Articulating Dance Improvisation

320 Pages·2010·4.3 MB·English

by  Ashley Thorndike

Articulating Dance Improvisation: Knowledge Practices in the College Dance Studio
Dissertation
Presented in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree Doctor of Philosophy
in the Graduate School of The Ohio State University
By
Ashley Thorndike, B.F.A, M.Ed.
Graduate Program in Dance Studies
The Ohio State University
2010
Dissertation Committee:
Candace Feck, Advisor
Karen Eliot
Jan Nespor
Copyright
Ashley Thorndike
2010
Abstract
College dancers develop knowledge through physical, cognitive, and affective
processes. This dissertation explores the dancer’s knowledge through an ethnography of
one cohort of college dancers as they prepare for and perform in a concert of new works.
This study focuses on danced knowledge—the competencies and capacities that dancers
cultivate through a system of dance practices—by specifically targeting the
epistemological beliefs of college dancers engaged in improvisatory dance practices.
Through an investigation of the epistemologies of this small group of college dancers
engaged in improvisation-based performance and choreography, this document opens for
discussion the nature of knowledge that arises at the intersection of body, mind, and art.
Using ethnographic participant/observation strategies and drawing from
autoethnography, institutional ethnography and narrative inquiry, I have come to
understand this population’s danced knowledge as fluid, interdependent, and contextual.
Rooted in the physical practices of the form—messy, sweaty, tiring, and
exhilarating—their understanding of knowledge is not merely about physical skill.
Instead, while physicality is central, knowledge is constructed dialogically and
interdependently with dancers developing their understandings in relation to each other
and mentors as well as to the system and the values of the artistic form.
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Herein, I argue that danced knowledge in this population: 1) arises from
sensation, 2) is constructed through dialogue, 3) is mediated by fallibility, and 4) is
enabled through connectivity to the discipline and to a community of dancers.
This study has implications for educators in dance and beyond, suggesting that the
opportunities made available by an improvisatory mindset allow students to integrate
physical/sensory, cognitive/analytic, and affective/emotional modalities to develop
complex epistemologies. Furthermore, specifically within dance, this study has
implications for college dance curricula, namely, the integration of improvisatory practice
with opportunities for students to refine and articulate their understandings in ways that
are accessible to a general population.
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Dedication
For my grandmother Mildred Babbage Polk Weeks, whose stories of her
aunt Mildred Ditto Babbage, a newspaper editor, have inspired me.
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Acknowledgments
There are no solos. Even when dancing alone, we are in constant relationship.
To Alex, Ally, Becca, Caitlin, Joanna, Leigh, Katie, Katie, Kelly, Meredith,
Sarah, and Vicki: you shared so much with me; I humbly thank you. Your danced
knowledge is simply stunning. Annie, thank you for sharing your process with me in
such a vulnerable way. I’m so delighted to continue to dance for and with you and so
lucky to have you as a reader, colleague, and friend. Laurie, my almost family, thank you
for your continued support, your striking dancing, and your insightful way of being in
this world. Thank you Norah for opening your class to my curious eyes. Michael, there
is but a glimpse of portrait in this document, only because I have yet to explore the depth
and resonance of my experience in this piece. Thank you, from one of your birdwomen.
To my committee: Candace, Karen, and Jan. Candace, beyond the joys and
terrors of your close readings, your approach to dance scholarship has forever enhanced
and enabled my ways of knowing the field. Aesthetics and Criticism changed my life and
having you as an advisor was invaluable. You are able to strike that delicate balance of
encouragement and challenge and for that I am most grateful. Karen, three years ago
during a summer technique class, we were moving across the floor and you came over to
me, explained something, placed your hand just above my sacrum and pressed. I began
the phrase and charged through the space as I had never done before. Thank you for
changing my dancing in ways like that, many times over. Thank you for reading my bad
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papers; thank you for teaching me what a comma splice is; thank you for our friendship,
in Birdwomen and beyond. Jan, odd as it may sound, the notion that a group of
researchers could sit in a circle and talk about one another’s work in a generative, lively
fashion was mindblowing. Your research class taught me to first be interested, then be
critical. That way of looking enabled this study.
I began dancing at age 16 and felt as if I had come home. Two years later, I
entered one of the most rigorous undergraduate programs. Throughout those years, I
faltered, questioned everything, and had a few breakthroughs. A few years later, what I
learned there fell into place and I committed myself to a life as a dance artist. To my
amazing undergraduate classmates: thank you for your continued inspiration.
To my graduate cohort: thank you for the office venting sessions, the shared
syllabi, the many collaborations, and the spirit of embodied inquiry. Special thanks to
Anna, Kate, Yen-Fang, and Yu. Most importantly, to Annie Beserra and Adriana—to
you two, two very different thank yous. Annie, your masterful critical thinking and
generous spirit inspired me to not only do, but to think about that which we do. Dancing
Jenkins Farm Project fundamentally shifted my understandings of liminality,
performance, and audience relationships. I look forward to future projects. Beyond that,
our friendship is dear to my heart. Adriana, your complex epistemology captivates me.
Smart, physical, and critical, you embody danced knowledge. Thank you for your kind
friendship and your uncompromising standards. Indeed, the ideas in this dissertation are
nothing you don’t know—as they are what you do.
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Abby, Ming, and Mimu, thank you for the warm home, fried tofu skins, never-
