my thesis choreography, Tonight, we, may win, performed February 16-18, 2024 at University of Maryland, College Park. The enacted examples of a body first politic are constructed in this research through the vehicle of my choreographic work. I enact a body first politic in my work and I use the following chapters to bring in the choreographic voices of both my own work and dance makers and performers who succeed in challenging the impositions of the cisheteropartriarchy through queer embodiment. In the first chapter I provide an introduction the theoretical and chorographic groundwork of this world through the lens of queer embodied subjecthood. In Chapter 2, I use a solo work I created in 2022, titled Soft Caution, to activate choreography as feminist knowledge production through movement analysis and feminist theory. In the third chapter, I evoke failure as both a queer action and choreographic tool and argue for queerness as a technology in live performance. I bring in the choreographic works of Age & Beauty: Part 3 by Miguel Gutierrez and Black Hole by Shamel Pitts as examples of live performances that make queerness as a technology visibly tangible. In Chapter 4, I closely analyze the lyrics of “I Don’t Care Much” from the musical Cabaret through black feminism, performance studies, queer studies, and beyond to dissect the thin façade of queer apathy in its application to performance, queerness, communal grief, and more. In the final chapter, I excavate both the process and the product of my thesis choreography Tonight, we, may win. Through movement analysis and rehearsal reflections I endeavor to add depth and dimension to the ephemeral world created and left on stage during my thesis concert. This research privileges embodiment, communal care, and queerness through the vehicle of live performance to argue for the enactment of inclusive and equitable futures on the stage and beyond.Item Integrating Classical Chinese Dance and Western Contemporary Dance in the Midst of the Pandemic(2021) Qi, Xinran; Pearson, Sara; Dance; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)Abstract Integrating Classical Chinese Dance and Western Contemporary Dance in the Midst of the Pandemic By Rose Xinran Qi, MFA Dance 2021 Thesis Directed by Professor Sara Pearson, School of Theatre, Dance, and Performance StudiesGhost Bride was a 40-minute original dance art presentation that premiered at the Clarice Smith Performing Arts Center at the University of Maryland on November 19 and 20, 2020. The production featured dramatic design elements and unique dance movements to convey the mystery, emotion, and supernatural events of the ancient ghost bride story. The theoretical premise and research focused primarily on philosophical and choreographic methods to effectively integrate the character of Classical Chinese female dance movements with Western contemporary movements, as a means to expand the creative boundaries for Western dancers. Other explored research interests included using the arts to drive cathartic healing from loss, and identifying creative opportunities to promote self-determination and personal freedoms for women. Planning, preparations and rehearsals occurred amidst challenges presented by the COVID-19 pandemic. This work was conducted to fulfill requirements for the Master of Fine Arts in Dance at the University of Maryland.Item Do Intergovernmental Organizations Drive the Growth of Voluntary Cooperation on Climate Change?(2020) Sapatnekar, Poorti; Orr, Robert C; Public Policy; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)Voluntary cooperation on climate change has grown rapidly since 2000, and presents a potential pathway to achieve the Paris Agreement goals. Many intergovernmental organizations (IGOs) seek to cultivate such multi-stakeholder partnerships or international cooperative initiatives in greenhouse gas-emitting sectors. But are IGOs an effective class of actors to do so? Evidence has lagged behind practice. This study fills three gaps in empirical knowledge: (1) Have large-scale efforts by IGOs (such as summits) to promote voluntary cooperation caused the growth of cooperation? If so, how? (2) By participating in partnerships within specific sectors, to what degree have IGOs influenced the growth of voluntary cooperation in those sectors? (3) How do large-scale IGO efforts interact with IGOs working within initiatives, and what is their combined effect on the quality of initiatives? This study analyses large-scale efforts during 2000-2015, and conducts three case studies, in forests, short-lived climate pollutants, and land transport. Two methods are employed: qualitative process tracing (including 71 interviews) and dynamic social network analysis of a dataset comprising 252 initiatives and their participants. Community detection and node centrality measures probe for influence over time. This study finds that: (1) Cooperative initiatives form sectoral ecosystems among inter-connected entities. New initiatives represent evolutionary changes to the strength—or quality—of cooperation within sectors. Thus, the quality of cooperation must be assessed at the sectoral level in addition to the initiative level; (2) Many IGOs participate in partnerships, but a select few have become central community-builders and these few wield strong influence over the evolution of the sectoral ecosystems; (3) IGOs (and governments) that have convening power and autonomy can choreograph a surge in the growth of voluntary cooperation. Of all IGOs, having established a ‘good offices’ role on climate change, the office of the UN Secretary-General is uniquely able to do so; (4) The surge requires six organizational attributes, which together characterize “collective choreography of cooperation”: strategic timing, high visibility, sectoral orientation, emphasis on ambitious cooperative commitments; subsidiarity, and