DOCSLIB.ORG

UNIVERSITY of CALIFORNIA Los Angeles Dancing Cross-Cultural Misunderstandings

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
UNIVERSITY of CALIFORNIA Los Angeles Dancing Cross-Cultural Misunderstandings UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA Los Angeles Dancing Cross-cultural Misunderstandings: The American Dance Festival in China’s New Era A dissertation submitted in partial satisfaction of the requirements for the degree Doctor of Philosophy in Culture and Performance by Fangfei Miao 2019 © Copyright by Fangfei Miao 2019 ABSTRACT OF THE DISSERTATION Dancing Cross-cultural Misunderstandings: The American Dance Festival in China’s New Era by Fangfei Miao Doctor of Philosophy in Culture and Performance University of California, Los Angeles, 2019 Professor Susan Leigh Foster, Chair This dissertation explores the embodiment of cross-cultural misunderstandings in a key transitional period in modern China—the late 1980s, during the country’s economic reformation and cultural opening to the West after the Cultural Revolution (1966–1976). From 1987 to 1991, teachers from the American Dance Festival (ADF), at the invitation of the Guangdong (Canton) Dance School, trained the first group of professional modern dancers in China, known as the “Guangdong Modern Dance Experimental Program,” profoundly altering the history of Chinese modern dance in the New Era (1978–). Based on this program, China established its first modern dance company in 1992—the Guangdong Modern Dance Company. Under the guidance of ADF teachers, Chinese students created two new genres of Chinese modern dance that differed from the previous realism style. Some of ii the students later became internationally acclaimed artists—Shen Wei, Jin Xing, and Wang Mei. Contesting existing accounts of the Guangdong program as a complete success in America’s and China’s dance histories, this dissertation instead argues that misunderstandings and miscommunications repeatedly occurred in both directions throughout this corporeal exchange. These misunderstandings and miscommunications revealed different conceptualizations of aesthetics, kinesthesia, pedagogy, individuality, freedom, tradition, and the modern. This research takes a microcosmic perspective to examine the program’s establishment, curriculum, and the reception of the dance it created as a case study to explore the macrocosmic transnational US–China relationship under globalization. Different political agendas nurtured the contradictory expectations of the ADF and the Guangdong Dance School. When the young Chinese traditional dancers changed their expertise and accepted a new dance system, differences in aesthetics, kinesthesia, pedagogy, and concepts of individuality and freedom created confusion among ADF teachers and Chinese students. Different understandings of Chineseness, the traditional, and the modern in the US and China shaped American and Chinese critics’ contrasting receptions of the pieces produced in the Guangdong program. This dissertation is the first to take a cultural misinterpretation perspective to study dance in China, and the first to apply a critical dance studies lens to scrutinize cultural production in the context of US–China relations. By decoding these embodied misunderstandings, this dissertation aims to allow perspectives from the US and China to be heard in both countries and contribute to cross-cultural understandings on a global scale. iii The dissertation of Fangfei Miao is approved. Anurima Banerji Janet M. O'Shea Victoria E Marks Susan Leigh Foster, Committee Chair University of California, Los Angeles 2019 iv Table of Contents Abstract ……………………………………………………………………... ii Vita ……………………………………………………………………... vi Introduction ……………………………………………………………………... 1 Chapter One Modern Dance Fever and China’s New Era……………………….. 17 Chapter Two Contradictory Expectations and the Establishment of the Guangdong Modern Dance Experimental Program…….................. 67 Chapter Three Miscommunications and Misunderstandings: Teaching and Learning Modern Dance…………………………………………… 106 Chapter Four Chineseness, the Traditional, and the Modern: Contrasting Receptions of Situation, Square Bottom Basket and Bamboo, and Tide………………………………………………………………… 144 Conclusion Beyond Cross-cultural Misunderstandings………………………... 195 Endnotes ……………………………………………………………………... 207 References ……………………………………………………………………... 