Dance

This article traces the historical background of the term 'belly dance', the English-language name for a complex of solo, improvised dance styles of Middle Eastern and North African origin whose movements are based on articulations of the torso. The expression danse du ventre -- literally, "dance of the belly" -- was initially popularised in France as an alternate title for Orientalist artist Jean-Léon Gérôme's 1863 painting of an Egyptian dancer and ultimately became the standard designation for solo, and especially women's, dances from the Middle East and North Africa. The translation "belly dance" was introduced into English in 1889 in international media coverage of the Rue du Caire exhibit at the Parisian Exposition Universelle. A close examination of the historical sources demonstrates that the evolution of this terminology was influenced by contemporary art, commercial considerations, and popular stereotypes about Eastern societies. The paper concludes with an examination of dancers' attitudes to the various English-language names for the dance in the present day.

In this paper, I discuss how dance can operate as a method in the collaborative performance ethnography to explore the sensory and emo- tional dimensions of the embodiment of young womanhood. Drawing on one dance workshop where we explored material objects symbolic of womanhood, particularly introducing Nitika and her intuitive dance with gendered objects and her bodily ways of knowing and learning about gender, I illustrate how dance enabled exploration of young women’s identity intertwined with objects and their gendered meanings. I argue that creative embodied methods such as dance create space for working with the plurality of fleeting sensory and emotional information, not because it is more important than any other information, but because it is an alternative way of knowing about oneself, others and the world.

Ce mémoire de recherche expose un regard sur les pratiques chorégraphiques nommées ici interdisciplinaires. À partir du questionnement des étiquettes posées sur ces pratiques, la réflexion s’est naturellement dirigée vers le faire d’artistes chorégraphiques, dans un désir de dire et de réfléchir, au plus proche, les substances inter et alter des œuvres plurielles que nous rencontrons sur les territoires que peuple la danse.

Questionner le disciplinaire et ses enjeux en pratique artistique a été le point de départ de cette recherche. De la formation, aux apprentissages, à la mise au dehors du désir créateur, les différentes strates du travail poïétique qui animent la création d’une œuvre de danse ont été investies. Autant de territoires qui constituent le foyer de l’artiste, poussé tantôt à s’expatrier, tantôt à revisiter son identitaire disciplinaire. Le mémoire s’articule selon deux volets : le premier, ethnographique et poïétique, est retour réflexif sur le terrain d’observation conduit auprès de Frédérick Gravel et de ses collaborateurs, pour la création de l’œuvre Usually Beauty Fails, présentée au public montréalais en novembre 2012. Le second volet, auto-ethnographique et auto-poïétique, rend compte de l’expérience vécue à travers le laboratoire de création collectif Entre autres, investissant danse et vidéo-danse, qui a donné lieu à la présentation d’un work in progress en mai 2013 au Département de danse de l’UQAM. On croise ainsi deux points de vue sur l’inter, l’endogène et l’exogène, pour tenter de comprendre, mais aussi d’éprouver les dynamiques induites par ce qui collabore (et ceux qui collaborent) au sein d’une création inter.

L’inter et l’alter s’articulent ainsi autour de la mise en présence et de la circulation entre les créateurs, leurs faires, leurs savoir-faire et leurs sensibilités. Ces dynamiques ont été pensées à la lumière de la relation à l’altérité, de la rencontre avec l’autre, toujours source de nouveaux espaces de réflexion et de création. Créer, c’est alors co-naître et re-co-naître, particulièrement en danse où l’altérité forge chaque impulsion, chaque sentir ou ressentir, chaque instant de danse.


Mots clés :

Inter ; Alter ; Interdisciplinarité ; Poïétique ; Altérité ; Création ; Danse ; Vidéo-danse ; Frédérick Gravel

This milestone text provides a comprehensive and state-of-the art overview of perfectionism theory, research, and treatment from the past 25 years, with contributions from the leading researchers in the field. The book examines new theories and perspectives including the social disconnection model of perfectionism and the 2 × 2 model of perfectionism. It also reviews empirical findings, with a special focus on stress, vulnerability, and resilience, and examines perfectionism in specific populations. Finally, it considers how perfectionism relates to physical health and psychophysiological processes and introduces new approaches to effective prevention and treatment. By increasing our understanding of perfectionism as a complex personality disposition and providing a framework for future explorations, this landmark publication aims to promote further research in this field. It will be invaluable reading for academics, students, and professionals in personality psychology, clinical and counselling psychology, applied psychology and related disciplines.