leadership with centralized decision-making; and (5) Sustained and adequate institutional support is necessary for the gains of collective choreography to be impactful.Item 's (apostrophe s)(2019) Stone, Shawn Truman; Pearson, Sara; Dance; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)Through the writing of this thesis I define and explain ‘s (apostrophe s) as a contemplative dance engaging in a multi-disciplinary approach. In order to better understand what defines dance and art as contemplative, I will use comparative literature regarding the work of other dance artists whose work can or has been described as such. I will also utilize the research and knowledge of scholars and practitioners of contemplative practice to refine and demonstrate this definition. Next, I will unpack ‘s (apostrophe s) as a richly layered contemplative movement artwork based in the practice of embodied navigation integrating with the discipline of visual art. Finally, in utilizing ‘s (apostrophe s) as the research, I will demonstrate how the use of multi-disciplinary creative work can also be understood as inner-disciplinary work and that creative process can be realized as transformative practice.Item Octavia's Brood: Riding the Ox Home(2016) Bowden Abadoo, Meghan Kamiche; Phillips, Miriam; Dance; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)Octavia’s Brood: Riding the Ox Home was an evening-length dance concert performed October 15 and 16, 2015, at the Clarice Smith Performing Arts Center in partial fulfillment of the Master of Fine Arts degree from the University of Maryland’s School of Theatre, Dance, and Performance Studies. Inspired by the prophetic envisioning of Harriet Tubman and Octavia Butler, it explores race, otherness, ownership and story-telling from the perspective of Black women’s dancing bodies and histories. Borrowing its title from Octavia’s Brood: Science Fiction Stories from Social Justice Movements, it utilizes visionary story-telling, where science fiction provides a foundation for imagining socially just worlds inhabited by richly diverse protagonists. This paper is a written account of the research by which I composed this immersive dance event, leaping back and forth through time, landing between antebellum Maryland of the mid-1800s and an unknown place at an unknown date of a foreseen future.Item Architecture through Dance | The Movement Experience(2015) Levash, Marissa; Simon, Madlen; Architecture; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)What concepts about movement & the body can architects learn from the discipline of dance? By analyzing architecture through the lens of dance, much is to be learned from the way bodies move through and interact with space. I believe dancers are more in-tune with their bodies and context. Through a series of dance and movement related exercises, I will demonstrate how analyzing choreography in architecture can lead to a better understanding of human-spatial relationships. These findings will influence design in order to heighten architectural experiences. This thesis serves as a model for cross-disciplinary work in the dance and architecture fields; it uses architecture as a tool to improve the well-being of the bodyItem "Like a Unicorn in Captivity"(2013) Dooling, Shannon Marie; Pearson, Sara; Dance; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)In the process of creating Like A Unicorn in Captivity, I sought the answers to two primary research questions: "What happens when you realize that your idol isn't perfect?" and "What happens when you recognize her flaws in yourself?" The work began as a response to and an interpretation of the work of writer and aviator Anne Morrow Lindbergh, incorporating multimedia, spoken word, and movement in an exploration of celebrity, hero-worship, identity, relationship, ambition, creativity and duty. As we investigated these notions, the cast and I embarked on a transdisciplinary choreographic process, one that combined movement-based and theoretical research across dance, theatre, design, music, history, literature, feminism, and women's studies. This paper offers an explanation of the inspirations behind the piece, how I arrived at the notion of transdiciplinary choreography, what the practice looked and felt like in progress, and a description of the piece that resulted from the process.Item Geminuspace(2010) Skeen, Betty Caroline; Bradley, Karen; Dance; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)Geminuspace, is a meditation on the vanishing of a linear perception of time, a flirtation with future memory, past infinity, and infinite present. The inhabitants of this suspended reality, this trance-scape, waltz their achromatic encounters of self and fellow selves in the grand ballroom of sound and image. We ponder the idea of a geminate reality, the duplicate, a twin existence, through the wide lens of imagination. The ideas that form the backbone and brain of the work are drawn from the imagined realms of the virtual. The work playfully examines the possibility of the existence of the human body, lifted out of its three-dimensional life and breath, in an alien world of the two-dimensional.Item Songs of My Life: Five Approaches to Choreographic Explorations(2004-05-11) Singh, Daniel Phoenix; Rosen, Meriam; ArtThis written project explores five approaches to the dance performance event "Songs of My Life." The five approaches are based on developing the practical process, deriving from personal experiences, engaging women's perspectives, reorienting spectators and defining the role of art. This written work engages the performance event from a Women's Studies, Critical Studies and Cultural Studies perspective. The project works on deriving theory from the practice of dance and art, as well as using the existing theoretical models as a lens, to gain new perspectives on the choreographic process.