226 v Vita EDUCATION Beijing Dance Academy, Beijing, China M.F.A., Choreography B.A. with Honors, Dance History and Theory SELECTED PRESENTATIONS AND PUBLICATIONS Publications Book Review of Revolutionary Bodies: Chinese Dance and the Socialist Legacy, by Emily Wilcox, Dance Research Journal, Vol.51, No.1. Spring 2019. pp. 103-105. Book Review of Chinese Dance—In the Vast Land and Beyond, by Shih-Ming Li Chang and Lynn E. Frederiksen, Asian Theater Journal, Vol. 35, No 1. 2018. pp. 227-229. Miao, Fangfei. “Here and Now—Chinese People's Self-Representation in a Transnational Context.” Congress on Research in Dance Conference Proceedings, Vol.2015 (Fall 2015): 111-116. Miao, Fangfei. “Modern Dance: Beauty in Ugliness.” Journal of the Beijing Dance Academy, Vol.2 (2013): 99-102. Conference Presentations Liberating the Chinese Students? Or…—The American Dance Festival at Guangzhou during China’s Reformation Period in the Dance Studies Association annual conference at Ohio State University, Columbus, Ohio, October 2017 From Tradition to Modernism—the Guangdong Modern Dance Experimental Program in the national SDHS/CORD annual conference at Pomona College, Pomona, California, November 2016 Modernism and Tradition—the Chinese Dancing Bodies in Luoshenfu, “Dance Under Construction XV” conference at UC Riverside, Riverside, California, April 2015 Here and Now—Chinese People’s Self-representation in a Transnational Context, SDHS/CORD annual conference at Iowa University, Iowa City, Iowa, November 2014 SELECTED HONORS AND AWARDS Dean's General Scholarship, UCLA, 2017-2018 Dean's General Scholarship, UCLA, 2016-2017 Phi Tau Phi West America Chapter Scholarship, 2015 Dean’s Department Scholarship of World Arts and Cultures / Dance, UCLA, 2014-2015 Allocation from Block Grant (Grad Division), UCLA, 2014-15 Graduate Division Award, UCLA, 2013-2014 Edna and Yu-Shan Han Award, UCLA, 2013-2014 International Studies Fellowship, UCLA, 2012-2014 Allocation from Block Grant (Grad Division), UCLA, 2012-2013 Edna and Yu-Shan Han Award, UCLA, 2012-2013 Excellent Graduate Student Awards in Beijing Dance Academy, China, 2011 Excellent Student Awards of Beijing, China, 2008 vi TEACHING EXPERIENCE Studio Courses D10 Chinese Conventional Dance independent instructor Spring 2017 UCLA D10 Chinese Conventional Dance independent instructor Winter 2016 UCLA Advanced Modern Dance Technique (Tai Chi fusion) teaching associate Spring 2010 BDA Advanced Modern Dance Technique (Tai Chi fusion) teaching associate Fall 2010 BDA Advanced Modern Dance Technique (Tai Chi fusion) teaching associate Spring 2009 BDA Dance Pedagogy teaching associate Fall 2009 BDA Lecture Courses D66 World Dance Histories teaching assistant: teach sections, grade papers Winter 2018 UCLA AA10 Arts Encounters teaching assistant: teach sections, grade papers Fall 2017 UCLA AA10 Arts Encounters teaching assistant: teach sections, grade papers Winter 2017 UCLA W100B Art as Moral Action instructor of interdisciplinary choreography sections Fall 2016 UCLA W100A Art as Social Action teaching assistant: teach sections, grade papers Spring 2016 UCLA AA10 Arts Encounters teaching assistant: teach sections, grade papers Fall 2015 UCLA W100B Art as Moral Action instructor of interdisciplinary choreography sections Spring 2015 UCLA AA10 Arts Encounters teaching assistant: teach sections, grade papers Winter 2015 UCLA Related Teaching Experience Dance instructor: Chinese folk Dance workshops, UCLA, April-June 2014 Dance instructor: Master Class of Chinese Classical Dance, UCLA, November 2013 SELECTED DANCING AND CHOREOGRAPHING EXPERIENCE Choreographer Awakening, group dance, for students in Marymount High School, March 2017 Dancer Spring Eternal, group dance, dancer, Pieter Theater, Los Angeles, December 2016 Guest artist, dancer/choreographer Here and Now, solo, Royce Hall, UCLA, March 2015 Guest artist, No Need to Critique, solo, North Campus Auditorium, UCLA, November 2014 Guest artist, Dressed in Capitalism, solo, North Campus Auditorium, UCLA, October 2014 Guest artist, dancer/choreographer Woman in Red, solo, United-Santa Clara International Dance Festival, Santa Clara State University, August 2014 Production assistant Hidden Choreographies, Lea Anderson, UCLA, Fall 2014 Dancer/choreographer Chinese Yangge, solo, Fowler Out Lord, Fowler Museum, UCLA, April 2014 Dancer/choreographer Untitled Past, solo, SDHS/CORD annual conference, Riverside, California, November 2013 Guest artist, From the New World, Harbin International