Bringing together interdisciplinary leaders in methodology and arts-based research (ABR), this comprehensive handbook explores the synergies between artistic and research practices and addresses issues in designing, implementing, evaluating, and publishing ABR studies. Coverage includes the full range of ABR genres, including those based in literature (such as narrative and poetic inquiry); performance (music, dance, playbuilding); visual arts (drawing and painting, collage, installation art, comics); and audiovisual and multimethod approaches. Each genre is described in detail and brought to life with robust research examples. Team approaches, ethics, and public scholarship are discussed, as are innovative ways that ABR is used within creative arts therapies, psychology, education, sociology, health sciences, business, and other disciplines.

" Bharatanatyam " is the most revered classical dance forms of India. It is one of the most studied, respected, depicted, researched, performed and practiced Art today. It has reached it " s peak form, with great masters, performers and researchers leaving no stone unturned in taking it further.Bharatanatyam fell into Oblivion during the British Raj, just like other ancient Indian techniques like the Yoga, the Ayurveda, Sanskrit, the Gurukul education and much more. Most of the evils of the Hindu way of life were glorified excessively, like the Sati system, the devadasi system, the caste system, the cultures and traditions, Untouchability, the native couture etc. Yoga was considered evil too. Bharatanatyam was misunderstood as Nautch, performed by the degraded class. Most of them who educated in English, and read English literature, were ashamed of their own religious existence. They wanted to get rid off anything that could bring dis-repute, including Bharatanatyam, which they believed was Sadir, a dance of the devadasis. The Anti-Nautch movement started in the late 19 th century swept the Southern part of India for about 40 years, and it is believed that dance went into Hibernation, and was revived in the year 1932 and later by the efforts from famous revivalists of the likes of E Krishna Iyer, Rukmini Devi Arundale, V Raghavan and more. We carry this belief till today. But, a careful study into the times of the famous gurus of Bharatanatyam that existed during the late 19 th century till Independence brings to light a different perspective of Bharatanatyam that shows not only bare survival, but also significant growth in the way Bharatanatyam was taught and practiced in those times.

This article reports the findings of a study exploring the effects of using videoconferencing (VC) to deliver dance instruction to rural communities. The context of the study is a university community partnership run through blended live and VC instruction with elementary and middle school students in Eloy, Arizona. This research is part of a larger, ongoing study of iDance, aimed at defining instructional methods and creating dance curriculum to meet the needs of students in rural communities. VC presents unique opportunities for teaching students in rural settings. Considering the relative accessibility of VC centers makes it possible to educate rural students in a broad spectrum of dance contexts: composition, performance, technique, and analysis. Regardless of geographical limitations, community partnerships can flourish through VC technology. Addressing the literature on the use of VC in other disciplines, methods of data collection include interviews, short answer questionnair...

Time and Performer Training addresses the importance and centrality of time and temporality to the practices, processes and conceptual thinking of performer training. Notions of time are embedded in almost every aspect of performer training, and so contributors to this book look at: age/aging and children in the training context how training impacts over a lifetime the duration of training and the impact of training regimes over time concepts of timing and the ‘right’ time how time is viewed from a range of international training perspectives collectives, ensembles and fashions in training, their decay or endurance. Through focusing on time and the temporal in performer training, this book offers innovative ways of integrating research into studio practices. It also steps out beyond the more traditional places of training to open up time in relation to contested training practices that take place online, in festival spaces and in folk or amateur practices. Ideal for both instructors and students, each section of this well-illustrated book follows a thematic structure and includes full-length chapters alongside shorter provocations. Featuring contributions from an international range of authors who draw on their backgrounds as artists, scholars and teachers, Time and Performer Training is a major step in our understanding of how time affects the preparation for performance. https://www.routledge.com/Time-and-Performer-Training/Evans-Thomaidis-Worth/p/book/9780815396284

Resumen

El presente artículo parte del trabajo de investigación "Estudio sobre la presencia del baile en la programación teatral de la ciudad de Valencia entre los años 1761 y 1808 partiendo de los datos recopilados de la Hemeroteca Municipal y del Archivo de la Diputación de Valencia, fondos del Hospital General". Dicho trabajo se completa con la investigación desarrollada dentro del Programa de Doctorado en Industrias de la comunicación y culturales, quedando ampliado a con un nuevo período que abarca desde 1808 a 1832 y se centra en los Fondos del Hospital hasta el momento en que cesan las representaciones en La Botiga de la Balda.
El objetivo es realizar una reconstrucción del papel del baile en la vida cultural de Valencia a través de su programación en los espacios de representación. En este sentido, detecta una falta de estudios específicos en el campo de la danza frente al campo del teatro, donde la información es más abundante.

