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Part I: Preliminary Information
Title: Challenging gender representations within codified dance styles: The staging of original
dance pieces with pre-performance exploration of dancer agency
Names: XXXXXXXXXXX
Abstract:
Since the resurgence of feminism in the 1980s, choreography has been noted as an ideal medium
for studying gender representation. Scholars in this medium agree that codified dance styles
present certain gendered ideals, but choreographers have yet to investigate the dancer’s role as a
rhetor who actively constructs gender images. Drawing on recent research about dancers’
rhetorical agency, I will examine Elon dance majors’ ability to actively construct gender
representations within codified dance styles. I will design and implement kinesthetic rhetoric
labs: creative, reflective sessions which allow dancers to explore and manipulate the gender
ideals embedded in dance styles. My goal will be the creation and production of dance
performances drawing on lab dialogue, as well as an analytical essay for submission to
appropriate journals. By focusing on the intersection of embodied style and gendered
communication in performance, I hope to spark a broader discourse about dancers’ agency and
voice.
Personal Statement:
Though I have always been a dancer, my intellectual curiosities are often piqued by language. I
was an avid writer and voracious reader growing up, and I opted to pursue the writing-intensive
International Baccalaureate Diploma in high school. Because I was simultaneously training preprofessionally in ballet, modern and choreography, I nurtured an enthusiasm for merging
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academic and creative ideas. That enthusiasm has continued and developed in Elon’s dance
major and Honors Fellows program.
The “Fellows College Writing” course I took during spring of my freshmen year
introduced me to the language of rhetorical analysis. I was drawn to the idea that writers are
rhetors: agents crafting their language to convey meaning (Wardle, 2011). Interestingly, all
rhetors have deeply embedded and often unconscious approaches to writing (Perl, 1979). If
rhetors are agents of communication, how do their writing patterns impede or influence their
ability to communicate? I began applying these questions about rhetorical analysis to dance. The
more I read and reflected on this potential connection, the more interested I was in designing a
dance-as-rhetoric approach for my final choreographic thesis.
In addition to giving me the foundational tools for dance technique and choreographic
approaches, Elon’s dance major program has prompted me to question dance as a language. The
“Choreography I” course I took my sophomore year challenged me to examine my movement
vocabulary. In one exercise, we explored where we hold tension in the body, and what those
tensions could convey to an audience. Clearly movements originating from my own body tell my
body’s story truthfully. But as I began choreographing a project on two of my classmates, I
wondered how dancers can maintain movement ownership when they are directed by an outside
force: a choreographer. During my rehearsal process I shared movement and themes with the two
dancers, encouraged improvisation between the dancers, and then edited their natural movement
tendencies to suit my intentions for the piece. Even though I was in a controlling role, I played
with how much control I could give to the dancers themselves. This experience deepened my
curiosity about dance-as-rhetoric, specifically the role of a dancer as a rhetor. Through “College
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Writing,” I had asked how dancers can draw on rhetors’ skills; after delving into choreography, I
wanted to know if dancers can be rhetors in their own right.
I am most interested in the ways in which dancers accept, reject, and otherwise interact
with their training in dance styles. Elon dancers come from diverse training backgrounds, and all
of us balance two opposing goals: embody and improve technique in codified styles such as
ballet and postmodern dance, then consciously depart from technique to move organically and
create inventive movement. How my peers navigate this conundrum, both learning and
unlearning style, is worthy of deeper examination. Interestingly, while studying Dance History in
Florence I have found that styles emerge from certain cultural conditions, crafted to present
particular ideologies about gender and power. Today’s dancers may benefit from understanding
where and why their movement vocabularies were first codified, and how they can harness those
vocabularies to communicate with agency.
I view this project as an entryway to making a positive impact on the world. Dancer
agency is a line of inquiry that I could extend into graduate work with professional dancers or
nonprofit work with disenfranchised groups. A Lumen Prize would enhance my inquiry in three
crucial ways: supporting my research with Elon dancers; allowing me to collaborate with
choreographers in the field; and providing a foundation for the pursuit of national fellowships,
graduate study in choreography, and a career in dance studies.