Art Festival, Harbin, China, May 2011 Dancer and co-choreographer Tian Wu, group dance, Bruce Mason Centre, Auckland, New Zealand, June 2011 Dancer and co-choreographer Fading Red Memory, group dance, the Second Beijing International Modern Dance Festival, Beijing, China, April 2009 Dancer and co-choreographer New Female, group dance, the Second Beijing International Modern Dance Festival, Beijing, China, April 2009 Dancer Dance of life, group dance, the Second Beijing International Modern Dance Festival, Beijing, China, April 2009 vii Introduction I still remember the first modern dance movement I ever learned. It was a warmup movement in which we were asked to lie on the floor and stretch out, horizontally, in three different directions. At that moment, I had just become a junior year college student at the Beijing Dance Academy, China’s best professional dance conservatoire. Lying on
Load more

Recommended publications
  • Made in BC Dance on Tour
    MADE IN BC - DANCE ON TOUR January 29, 2019 ARTIST INFO RAVEN SPIRIT DANCE EARTHSONG Starr Muranko (Artistic Associate), Heather Lamoureux (Outreach Coordinator) ​ ​ PROJECT DESCRIPTION Earth Song – a mixed program of contemporary Indigenous dance featuring choreography by Starr Muranko & Michelle Olson, two visionary choreographers bring their diverse voices to the act of connection. Moving from Spirit to form through currents of spatial tension, these are the songs of the land and body, deeply rooted and ever reaching. Starr Muranko’s Spine of the Mother and Michelle Olson’s Northern Journey traverse territories of impulse, memory, and landscape. Additionally, the program includes the solo, Frost Exploding Trees Moon, choreographed by Michelle Olson and Floyd Favel; this piece follows the breath, instinct & impulse of a woman on her northern trap line. ARTIST PROFILE The artistic vision of Raven Spirit Dance Society is to share stories from an Indigenous worldview. Our medium is contemporary dance; and, we incorporate other expressions such as traditional dance, theatre, puppetry and multi-media to tell these stories. By sharing this work on local, national and international stages, Raven Spirit Dance reaffirms the vital importance of dance to the expression of human experience and to cultural reclamation. Raven Spirit Dance aims to explore how professional artistic work is responsive and responsible to the community it is a part of and to continue to redefine dance’s place in diverse community settings. Raven Spirit is Vancouver-based yet indelibly tied to the Yukon through its projects and inspirations, as our Artistic Director, Michelle Olson is from the Tr’ondek Hwech’in First Nation.
    [Show full text]
  • Contemporary China: a Book List
    PRINCETON UNIVERSITY: Woodrow Wilson School, Politics Department, East Asian Studies Program CONTEMPORARY CHINA: A BOOK LIST by Lubna Malik and Lynn White Winter 2007-2008 Edition This list is available on the web at: http://www.princeton.edu/~lynn/chinabib.pdf which can be viewed and printed with an Adobe Acrobat Reader. Variation of font sizes may cause pagination to differ slightly in the web and paper editions. No list of books can be totally up-to-date. Please surf to find further items. Also consult http://www.princeton.edu/~lynn/chinawebs.doc for clicable URLs. This list of items in English has several purposes: --to help advise students' course essays, junior papers, policy workshops, and senior theses about contemporary China; --to supplement the required reading lists of courses on "Chinese Development" and "Chinese Politics," for which students may find books to review in this list; --to provide graduate students with a list that may suggest books for paper topics and may slightly help their study for exams in Chinese politics; a few of the compiler's favorite books are starred on the list, but not much should be made of this because such books may be old or the subjects may not meet present interests; --to supplement a bibliography of all Asian serials in the Princeton Libraries that was compiled long ago by Frances Chen and Maureen Donovan; many of these are now available on the web,e.g., from “J-Stor”; --to suggest to book selectors in the Princeton libraries items that are suitable for acquisition; to provide a computerized list on which researchers can search for keywords of interests; and to provide a resource that many teachers at various other universities have also used.