Palabras clave: baile; teatro; Valencia; representaciones;


Abstract

This article comes from the investigation work "Study of the presence of dance in the theater program of the city of Valencia between 1761 and 1808 based on data collected from the Municipal Newspaper Archives and the Archive of the Provincial Council of Valencia,  General Hospital". It has been complete with the research developed within the Doctoral Program in communication industries and cultural, spanning from 1808 to 1832 and focuses on Hospital until the moment that La Botiga de la Balda was definitively closed.
The objective is a reconstruction of the role of dance in the cultural life of Valencia through its programming in the places of representation. In this sense, it detects a lack of specific studies in the field of dance, which is more abundant  in theater.

Keywords: dance; theater; Valencia; performances;

Although recreational dancing is associated with increased physical and psychological
well-being, little is known about the harmful effects of excessive dancing. The aim of the
present study was to explore the psychopathological factors associated with dance addiction.
The sample comprised 447 salsa and ballroom dancers (68% female, mean age: 32.8
years) who danced recreationally at least once a week. The Exercise Addiction Inventory
(Terry, Szabo, & Griffiths, 2004) was adapted for dance (Dance Addiction Inventory, DAI).
Motivation, general mental health (BSI-GSI, and Mental Health Continuum), borderline personality
disorder, eating disorder symptoms, and dance motives were also assessed. Five
latent classes were explored based on addiction symptoms with 11% of participants belonging
to the most problematic class. DAI was positively associated with psychiatric distress,
borderline personality and eating disorder symptoms. Hierarchical linear regression model
indicated that Intensity (ß=0.22), borderline (ß=0.08), eating disorder (ß=0.11) symptoms,
as well as Escapism (ß=0.47) and Mood Enhancement (ß=0.15) (as motivational factors) together
explained 42% of DAI scores. Dance addiction as assessed with the Dance Addiction
Inventory is associated with indicators of mild psychopathology and therefore warrants
further research.

Keeping abreast of political and policy changes can be difficult at present, due to the seemingly endless educational reforms that are being spearheaded by our new coalition government. This article offers an insight into the Tickell Review (2011) and the new Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS, DfE, 2012) framework, in an endeavour to show how these can positively impact on our dance work with children in the early years context.

[The phenomenological and performative aspects of modern and postmodern dance]. The article covers the problem of gestural expression and the role of the body in the aesthetic experience analysed in the Maurice Merleau-Ponty's phenomenology of art and Erika Fischer-Lichte's theory of performance. The author compiles these theorists' conclusions and contextualizes them in the field of modern and postmodern dance. The ultimate goal is to analyse the artists' statements in the context of formulated conclusions and syntheses. In summary, the author draws attention to current aesthetic research on dance and pinpoints the benefits of philosophical (phenomenological) interest in the modern and postmodern dance.

Resumo: Esta comunicação apresenta um sistema de notação coreográfica para câmera-na-mão, inspirado pelo estilo de trabalho do diretor de fotografia Dib Lutfi.
Palavras-chave: Cinema, cinegrafia, coreografia, videodança, videodançarino

Abstract: This communication features a handheld camera choreographic notation system, inspired by the work style of the cinematographer Dib Lutfi.
Keywords: Cinema, cinegraphy, choreography, videodance, videodancer

Publicado nos anais de textos completos da XXIII SOCINE.
ISBN: 978-65-86495-00-3

This article introduces the practice of walking-as-dancing. In this article, the terms walk and walking are often considered as synonymous with wandering since the practice of walking-as-dancing that I will describe does not have a set goal. When walking-as-dancing, I explore the improvisational nature of a wandering movement that allows me to let go of certainty and attune to the not-yet-known. I define the body as a compass that guides us through the path of the curriculum-as-lived (Aoki, 1993) and the curriculum itself. Through the analysis of the practice of walking-as-dancing, I will show how the knowledge of the body is already in us; it is us.

I want to start with a confession: I want to write 'about dance' - almost as though, firstly, you and I were already in agreement as to what the latter means, or might mean; and secondly, as though I can 'write about dance', even if it remains the case that my 'dance writing' can only be produced from my position as expert-spectator, and on the basis of the relation to 'dance' that this spectating allows.  Spectating, almost by definition, does transform 'dance' into spectacle, by which I mean into an aspect of the wider, ubiquitous, pleasurable and very persuasive visual economy. Perhaps I should only write, on the basis of this limitation of mine, 'about watching dance', where this shift in words would, at the very least, put me in my place: I am not-a-performer, at least as far as expertise in the performance disciplines is concerned, and I am not-a-choreographer.  What am I doing here? (The first answer, of course, is writing.)