ending conversations, and the glorious perspective of childhood.
To Kim and Winx: thank you always. My sense of leadership comes straight
from my work with you on the Young Women Leaders Program at the University of
Virginia.
To Dr. Ellis: thank you for your advice and your skill; I’m thrilled to begin
dancing again.
To the dance departments at Ohio State University, Oberlin College, and the
University of Utah: thank you for all the challenges and opportunities.
I value my relationships above all else but during this period of intensive writing,
I’ve ignored too many voicemails and emails. To my friends: thank you all for
understanding. And now, I’m back.
I’ve been blessed with an amazingly strong, supportive, and individuated family.
To Louise, Alan, Stewart, & John: thank you.
Karim, I love you. This last stretch would have been a miserable one without
you. Thank you for your love, support, and cheerleading. I am at home when with you
and I am with you, even when we are apart.
Lastly, I am most excited about returning to the studio. To my creative partner
Peter, I look forward to discussing our dissertations in the past tense and our projects in
the present! To my dancers, Laurie, Annie, Meghan, Annie, Adriana, Hannah, Keira,
Dinah, Mandy, and whomever else I can recruit to come slice, drop, sweat, hit, and soar
with me for this next project: send me your schedules, I’m ready to work.
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Vita
2000............................................ B. F. A. Modern Dance, University of Utah
2003............................................ M.Ed. Counselor Education, University of Virginia
2004-5..................................….. Associate Director, Young Women Leaders Program
University of Virginia
Spring 2010 ............................... Visiting Assistant Professor, Oberlin College
Major Field: Dance Studies
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Table of Contents
Dedication......................................................................................................................iv
Abstract..........................................................................................................................ii
Acknowledgments...........................................................................................................v
Vita.............................................................................................................................viii
List of Figures.............................................................................................................xiii
Prelude............................................................................................................................1
Chapter 1: Introduction..................................................................................................10
What Does it Mean to Know in the Field of Dance?..................................................10
Why Study the Dimensions of Danced Knowledge?..................................................13
Need for the Study.....................................................................................................15
What is Danced Knowledge?.....................................................................................17
On Dance in Higher Education..................................................................................19
Overview of Chapters................................................................................................21
Chapter 2: Methodology................................................................................................23
Design of the Study...................................................................................................23
Recording a Time-based Art......................................................................................24
Selecting a Methodology...........................................................................................27
Site of Study..............................................................................................................33
Population.................................................................................................................39
Indelible Marks.........................................................................................................40
Performance Improvisation Ensemble........................................................................43
Data Collection..........................................................................................................45
Analytic Framework..................................................................................................52
Initial Strategies for Data Analysis.............................................................................56
Narrative Analysis.....................................................................................................60
Multimodal Analysis.................................................................................................64
Structuring.................................................................................................................67
Editing.......................................................................................................................68
Writing Style.............................................................................................................69
Confidentiality...........................................................................................................70
Conclusion................................................................................................................71
Chapter 3: Writings on Dances and Dancing..................................................................73
Overview of Dance Literature....................................................................................74
A Political Debate in Dance Studies ..........................................................................82
Phenomenology and Movement Description..............................................................86
Dance Ethnography and LMA...................................................................................91
Conclusion................................................................................................................94
Chapter 4: Situating Sensations as a Means to Develop Knowledge...............................95
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