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Using Collaborative Processes and Touch-Based Partnering To USING COLLABORATIVE PROCESSES AND TOUCH-BASED PARTNERING TO FORMULATE CONCEPT AND CHOREOGRAPHY FOR A SCREENDANCE by LILA ALICE REID A THESIS Presented to the Department of Dance and the Graduate School of the University of Oregon in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Fine Arts June 2018 THESIS APPROVAL PAGE Student: Lila Alice Reid Title: Using Collaborative Processes and Touch-Based Partnering to Formulate Concept and Choreography for a Screendance This thesis has been accepted and approved in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the Master of Fine Arts degree in the Department of Dance by: Shannon Mockli Chair Christian Cherry Member Sarah Ebert Member and Sara D. Hodges Interim Vice Provost and Dean of the Graduate School Original approval signatures are on file with the University of Oregon Graduate School. Degree awarded June 2018. ii ã 2018 Lila Alice Reid iii THESIS ABSTRACT Lila Alice Reid Master of Fine Arts Department of Dance June 2018 Title: Using Collaborative Processes and Touch-Based Partnering to Formulate Concept and Choreography for a Screendance The research in this study uses collaborative methodology, touch-based partnering, and screendance. The facilitator and two dancers aimed to understand how touch-based partnering and collaborative process curates movement material for the creation of screendance. The dancers and facilitator engaged in orienting movement workshops by studying three partnering idioms: Contact Improvisation, Country Swing, and Cha Cha. They later employed a methodology for collaborative choreography and ultimately filmed movement material in four filming shoots with reflective rehearsals interspersed. The facilitator independently created the screendance, Petrichor, from the footage. The film was premiered at a presentation event on January 19, 2018, where the dancers and facilitator also conducted a lecture-demonstration and talk-back with the audience. Reflections on the study resulted in new understandings about extended applications in touch-based partnering, collaborative methodologies, and the medium of screendance for dance educators and artists. The screendance, Petrichor, can be viewed as a supplemental file. iv CURRICULUM VITAE NAME OF AUTHOR: Lila Alice Reid GRADUATE AND UNDERGRADUATE SCHOOLS ATTENDED: University of Oregon, Eugene Mount Holyoke College, South Hadley, Massachusetts DEGREES AWARDED: Master of Fine Arts, Dance, 2018, University of Oregon Bachelor of Arts, Dance and Latin, 2015, Mount Holyoke College AREAS OF SPECIAL INTEREST: Touch-based partnering Collaborative methodologies for teaching and creating Screendance PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCES: Dance Summer Program Director, Substitute Teacher, Dance Artist, Waynflete School, Portland, Maine, 2015-2018 Emerging Choreographer, Sarasota Contemporary Dance, Sarasota, Florida, 2017 Dance Faculty, Southern Vermont Dance Festival, Brattleboro, Vermont, 2017 Graduate Teaching Fellow, University of Oregon, Eugene, Oregon, 2015-2018 GRANTS, AWARDS, AND HONORS Official Selection of Petrichor, American College Dance Association Northwest Regional Conference 2018, Screendance Presentation, Boulder, Colorado, 2018 Public Education Teacher Licensure Dance K-12, State of Massachusetts, 2015 Designation of Cum Laude, Mount Holyoke College, 2015 Richard A. Johnson Prize for Secondary Teaching, Mount Holyoke College, 2014-2015 Virginia J. Wagner Scholarship for Excellence in Dance, Five College Dance Department, 2014-2015 v ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS Thank you to Professor Shannon Mockli, my thesis chair, for supporting my thesis for the last two years and for offering respectful guidance that reminds me how significant this type of work is to furthering the field of dance. Thank you to my committee members, Professor Christian Cherry and Sarah Ebert, for taking the time to read my work and to provide me with yet more insights. Thank you to Professor Steven Chatfield for being actively engaged with my research even though he was not on my committee. This study was initially conceived in his Research Methods graduate course. I have the utmost respect, admiration, and gratitude for Darion Smith, who has been such a positive energy by my side for the past three years. I cannot thank him enough for always making me feel validated and welcome at this University. Deepest gratitude to Jimee Banks and Christopher Slayton for being wonderful friends and maturely sensitive, expressive artistic collaborators in this process. They are talented beyond their years and I wish them all the best in their careers in dance. I extend love and appreciation to my mother, Diane Reid, for championing my research as an endlessly willing, intelligent ear, and always supporting me in dance. Thank you to Lindsey Spratt for sticking with me through the nitty gritty of it all as an unconditional friend and sister for the past ten years. Thank you to Audrey Lehrer for her wisdom and grace. Thank you to my friends from Shadow Hills Country Club for stepping out of their comfort zone for me to support my work. Thank you to Bear Scamman, who knows why. Thank you to my students, who inspire me to do what I do. Thank you to Susan Charles Nelson of Waynflete School, who helped me and so many others find voice as an artist, educator, and young woman. vi For my family, both by blood and chosen, without whom I would not be here: Diane Reid, Michael Reid, Alice Spear, Doreen Spear, Lindsey Spratt, Bear Scamman, Audrey Lehrer, and Susan Nelson. vii TABLE OF CONTENTS Chapter Page I. INTRODUCTION .......................................................................................... 1 Statement of Purpose ............................................................................... 9 Delimitations .......................................................................................... 10 Limitations .............................................................................................. 10 Significance of Study .............................................................................. 11 II. REVIEW OF LITERATURE ....................................................................... 13 The Nature of Partnering and Touch in Dance ....................................... 13 The Use of Touch in Dance .................................................................... 13 Aesthetic Considerations of Touch ......................................................... 17 The Affective Landscape of Touch: Embedded Value Systems of Touch ........................................ 23 Interpersonal Connection and the Nature of Seeing ................... 36 A Collaborative Methodology ................................................................ 38 Conveying a Meaningful Experience Through Touch: Where Collaboration and Partnering Align .............................. 45 Premise for Screendance ........................................................................ 47 III. METHODOLOGY ....................................................................................... 59 Human Subjects Research Approval ...................................................... 59 Participant Selection ............................................................................... 59 Phase 1: The Workshops ........................................................................ 61 The First Discussion ...................................................................... 61 Overall Workshop Design ......................................................... 64 Workshop Implementation, Timeline, and Mapping .................. 65 Phase 2: Rehearsals and Creating Material for Film .............................. 67 Phase 3: Filming and Creating the Screendance .................................... 70 Selecting Location ...................................................................... 70 Equipment and Other Logistics of the Film Shoots .................... 73 Filming Procedures ...................................................................... 73 Phase 4: Editing ...................................................................................... 74 Phase 5: Presentation + Talk Back ......................................................... 76 Collecting Reflective Information .......................................................... 77 Evaluation .............................................................................................. 79 IV. REFLECTION ............................................................................................. 82 Conception and Design ........................................................................... 82 The Workshop Phase .............................................................................. 83 The Rehearsal Phase ............................................................................... 89 The Production and Development Phase ................................................ 92 The First Film Shoot – Studio 353, Hallway .......................................... 92 The Second Film Shoot – Studio 353 .................................................... 95 viii Chapter Page The Third Film Shoot – Our Weekend at Deadwood ............................. 97 The Second Videotaped Discussion ....................................................... 102 The Fourth Film Shoot – Studio 353, stage lighting ............................... 104 The Editing Phase and the Creation of Petrichor ................................... 105 Organizing the Footage ..............................................................
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