The Meanings of A Modern Dance - Leicester Research Archive

227 Pages·2009·0.96 MB·English

by  Nadra Assaf

The Meanings of A Modern Dance: An Investigation into the

Communicative Properties of a Non-Verbal Medium

Thesis submitted for the degree of

Doctorate of Education

At the University of Leicester

by

Nadra Majeed Assaf

Department of Education

Leicester University

December 2007

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Acknowledgements
I believe that it is impossible to achieve something like a doctoral thesis without the help
and support of many. For this reason I wish to acknowledge my ‘support’ system.

Dr. Agneta Svalberg, my advisor, for her constant guidance and support. I am
extremely and deeply grateful. I would not have been able to reach this point had she not
‘kept me on my toes’ so to speak.

Dr. Angela Creese, my first advisor who lead me towards the path that I finally
reached. Her initial support and belief in me motivated me to continue.

Dr. Hugh Busher, one of my teachers in the program, for his encouragement and
interesting conversations.

Dr. Nola Bacha and Dr. Rima Bahous, my colleagues, for their support and
encouragement.

Dr. Irma Ghosn, my friend and colleague, for her help, support and
encouragement.

Mrs. Nelly Abboud, my ‘smiley’ secretary, for all her support and help in
implementing the original project.

Mr. Suhail I. Dasouki, Mrs. Amelia Yusuf-Karameh, Mrs. Denise Biben,
Dr. Julien Lahoud, and Mrs. Erica Rizk my best friends, for all their work and support. I
could not have finished this doctorate had they not helped in every aspect of my life and
livelihood.

The Khourys: Milad, Joumana, Rabih and Jinan, for their all-round support, love
and encouragement.

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Mrs. Joelle Choueiry-Youssef, Ms. Berna Beyrouthy, Mr. Jimmy Bechara, and
Mr. Johnny Bechara, my Sarab teaching team and long term dancers, for their
encouragement and support. They held down the fort when I was too busy thinking to be
of any ‘real’ use.

Ms. Marie-Noel Mhanna (now Mhanna-Assaf), Ms. Krystel Farah, Ms. Ornella
Saliba, and Mr. Jimmy Bechara, the choreographers who partook in the project, for their
constant dedication to dance and its development.

Ms. Berna Beyrouthy, the dancer of the original choreography, for all her hard
work over a period of two years, her dedication to dance, her desire to improve and
develop dance, and her overall support of me and my work.

Mr. Atiyeh Assaf and Mrs. Pat Assaf for their belief in me and my work.

Mr. George Assaf, my brother, for his encouragement and love.

Mr. Amin Assaf and Mr. Samir Assaf, my brothers, for their emotional and
financial support. Their love, help and encouragement made this project more real.

Mr. Majeed Assaf, my father, who never stopped encouraging me from the
moment I was born. He encourages me to be who I am.

Last but for sure not least,
Mr. Majd Al-Alam, my son (who was only seven when this trip began), for his
constant belief in me both as an educator and as a mom, for putting up with all the days
when there was no time for him and all the nights when we had popcorn dinners.

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Dedication

I wish that there was no reason for this page to exist, but life is not always what we wish.

This thesis project, from its inception to it final stages, is dedicated to two of the most
important people in my life. They both began this trip with me but left before it was
finished. I know they both would have had nothing but smiles and joy for me had they
been here, and even though they are not, I still feel their pride in my accomplishments.
My Brother
Nabil Majeed Assaf
March 17th 1972
August 11th 2002

My Mother
Linda Highlander-Assaf
November 12th 1944
June 20th 2007

Even though I did not acknowledge them on the acknowledgements page, it is very
important for me to affirm all the support and encouragement they gave me.
Nabil, my brother, started the journey with me and it was in large part due to his
encouragement that I agreed to join the doctoral program. He helped me through those
first four years both financially and morally.
Linda, my mother, was the motivating factor in my life. She helped me raise my son, and
during the periods when I was too busy to remember that I even had a son, she was his
‘mom’. Up until the day she left, she was always concerned with how my studies were
going and when was I going to finish.
I miss and love them both. This is for them.
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Abstract

