Social Texts, Social Audiences, Social Worlds: The Circulation of Popular Dance on YouTube Dissertation Presented in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree Doctor of Philosophy in the Graduate School of The Ohio State University By Alexandra Harlig Graduate Program in Dance The Ohio State University 2019 Dissertation Committee Harmony Bench, Advisor Katherine Borland Karen Eliot Ryan Skinner Copyrighted by Alexandra Harlig 2019 2 Abstract Since its premiere, YouTube has rapidly emerged as the most important venue shaping popular dance practitioners and consumers, introducing paradigm shifts in the ways dances are learned, practiced, and shared. YouTube is a technological platform, an economic system, and a means of social affiliation and expression. In this dissertation, I contribute to ongoing debates on the social, political, and economic effects of technological change by focusing on the bodily and emotional labor performed and archived on the site in videos, comments sections, and advertisements. In particular I look at comments and fan video as social paratexts which shape dance reception and production through policing genre, citationality, and legitimacy; position studio dance class videos as an Internet screendance genre which entextualizes the pedagogical context through creative documentation; and analyze the use of dance in online advertisements to promote identity-based consumption. Taken together, these inquiries show that YouTube perpetuates and reshapes established modes and genres of production, distribution, and consumption. These phenomena require an analysis that accounts for their multivalence and the ways the texts circulating on YouTube subvert existing categories, binaries, and hierarchies. A cyclical exchange—between perpetuation and innovation, subculture and pop culture, amateur and professional, the subversive and the neoliberal—is what defines YouTube and the investigation I undertake in this dissertation. ii Dedication With respect to all the young people of color creating dances, whose names we’ll never know; and in memory of those whose names we know too well: Oscar Grant, Aiyana Jones, Rakia Boyd, Trayvon Martin, Michael Brown, Laquan MacDonald, Tamir Rice, Stephon Clark… iii Acknowledgments This dissertation would not have been possible without a global network of clever, generous, and open-hearted people who have honored me with their support and enabled me to reach the end of that jewel-toned marker timeline. I am indebted to Amy Schmidt, Academic Program Coordinator for the Department of Dance, who helped me enroll, fill out forms, and perhaps most importantly, sent back encouragements each time I said ‘this is hopefully the last semester;’ it really was this time. Thank you to my committee for their guidance shaping my research in the exam stage, and for their willingness to jump back in to action at the end. And particularly to Dr. Bench, thank you for the big questions and the small edits and for seeing this through. Thanks to Dana Plank for final editing assistance! To the other graduates of the department who paved the way, and particularly to my advisee cohort: Kelly and Janet, Benny, Lyndsey, and Archer; I entered the program as a solitary PhD student, and it was wonderful to finish supported by you all. I am excited to keep growing and learning with you. To the dear MFAs I started at OSU with, Ellie, Sofie, and Brian, thank you for giving me a place to belong. Thank you to all the dance studies PhDs making moves and making waves in and outside of our field, especially Elena and Laura; I can’t wait to meet you at conferences in various global cities to eat good food and think big thoughts. To the committee members of PoP Moves iv especially Sherril Dodds, Clare Parfitt, and Melissa Blanco Borelli, for making a space for popular dance, for their mentorship, for believing in my work, and for publishing it. My work and my life have been enriched by my friendships and interactions with people in many different areas. Thank you to my friends and colleagues in Fan Studies, Folklore, Ethnomusicology, English, and Gender Studies who have welcomed me and valued my expertise while sharing theirs. I thank my friends who despite the increasing precarity of the neoliberal university have modeled perseverance, ingenuity, and self-knowledge in making the necessary decisions about where they will make a place for themselves, and have still been able to encourage me in my process. In this and so many other topics I have relied heavily on my Facebook family and my Instagram community for advice, good gifs, and important news and criticism. Thank you to the nebulous ‘you’ of direct address and to those who responded in times of need and times of joy. To all the people who were honest with me about their process, and who thanked me for