Part II: Project Description
Focus:
This choreographic research will explore the relationship between Elon dance majors’ learned
movement techniques and gender representations in performance, with an overarching goal of
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increasing dancers’ agency as rhetors1. In order to probe these relationships, a preliminary threepronged research methodology2 will be necessary: I will develop a functional understanding of
rhetorical analysis and its newly articulated relationship to dance; I will study the cultural origins
of movement techniques embodied by Elon dancers3; I will find further inspiration by studying
theories of gender representation in performance. Supported by this three-pronged research, I
will design and lead three kinesthetic rhetoric labs.
Each kinesthetic rhetoric lab will consist of bi-weekly reflective, playful, and
experimental sessions which allow dancers to explore and manipulate the gender ideals
embedded in dance styles. These creative spaces will encourage movement invention and foster
dialogue about the dancers’ capacity to communicate meaning. My roles will be to facilitate
discussion and movement improvisations, teach thought-provoking movement phrases, oversee
choreography, and document the dancers’ experiences and questions4. For example, in one
session I may present an idea, guide improvisation based on that idea, create choreography, and
lead a reflective discussion. In one kinesthetic rhetoric lab, the bi-weekly sessions will progress
from movement play to meaning-making to manipulating the cultural implications of style. The
For this research, a rhetor will be defined as “an orator, a speaker” who “has agency or power to
make choices that affect not only the way the work comes to life, but also how the audience
interprets the movement” (Roses-Thema, 2008, p.1).
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Dancemakers have been challenged to use theory as “a set of questions that provides the motor
for research and reflection,” supplementing and enriching creative projects (Daly, 2000, p.40).
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The main techniques at Elon are Modern (postmodern release, Bartinieff fundamentals, and
Afro-fusion) and Ballet (a broad survey of classical and contemporary approaches), with
additional courses in Jazz, Tap, World, and Somatic Theories. My preliminary study will focus
on Modern and Ballet techniques, but a functional understanding of other techniques’ histories
will be necessary in kinesthetic rhetoric labs.
Research methods for documentation will likely be based on Roses-Thema’s (2008)
methodology, which combines ethnography and interpretive phenomenology.
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three kinesthetic rhetoric labs will each work toward the creation and staging of a dance piece
based on the movement and dialogue generated throughout the biweekly sessions. The
discoveries and questions made in each kinesthetic rhetoric lab will support and structure
subsequent labs. The first kinesthetic rhetoric lab will grow from my “Choreography II” course;
the second will be performed in the 2014 DanceWorks concert; the third will be a year-long
process within the “Senior Seminar in Dance I-II” courses. In conjunction with the kinesthetic
rhetoric labs, I will write and seek to publish an essay detailing salient questions and findings
from my research. My aim is that I will contribute to an understanding of the dancer’s potential
to communicate, focusing on the ideologically complex representations of gender in different
movement styles.
Since the resurgence of feminism in the last 1980s, choreography has been noted as an
ideal medium for studying gender representation (Thomas, 2003, p. 158). Dance scholars and
choreographers have been particularly interested in the relationship between prominent Western
theatrical dance styles5 and performed gender roles. They have generally agreed on a hierarchy
which places classical ballet as most constrictive, modern dance as a flawed improvement, and
post-modern dance as best able to allow non-essentialist gender inventions (Thomas, 2003,
p.164). Daly (1991) proposed the importance of “training and cultural conditioning in the
construction of female and male body images in dance,” noting that body images in ballet or
modern change in tandem with cultural shifts (p.3). Dempster (1995) agreed that dance styles
are ideological constructions on anatomical planes, using the human body to perform gender
ideals (p.37). Through learned dance styles, Reed (1998) summarized, “cultural ideologies of
gender difference are reproduced” on dancers’ bodies (p.516).
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“Western theatrical dance styles” refers to ballet, modern, and post-modern dance.