    [Show full text]
  • Why Stockton Folk Dance Camp Still Produces a Syllabus
    Syllabus of Dance Descriptions STOCKTON FOLK DANCE CAMP – 2018 FINAL In Memoriam Rickey Holden – 1926-2017 Rickey was a square and folk dance teacher, researcher, caller, record producer, and author. Rickey was largely responsible for spreading recreational international folk dancing throughout Europe and Asia. Rickey learned ballroom dance in Austin Texas in 1935 and 1936. He started square and contra dancing in Vermont in 1939. He taught international folk dance all over Europe and Asia, eventually making his home base in Brussels. He worked with Folkraft Records in the early years. He taught at Stockton Folk Dance Camp in the 1940s and 50s, plus an additional appearance in 1992. In addition to dozens of books about square dancing, he also authored books on Israeli, Turkish, Bulgarian, Hungarian, Greek, and Macedonian dance. STOCKTON FOLK DANCE CAMP – 2018 FINAL Preface Many of the dance descriptions in the syllabus have been or are being copyrighted. They should not be reproduced in any form without permission. Specific permission of the instructors involved must be secured. Camp is satisfied if a suitable by-line such as “Learned at Folk Dance Camp, University of the Pacific” is included. Loui Tucker served as editor of this syllabus, with valuable assistance from Karen Bennett and Joyce Lissant Uggla. We are indebted to members of the Dance Research Committee of the Folk Dance Federation of California (North and South) for assistance in preparing the Final Syllabus. Cover art copyright © 2018 Susan Gregory. (Thanks, Susan.) Please
    [Show full text]
  • Coda 2017 Program Katalog Lett
    1 Thank you For tickets and registration CODA festivalen takker alle bidragsytere, samarbeidspartnere, medarbeidere og alle våre www.codadancefest.no frivillige som har vært med på å løfte #codafestival frem årets festival. Takk! CODA Oslo International Dance Festival The CODA festival wishes to thank our patrons, collaborating partners, colleagues and volunteers, KOLOFON - COLOPHON Vulkan 1, 0182 Oslo all of whom have contributed to making this year’s festival happen. [email protected] Thank you! Greetings from the CODA team CODA OSLO INTERNATIONAL DANCE FESTIVAL BIDRAGSYTERE / CONTRIBUTORS VULKAN 1 KULTURRÅDET N-0182 OSLO OSLO KOMMUNE WWW.CODADANCEFEST.NO DEN NORSKE AMBASSADE LONDON CODA OSLO INTERNATIONAL DANCE FESTIVAL 2002 – 2017 DEN NORSKE AMBASSADE PARIS GRUNNLEGGERE / FOUNDERS ODD JOHAN FRITZØE & LISE NORDAL OSLO KOMMUNE DANSENS HUS, RIKSSCENEN, PRODA / ROM FOR DANS, STYRET / MEMBERS OF THE BOARD INSTITUT FRANCAIS NORVÈGE VULKAN 1, OSLO, SCHOUS KULTURBRYGGERI, MARSTRANDGATA 8, OSLO, TORGER ØDEGAARD, STYRELEDER/ PAVILION DANCE SOUTH WEST WWW.DANSENSHUS.COM TRONDHEIMSVEIEN 2, OSLO, WWW.PRODA.NO CHAIRMAN OF THE BOARD FRITT ORD TRAM 11, 12, 13 TO SCHOUS PLASS, BUS 54, WWW.RIKSSCENEN.NO WWW.ROMFORDANS.NO HELGE SKANSEN, NESTLEDER/ 34 TO MØLLERVEIEN TRAM 11, 12, 13 TO SCHOUS PLASS TRAM 11, 12, 13 TO BIRKELUNDEN. BUS TO DEPUTY CHAIRMAN BILKOLLEKTIVET DÆLENGA. BUS 20, 21, TO KØBENHAVNGATA LARS JACOB HOLM DB SCHENKER VIGDIS LIAN PS HOTELL BÆRUM KULTURHUS, BLACK BOX TEATER, KULTURHUSET I OSLO, PERNILLE BØNKAN COMFORT HOTEL BØRSPARKEN CLAUDE MONETS ALLE 27, 1307 SANDVIKA, MARSTRANDGATA 8, OSLO, YOUNGS GATE 6, OSLO, WWW.BLACKBOX.NO WWW.BAERUMKULTURHUS.NO WWW.KULTURHUSETIOSLO.NO KUNSTNERISK LEDELSE / ARTISTIC CURATOR CODA 2017 LISE NORDAL DOCUMENTATION TRAIN R10, R11, L1 & L12 FROM OSLO CEN- TRAM 11, 12, 13 TO BIRKELUNDEN.
