Dance
Senior Research Projects
Class of 2006
"Eyes, Ears and Mouths Open"Jennifer Guglielmi
This Honor's choreographic research project culminated in an evening
length work that was presented on March 24-25, 2006. This contemporary
dance work, exploring the lives of teenage girls through popular
culture, was performed by six students and utilized spoken text taken
from books by Judy Bloome, music by Alanis Morrisette and popular films
Clueless, and 10 Things I Hate About You. The movement and text
inspired by these sources provides an avenue for isolating, revealing
and magnifying the issues of adolescence and offer new interpretations
of that, which is already familiar.
Abeje Maolud-Sneed
In this day and age, because fewer dance forms are being supported
in communities, it is imperative that the community takes personal
responsibility to share with students our burning passions about
certain cultural aspects, and knowledge of diverse art forms. In an
increasingly global society, it is of great importance that youth be
educated and exposed to cultures and experiences beyond their immediate
ones. The purpose of my project is to offer dance classes of
ethnic-based dance forms in an after-school program of a homogeneous
community with the hopes of making an impact on the students' interests
in a culture other than their own.
Class of 2005
"A Woman's Place: Women and their Roles in Society"Anusha Jogi
In this project I investigated the roles that women play in society
using the medium of contemporary dance. I used improvisation as the
main medium of choreography for this process. The project culminated in
the live production of the concerts "What more could we ask to be?" in
the Doane Dance Performance Space on March 4th and 5th, 2005. This
paper provides a reflection on the process of production, including the
choreography of "Symbiosis" and my Young Scholars Summer Research
Project "The Artists' Canvas: Women and their Roles in Society." These
resources allow the reader to view the DVD of "What more could we ask
to be?" from an informed platform.
Jennifer Baker
I have always been interested in exercises to improve my flexibility
and strength. Although leg extension height is not important in all
types of dance, it was very important in my success as a rhythmic
gymnast and ballet dancer. This research was to find out if it was
possible to lengthen and straighten the iliopsoas muscle through
various exercises and thus increase leg extension height.
Class of 2004
"Waves Of Motion: The Contribution of Creative Movement in the Education of Hearing Impaired Children"Megan Cherry '04
Dance is not only created as an art form for presentation purposes,
but it is also a form of physical activity that is active and
imaginative. Most children are active and enjoy using their
imagination. Children love to play and create make believe games. It is
in their nature. But not all children are alike. The focus of my Senior
Research looked at the opportunities for deaf children in the area of
movement, dance and physical activity.
Kerry Farrell '04
Contact Improvisation is a dance form that is usually experienced in
a duet format, with two dancers who engage in constant bodily contact
through a shared, ever-shifting contact point or surface with a
partner. The movements are all improvised, using momentum and flow as a
guide. The goal is to maintain bodily contact, continually supporting
one another in movement. The focus is not on performance, but more
about experiencing a dance with another person. My research explored
the history of Contact Improvisation and then used a questionnaire to
investigate the issues of peoples comfort levels with such public,
intimate touch.
Cassandra Smith '04
In this research project my intent was to choreograph a dance
performance that would tell stories and explore how people tell stories
in their everyday lives. In its evolution, the project came to be no
longer about storytelling, but rather was itself its own story. It is a
story about eight women empowering themselves as individuals and as a
group of women. The dancers were the characters of the story. It was a
huge but invigorating project that included not only dance
improvisation but also set design, costume design, lighting design, and
music. I discovered a lot about the way I work, my capabilities and
creativity, and the degree to which I rely on intuition along the way.
Class of 2003
"these Fragile, Fleeting things ... "Jessamyn Schmidt '03
"these Fragile, Fleeting things" was a culmination of my Senior Choreographic Research Project during Fall 2002 semester, an investigation of the inter-workings of memory. I explored memory through improvised movement, investigations of cognitive and muscle memory, images, patterns, shapes, texts, conversations, and collaboration. These explorations informed the process of the creation of this piece.
I was successful in accomplishing the goals I set: to create a
choreographic work exploring memory through movement. There is still much
I have to learn about managing time for production aspects of a concert. I
also hope to continue learning about how to more swiftly translate my
choreographic ideas from my head into movement. Memory will always be
complex. I hope to continue to explore memory through my movement in
perhaps different ways than I did during this choreographic project.
Hopefully my interest in memory and how it relates to movement will continue
to propel me toward personal investigation, discovery, and creative work!
Kori Rai Martodam '03
The focus of this project is an exploration of the creative process as a means of realizing oneself as an artist and recognizing the possibility of the creative process, product, and daily life simultaneously co-existing as art - (add this dash) the conscious arrangement of elements. This paper is also a discussion of learning, collaboration, and self-awareness as methods of experiencing and creating art in daily living. Relationships between collaborative art making, feminist critical pedagogy, feminist literature, Taoist literature, directing for the theatre, small group communication and reflection are also discussed.