Written whilst a Research Fellow at ResCen, Centre for Creation Processes in the Performing Arts, Middlesex University, London, Autumn 2000

This paper was written 10 years into my work on virtual presence, just after directing 2 workshops focusing on the performative use of telematics (CellBytes00 at Arizona State University and Corpos Online at Lugar Commun in Portugal). The following paragraph sets the context of the debate. Ghislaine Boddington April 2020

What is live? What is natural? What does it mean to be embodied? How many identities can one have? What is the essence of presence? This was a period of investigation for the performing arts, which have traditions deeply integrated with live presence through their special performer-to-spectator connection. My work as a director of performing arts has immersed me to work in to the dramaturgies and process design of virtual physical events.

Across the last thity years I have engaged with telepresence - led live event processes and have worked with many combinations of body technologies. I have been experimenting in the interface demands of the digitalised body alongside the live physical body.

This has for me brought up many questions which are highly topical in sectors well beyond the arts, as is in proof today with the COVID-19 extraordinary situation of lockdown, meaning advanced use of telepresence through video conferencing in all sectors globally. I detail some of this early work in the following text (written in 2000) and contextualise these explorations within the wider socio-cultural engagement with telephonics. This text explores some of the reasons why there is a need for far more in depth research and development of the  concepts of presence (and therefore identity) that will exist in the future.

Please do look at further writings on ongoing work post 2000 by Ghislaine Boddington

How is Indian classical dance viewed abroad?

The place and impact of India’s dance traditions throughout the world is obviously a vast subject covering space and time. It has perhaps almost as many perspectives as there are artists and audiences. Recently I invited a dance scholar, a mid-career international performing artist and a former Indian ambassador to offer their thoughts and experiences as part of a seminar.

Ambassador Amarendra Khatua is an all-too-rare civil servant who brought significant knowledge and familiarity with arts and artists to his international postings as well director of ICCR. He shared that there are approximately 7,600 classical art schools outside India and 367,000 recognized classical Indian arts performers. Surprisingly, these are not just in the Indian Diaspora countries but all over the globe.

A question he raised is whether these arts, which are recognized and appreciated abroad, have entered the local lexicon of the arts internationally. Khatua also shared his personal view, after 38 years as a Foreign Service bureaucrat, that government should not function as a patron of the arts running institutions but should simply offer financial support. He also raised the question of the motivation and impact for India of taking our performing arts abroad. There are 32 million non-resident Indians persons of Indian origin abroad. We tell them they are ambassadors of India but are they ambassadors of our performing arts? Or are they opportunistic promoters of our performing arts during their conferences and festival events?

Bharatanatyam exponent Rama Vaidyanathan articulated the responsibility of representing Indian Sanskriti and connecting to both the Indian Diaspora and local nationals worldwide. I was happy to hear that she shared my experience that “it is the emotive power of Indian dance that really stirs the soul of the audience that connects to them and is different from their familiar dance forms rather than the general assumption that fast-paced rhythmic nritta”.

Dance scholar Arshiya  Sethi shared her research into the creative interactions, based on fact and imagination, of Western artists connecting to the Indian dance genres available to them in the early and mid-20th century. These included Ruth St Denis, Anna Pavlova, La Meri who promoted Ram Gopal, Jazz and film choreographer Jack Cole who trained under La Meri, and many more, creating a considerable tapestry of artistic and cultural influences and interactions as well as the downside of devadasis exhibited in fairs. 

She gave an historical panorama of the tapestry of these connections. “The transference of Indian dance overseas is a process that has been going on in phases for 140 years. A Nautch group that went in the 1880s to perform in exhibitions and fairs provided glimpses of spiritual elements draped in saris, though tinged with racist and sexist stereotypes.

Basically these were people who were fascinated by India. There are questions of representation, authenticity even today when we have reclaimed and researched so much that was not available earlier in the 20th century.

The 1960’s STEM visas for the USA brought highly skilled immigrants with wives trained in classical dance who found a few interested American students to teach. In the 1980’s USA visa policy changed which led to many Indians coming, trained dancers among them, and the rise of Indian dance schools everywhere with more Indian origin students as the number of American students reduced.”

Arshiya’s historical overview led to the conclusion that the visibility of Indian dance has improved considerably in the USA with an Indian dancer, Ranee Ramaswamy, in the National Endowment for the Arts which determines national funding and other dancers getting national, state and local funding.

Of course, this is a subject I have enjoyed observing over the decades since I was first exposed to India and Indian classical dance during the 1950’s as a child in multi-culturally vibrant Detroit, Michigan. The transmission of tradition here and abroad, along with its understanding and appreciation, is an evergreen subject I plunge into regularly. This was a few drops from this ocean.