    [Show full text]
  • Dancing My Way Through Life; Embodying Cultural Diversity Across Time and Space: an Autoethnography
    The Qualitative Report Volume 25 Number 1 Article 7 1-13-2020 Dancing My Way Through Life; Embodying Cultural Diversity Across Time and Space: An Autoethnography Nan Zhang Monash University, Australia, [email protected] Maria Gindidis Monash University, Australia Jane Southcott Monash University, Australia Follow this and additional works at: https://nsuworks.nova.edu/tqr Part of the Art Education Commons, and the Bilingual, Multilingual, and Multicultural Education Commons Recommended APA Citation Zhang, N., Gindidis, M., & Southcott, J. (2020). Dancing My Way Through Life; Embodying Cultural Diversity Across Time and Space: An Autoethnography. The Qualitative Report, 25(1), 88-104. https://doi.org/10.46743/2160-3715/2020.4022 This Article is brought to you for free and open access by the The Qualitative Report at NSUWorks. It has been accepted for inclusion in The Qualitative Report by an authorized administrator of NSUWorks. For more information, please contact [email protected]. Dancing My Way Through Life; Embodying Cultural Diversity Across Time and Space: An Autoethnography Abstract In this paper, I research how my background, in different times and within diverse spaces, has led me to exploring and working with specific Content and Language Integrated Learning (CLIL) programs. I am forever motivated to engage students learning second languages by providing them with possibilities to find out who they are, to know other ways of being and meet diverse peoples, to maintain languages more effectively and maintain culture(s) more authentically. I employ autoethnography as a method to discover and uncover my personal and interpersonal experiences through the lens of my dance related journeys.
    [Show full text]
  • The Rise of Guangchangwu in a Chinese Village
    International Journal of Communication 11(2017), 4499–4522 1932–8036/20170005 Reading Movement in the Everyday: The Rise of Guangchangwu in a Chinese Village MAGGIE CHAO Simon Fraser University, Canada Communication University of China, China Over recent years, the practice of guangchangwu has captured the Chinese public’s attention due to its increasing popularity and ubiquity across China’s landscapes. Translated to English as “public square dancing,” guangchangwu describes the practice of group dancing in outdoor spaces among mostly middle-aged and older women. This article examines the practice in the context of guangchangwu practitioners in Heyang Village, Zhejiang Province. Complicating popular understandings of the phenomenon as a manifestation of a nostalgic yearning for Maoist collectivity, it reads guangchangwu through the lens of “jumping scale” to contextualize the practice within the evolving politics of gender in post-Mao China. In doing so, this article points to how guangchangwu can embody novel and potentially transgressive movements into different spaces from home to park, inside to outside, and across different scales from rural to urban, local to national. Keywords: square dancing, popular culture, spatial practice, scale, gender politics, China The time is 7:15 p.m., April 23, 2015, and I am sitting adjacent to a small, empty square tucked away from the main thoroughfare of a university campus in Beijing. As if on cue, Ms. Wu appears, toting a small loudspeaker on her hip.1 She sets it down on the stairs, surveying the scene before her: a small flat space, wedged in between a number of buildings, surrounded by some trees, evidence of a meager attempt at beautifying the area.