Communication in all its various forms has one common goal: expressing and
deciphering ideas. Education in recent years has taken a move towards more global
approaches to learning/teaching. Within this context, more innovative and inclusive
methods of communication need to be created. This study investigated the meaning-form
connections in a modern dance experiment. Based on a poem, a dance was created and
then performed for various audiences. Responses were recorded through survey and focus
group interviews; and analyzed based on grounded theory (Strauss and Corbin, 1998;
Charmaz, 2006). GT analysis coupled with hermeneutic constructivism offered an
instructive and inclusive means of looking at the data. The results of the analysis along
with inductive reasoning led to the result of six categories through which modern dance
produces meaning and audiences decipher meaning from modern dance: Conflict
Resolution, Personal Experience/Trait, Linguistic Structures, Abstract Concepts,
Compatibility, and Technical Ability. The last stage of the study looked at a constructivist
communication model “ecology of meanings model”, utilized its basic concept to build a
communication for modern dance, and configured the newly found categories within it.
My aim in this thesis project is to shed light on the manner in which a non-verbal means
of communication, namely dance, is used to convey a message. The end result is a
prototype of a possible communication model for modern dance which could afford
choreographers/dancers/dance educators/dance spectators the ability to understand not
only what modern dance means but also how. By illuminating this process, I hope that
dance and communication experts will be able to enhance their educational procedures.

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Key Terms:

Constructivism, Hermeneutics, Grounded Theory, Dance, Choreography

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Table of Contents

Acknowledgements………………………………………………………………….ii
Dedication…………………………………………………………………………...iv
Abstract………………………………………………………………………………v
Key Words…………………………………………………………………………...vi
List of Figures………………………………………………………………………..x
List of Tables…………………………………………………………………………xi

Chapters
I. INTRODUCTION……………………………………………………1
II. ESTABLISHING MEANING-FORM CONNECTIONS………… 21
Hermeneutics: Deciphering Meaning……………………………… 21
Heidegger’s Notion of Understanding…………………… 22
Husserl and Understanding………………………………. 25
Gadamer’s Contribution…………………………………… 26
Linking Notions Together………………………………… 27
Experience and Understanding…………………………… 30
Language and Communication…………………………… 31
Semiotics and Understanding……………………………… 33
Existentialia…………………………………………………34
Art as Mimesis……………………………………………... 35
Constructivism: The Concept of Knowledge……………………….38
Development of Constructivism…………………………… 39
Knowledge is Adaptive…………………………………… 41
The Importance of Social Interaction……………………….42
Constructivism and the Arts……………………………… 48
Dance and Choreography: Body Communication…………………. 52
Spatial Awareness and Importance………………………… 53
The Body, Dance, and the Communication Continuum…… 56
Dance Culture……………………………………………… 58
Multimodality: A Multi-Layered Approach to Communication……60
The Need for New Grammars……………………………… 61
Grammar for Visual Modes………………………………... 62
Grammar for Movement and Dance….……………………. 63
Dance and Language………………………………………..68
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Systems of Dance Analysis…………………………………74
Summary……………………………………………………………80