my honesty in the face of a graduate student mental health crisis.1 All the activists, organizers, and teachers who did the hardest work of all in a time when it is so desperately needed; I have learned so much from you and hope to rejoin you soon in the struggle for our mutual liberation. To Columbus in the way it exists in my imaginary, a cloud of greenery, creativity, edification, and activism, and to the people working to keep it close to that ideal in the face of the same corruption, greed, and racism that plague all American cities. My fellow Sartorial Scholars: Cindy, Colleen, Sonnet, and Taneem, have buoyed me with their feminist friendship, 1 Flaherty, Colleen. “A Very Mixed Record on Grad Student Mental Health.” Inside Higher Ed. 6 Dec 2018. www.insidehighered.com/news/2018/12/06/new-research-graduate-student-mental-well-being-says-departments- have-important v wicked humor, wonderful postcards, and general excellence. Ann Glaviano, still-dancing-as-an- adult role model, thank you for creating Heatwave and for your investment in the creation of safe and creative spaces for all bodies to move in. To Allison Davis for sharing my love of dolmas, the Midwest and for the poetry that makes me think about all of it. To Tiffany for partner dancing at Ace of Cups, your constant encouragement, and your advice. To Brendan and Jacinta, your pedagogy inspires me and your gif games sustained me. To my elementary school squad Allison, Roxanne, and Cait, I am glad I can finally join your ranks as advanced degree holders, thank you for your affirmations and support and for sharing all 25 years of my in-school life with me. And my college group, Virginia, Emma, and Morgan; one of these days we’ll all be in the same place again, but thank goodness for technology in the meantime. To Haddie, for your calm patience and persistent support for all my creative and intellectual endeavors since high school. And to the old friends who welcomed me to New York and into your established lives so warmly, and helped me make a life here too. Ezra and Rona, Adam and Dara; Virginia, Claire, Siobhan, and Stephanie—learning the city, crafting, eating dimsum and dry pot and curry fries, attending dance shows and musicals, and playing games with you these last three years made it possible to work (on working) all the other times. To my family: to my mom, thank you for the tuition which made it possible to finish this semester, for learning a new style sheet to review my references and endnotes, and for encouraging me to go walk around the block. To Reg and Meg for being excellent sister and sister-in-loves and for understanding that Bitmoji are my love language. To my dad for the late night phone calls and for knowing I could do this. To Ann, Stan, Eli, Ariella, Rose, and Daniela vi for being my family, too. And to all my other family for the encouragement, for understanding my absences from family gatherings, and for not asking when I would finish. To Esther for keeping me healthy with weekly gym and poke meetings, and the best conversations about the worst things. Your care kept me afloat. To Janet for texting and calling and co-working with me almost every day this last year as we both finished, I truly could not have done this without you. And finally to Zach, whose hard work enabled me to finish with financial support and health insurance; this is a privilege many do not have. And thank you for your patience—I’m excited for all the things that are possible for us now that this is done. vii Vita 2010………………………. B.A. Dance and Linguistics, Cornell University, Magna Cum Laude 2010-2011………………………………………… University Fellow, The Ohio State University 2011-2016………Graduate Teaching Associate, The Ohio State University Department of Dance Publications Harlig, Alexandra. “‘Fresher Than You:’ Commercial Use of YouTube-Native Dance and Videographic Techniques.” International Journal of Screendance. 9 (2018): 50-71. Harlig, Alexandra. “Communities of Practice: Active and Affective Viewing of Early Social Dance on the Popular Screen.” Oxford Handbook of Dance on the Popular Screen. Ed. Melissa Blanco Borelli. Oxford UP, 2014. 57-67. Fields of Study Major Field: Dance Studies Minor Field: Comparative Cultural Studies viii Table of Contents Abstract ........................................................................................................................................... ii Dedication ...................................................................................................................................... iii Acknowledgments.......................................................................................................................... iv Vita ..............................................................................................................................................