    [Show full text]
  • Fit to Dance Survey: Elements of Lifestyle and Injury Incidence in Chinese Dancers
    Fit to Dance Survey: elements of lifestyle and injury incidence in Chinese dancers Yanan Dang, MSc1,2; Yiannis Koutedakis, PhD1,3; Matthew Wyon, PhD1,4 1 Institute of Human Sciences, University of Wolverhampton, UK 2 Beijing Dance Academy, Beijing, China 3 Department of Sport Science, University of Thessaly, Greece 4 National Institute of Dance Medicine and Science, Walsall, UK Corresponding author Prof Matthew Wyon Institute of Human Sciences, University of Wolverhampton, Gorway Rd, Walsall, WS1 3BD, UK email: [email protected] Abstract The Fit to Dance survey has been conducted a number of times using primarily Western participants and has provided foundation data for other studies. The purpose of the current study was to replicate the Fit to Dance 2 survey focusing on features of health and injuries in pre-professional and professional Chinese dancers of different genres. Results revealed that respondents (n=1040) were from Chinese Folk dance (44.4%), Chinese Classical Dance (25.6%), ballet (10.2%) and contemporary dance (9.8%). Compared to the Fit to Dance 2 survey, alcohol consumption (29% vs 82%; p<0.01) and smoking (13% vs 21%; p<0.05) were significantly less in Chinese dancers, but a higher percentage reported using weight reducing eating plans (57% vs 23%; p<0.01) or having psychological issues with food (27% vs 24%; p<0.05). Reported injuries in a 12-month period prior to data collection were significantly lower in the current survey (49% vs 80%; p<0.01). The type of injury (muscle and joint/ligament) and perceived cause of injury (fatigue, overwork and reoccurrence of an old injury) were the same in both the current and previous survey.
    [Show full text]
  • Integrating Chinese Dance Into Social Studies and Humanities Curriculum
    Integrating Chinese Dance into Social Studies and Humanities Curriculum Grade Levels: 5 – 8 Duration: Five weeks, 3 days per week. Ohio Dance Standards: Historical, Cultural and Social Contexts: Students understand dance forms and styles from a diverse range of cultural environments of past and present society. They know the contributions of significant choreographers, dancers and dance organizations to dance heritage. Students analyze the philosophical beliefs, social systems, and movement norms that influence the function and role of dance in the lives of people. Benchmark A: Perform and describe the dances from various cultures and historical periods with emphasis on cultures addressed in social studies. Benchmark B: Explain the social and historical contexts that influence the development of dance in a culture. Benchmark C: Explain a recognized contributor to dance, (e.g. choreographer, dancer, or educator) and trace the development of the individual’s work to its historical and cultural influences. Creative _Expression and Communication: Students create, interpret and perform dances to demonstrate understanding of choreographic principles, processes and structures. They understand how to use dance and movement to express ideas and to make meaning of their world. Benchmark A: Perform basic body movements, body positions and spatial patterns from one or more dance forms, styles or traditions. Benchmark C: Perform a full dance for a peer audience that demonstrates artistic expressions and performance skill. Analyzing and Responding: Students express orally, and in writing, their interpretations and evaluations of dances they observe and perform. They understand and use the vocabulary of art (dance) criticism to discuss their responses to a variety of dance forms and styles.
    [Show full text]
  • Defining Self: Performing Chinese Identity Through Dance in Belfast
    eSharp Issue 24: Belonging and Inclusion Defining Self: Performing Chinese Identity through Dance in Belfast Wanting Wu (Queen's University Belfast) Abstract This paper takes an auto-ethnographic approach to questions of belonging and inclusion through anthropological analysis of my own experience as a Chinese dancer in Belfast, Northern Ireland. The Chinese community in Belfast has been well established since the 1970s, retaining a distinctive identity within a city dominated by ‘British’ and ‘Irish’ ethnici- ties. Dance plays a significant role in communal ceremonies and festivals as a symbol and enactment of Chinese identity. As a Beijing trained Chinese dancer who came to Belfast as a postgraduate student, I found myself playing a significant role in the expression of Chinese identity within the city, and having emotional experiences when dancing which were differ- ent to those I had experienced in China. These experiences led me to reflect upon the sources of my own identity as a Chinese person. Through a detailed auto-ethnographic account of my dance experience as a Beijing trained dancer performing in the context of a multi-cultural city far removed from China, I explore the ways that dance may form and transform embodied identities and redefine prac- tices and selves in interaction with different environments and audiences. The article will uti- lise theorisations of “flow,” “authenticity” and “habitus” to understand the emergence of identity in embodied action. The article concludes that the perceived ‘Chineseness’ of my dance performance, and my own experience of myself as a ‘Chinese’ dancer, are rooted in ways of being that have been embodied through extensive socialisation and training from an early age.