III. DISCOVERING MEANING-FORM CONNECTIONS……………. 82

Qualitative Research………………………………………………. 82
Qualitative Research and the Research Project……………. 83
Qualitative Analysis and the Research Project…………… 84
Methodology Selection: Grounded Theory (GT)………………… 87
Background and Development of GT..…………………….. 90
Stages of GT……………………………………………… 93
Analysis of Data through GT……………………………. 96
Triangulation……………………………………………………….. 98
Use of Triangulation in the Research Project……………… 99
Data Collection Methods………………………………………… 100
Instruments………………………………………………… 100
Dances……………………………………………… 101
Survey……………………………………………… 104
Interviews………………………………………….. 106
Video Document Analysis…………………………. 109
Participants…………………………………………………. 110
Survey Participants………………………………… 111
Focus Group Interview Participants……………….. 111
Video Analysis Participants………………………... 113
Procedures………………………………………………….. 114
Survey Procedure…………………………………...114
Focus Group Interview Procedures………………… 115
Choreographing and Video Taping Dances………...120
Face-to-Face Interviews……………………………. 120
Data Analysis………………………………………………. 123
Researcher Experience vs. Researcher Bias………...123
Procedural Implementation of GT………………… 124
Ethical Issues……………………………………………… 125
Key Ethical Issues and Considerations in the Research
Project……………………………………………….126
Limitations…………………………………………………..128
Summary………………………………………………….... 129

IV. INVESTIGATING MEANING-FORM CONNECTION IN
DANCE…………………………………………………………….. 131

Overview of the Investigating Process…………………… 131
Constructing Meaning from Modern Dance and Modern Dance
from Meaning……………………………………………. 132
Studying the Data for Category Development…… 134
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Constant Comparison and Categorizing (Survey
and Focus Group)………………………………... 141
Constant Comparison and Categorizing
(Choreographer’s Data)………………………….. 145
Categories of Meaning which Emerged from the Data…… 147
Meaning from Dance……………………………… 147
Conflict Resolution……………………….. 148
Personal Experience (VP)………………… 149
Linguistic Structures (VP)………………… 150
Abstract Concepts………………………… 151
Dance from Meaning……………………………… 152
Personal Experience (CP)…………………. 153
Technical Ability………………………….. 153
Compatibility……………………………… 154
Linguistic Structures (CP)………………… 155
Movements Representations: Deciphering Meaning
In Dance …………………………………………………… 157
Participants’ Responses to Movement
Representations……………………………………. 157
Researcher’s Interpretation vs. Participant
Interpretation………………………………………. 159
Portraying Meaning Through Dance……………………… 164
Choreography Comparison……………………….. 164
Transcribing the Dances…………………………… 164
Studying the Movement Development……………. 165
A Modern Dance Communication Model: Meaning-Form
Connections……………………………………………….. 172

V. TOWARDS A THEORY OF MEANING-FORM CONNECTIONS 180

Objectives of the Investigation Process…………………. 180
A General Inference…………………………….. 180
Discovering Dance Communicative Structure…… 182
Emerging Possibilities and Limitations…………… 184
Conclusions from the Research…………………… 186

REFERENCES ……………………………………………………………………. 189

APPENDIX A …………………………………………………………………….. 205

APPENDIX B……………………………………………………………………… 206

APPENDIX C……………………………………………………………………... 208

APPENDIX D……………………………………………………………………… 209
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List of Figures

Figure Page

2.1 A Variation on the
HERMENEUTIC CIRCLE OF INTERPRETATION……….. 29

2.2 Adapted from Humphrey’s Stage Space Divisions of Importance 54

2.3 A Possible Move of Importance Placement (Staged Dance) 55

2.4 Realms of Dance Understanding adapted from Hanna (1987) 59

2.5 Hutchinson’s Description of Verbs in Dance Language 65

3.1 Key stages in GT development 92

3.2 GT Analytic Process 93

3.3 Data Collection Instruments 101

3.4 Chronological Sequence of Project Development 114

4.1a Example of a Memo in the Research Process 139

4.1b Example of a Memo in the Research Process 139

4.1c Example of a Memo in the Research Process 142

4.2 Original Choreography (Appendix D) 209

4.3 Choreographer 1 (Appendix D) 210

4.4 Choreographer 2 (Appendix D) 210

4.5 Choreographer 3 (Appendix D) 211

4.6 Choreographer 4 (Appendix D) 211

4.7 Legend of Symbol/Movement in Plans (4.7-4.11) (Appendix D) 209

4.8 Ecology of Meanings Model 173

4.9 A Modern Dance Communication Model 176

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