    [Show full text]
  • Impact Case Study (Ref3b) Page 1 Institution: De Montfort University
    Impact case study (REF3b) Institution: De Montfort University Unit of Assessment: 35 – Music, Drama, Dance and Performing Arts Title of case study: Histories of Corporealities and Radical, Twentieth-century Dance Performance. 1. Summary of the impact (indicative maximum 100 words) Ramsay Burt’s research into histories of avant-garde and experimental dance performances during the twentieth- and twenty-first centuries has facilitated cultural enrichment through its impact on choreographers, dancers, dance audiences, administrators and policy makers. His publications have advanced understanding both of the general public and members of the dance industry into the ways in which dance is affected by and influenced socially and historically specific concerns or anxieties about changing notions of embodiment. He has received invitations to speak at major international dance festivals, given interviews for radio and television broadcasts, attended meetings with policy makers, and been invited to collaborate with artists involved in making new works based on historical avant-garde performances. 2. Underpinning research (indicative maximum 500 words) Since joining De Montfort in 1995, Ramsay Burt’s research has focused on ways in which radical, experimental dance since 1900 has been informed by the impact of new ways of conceptualising corporeal experience. Looking both at early modern dance and ballet (1995, 1998, 2004, 2011) and more recently at so-called postmodern (2006) and conceptual dance (2009), he has identified, within contemporary reception of some of the most challenging dance works, evidence of socially and historically specific concerns or anxieties about the changing nature of corporealities. This has been supported by grants from the British Academy (2005, 2008).
    [Show full text]
  • The Dialectics of Virtuosity: Dance in the People's Republic of China
    The Dialectics of Virtuosity: Dance in the People’s Republic of China, 1949-2009 by Emily Elissa Wilcox A dissertation submitted in partial satisfaction of the requirements for the degree of Joint Doctor of Philosophy with the University of California, San Francisco in Medical Anthropology of the University of California, Berkeley Committee in charge: Professor Xin Liu, Chair Professor Vincanne Adams Professor Alexei Yurchak Professor Michael Nylan Professor Shannon Jackson Spring 2011 Abstract The Dialectics of Virtuosity: Dance in the People’s Republic of China, 1949-2009 by Emily Elissa Wilcox Joint Doctor of Philosophy with the University of California, San Francisco in Medical Anthropology University of California, Berkeley Professor Xin Liu, Chair Under state socialism in the People’s Republic of China, dancers’ bodies became important sites for the ongoing negotiation of two paradoxes at the heart of the socialist project, both in China and globally. The first is the valorization of physical labor as a path to positive social reform and personal enlightenment. The second is a dialectical approach to epistemology, in which world-knowing is connected to world-making. In both cases, dancers in China found themselves, their bodies, and their work at the center of conflicting ideals, often in which the state upheld, through its policies and standards, what seemed to be conflicting points of view and directions of action. Since they occupy the unusual position of being cultural workers who labor with their bodies, dancers were successively the heroes and the victims in an ever unresolved national debate over the value of mental versus physical labor.
    [Show full text]
  • China's Smiling Face to the World: Beijing's English
    ABSTRACT Title of Thesis: CHINA’S SMILING FACE TO THE WORLD: BEIJING’S ENGLISH-LANGUAGE MAGAZINES IN THE FIRST DECADE OF THE PEOPLE’S REPUBLIC Leonard W. Lazarick, M.A. History Directed By: Professor James Z. Gao Department of History In the 1950s, the People’s Republic of China produced several English-language magazines to inform the outside world of the remarkable transformation of newly reunified China into a modern and communist state: People’s China, begun in January 1950; China Reconstructs, starting in January 1952; and in March 1958, Peking Review replaced People’s China. The magazines were produced by small staffs of Western- educated Chinese and a few experienced foreign journalists. The first two magazines in particular were designed to show the happy, smiling face of a new and better China to an audience of foreign sympathizers, journalists, academics and officials who had little other information about the country after most Western journalists and diplomats had been expelled. This thesis describes how the magazines were organized, discusses key staff members, and analyzes the significance of their coverage of social and cultural issues in the crucial early years of the People’s Republic. CHINA’S SMILING FACE TO THE WORLD: BEIJING’S ENGLISH-LANGUAGE MAGAZINES IN THE FIRST DECADE OF THE PEOPLE’S REPUBLIC By Leonard W. Lazarick Thesis submitted to the Faculty of the Graduate School of the University of Maryland, College Park, in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts 2005 Advisory Committee: Professor James Z. Gao, Chair Professor Andrea Goldman Professor Lisa R.
    [Show full text]