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Several dance critics have asserted that while bodies are conceptualized differently across
dance forms, dancers themselves have the agency to respond to those forms and rewrite
culturally crafted aesthetics of movement (Novak, 1995, pp. 179-180; Banes, 1998, p. 4; Wolf,
1990, pp. 134-5). This idea of dancer agency is particularly interesting when applied to
university-level dancers. Dance majors are juggling multiple styles, and each style uses
movement that was crafted to communicate the gender ideals of a particular time and culture.
The challenge of navigating the cultural implications of style is not often the dancer’s
responsibility in a choreographic process. Dancers are usually subject to the choreographer’s
design, making it easy to ignore the challenge of personal meaning-making. However, even
when working within someone else’s choreography, dancers are ultimately the agents perceiving,
creating, and performing each movement. Dance critics have addressed this agency in written
critique, but there has not been sufficient choreographic research investigating dancers’ ability to
create meaning.
My research on dancer agency will be bolstered by the dancer-as-rhetor concept: a highly
topical interdisciplinary approach to dance studies. Roses-Thema (2008) presented, for the first
time, research on the dancer’s role as a rhetor in performance. Roses-Thema’s study interviewed
dancers immediately post-performance to optimally assess their agency within the performance.
She viewed the dance performance as a rhetorical situation in which rhetors consciously
communicate with audience. In assessing the dancers as rhetors, Roses-Thema found that
dancers are not robots executing a choreographer’s vision; they use complex, dynamic
perception systems to embody movement. They actively perceive their relationship to the
choreographer, audience, internal and external stimuli, and meaning-making strategies. This
groundbreaking research has opened a new field of inquiry in dance studies. My project takes her
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work a step farther by investigating dancers in the pre-performance stage, crafting choreography
informed by the way dancers navigate styles. I will assist a group of dancers in recognizing their
amalgamated stylistic experiences and harnessing those experiences to work deliberately,
perform authentically, and recognize their power to communicate meaning. The construction of
performed gender identity through movement style will be the focus of my project, an entry point
for speaking more broadly about dancer agency and voice.
Proposed Experiences:
In the summer of 2013 I will begin a three-pronged research methodology analyzing dance
styles, gender representations in dance, and the intersection of rhetorical theory and performance.
In conjunction with academically-informed research, I will participate in several dance-making
intensive programs in New York City. Keigwin & Company’s intensive uses “improvisational
and compositional tools in a playful environment,” which will provide an example as I design
my kinesthetic rhetoric labs. Parson’s Master Choreography Workshop offers involvement in
another professional company’s rehearsal process, enriching my conception of dance-making.
MELT intensives at Movement Research involve classes in technique, composition, and
improvisation. Supported by both academic and experiential research, I will be poised to start the
first kinesthetic rhetoric lab at Elon in the fall.
My junior year will focus on two kinesthetic rhetoric labs: their processes, performances,
and written evaluations. The first lab will take occur within Professor Chris Burnside’s
“Choreography II” course. Its product will be presented in the Choreography Salon, where it may
be selected for presentation in Elon’s Dancing in the Black Box concert or at the American
College Dance Festival. While enrolled in Professor Rebecca Pope-Ruark’s “Introduction to
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Professional Writing,” I will gain a functional understanding of rhetoric to support my first
kinesthetic rhetoric lab. For additional choreographic practice, I will submit my dance piece from
last fall’s “Choreography I” course to North Carolina Dance Alliance’s Student Showcase in
October. Over winter and spring, I will implement a second kinesthetic rhetoric lab with a larger
group of Elon dancers. This kinesthetic rhetoric lab’s product will be submitted to Elon’s
DanceWorks Concert in March.
In 2014 will apply for a summer Choreographic Residency with San Francisco
Conservatory, practicing choreography in a professional environment. In fall and spring of my
senior year, I will craft a year-long rehearsal process as part of Professor Lauren Kearns’s
“Senior Seminar in Dance I-II” course. This collaborative course will place my final kinesthetic
rhetoric lab’s choreographic product within my cohort’s capstone dance production in May 2015.
Proposed Products:
The creation and performance of a cumulative dance piece is the end goal of this project, and it
will fulfill requirements for my Honors thesis and “Senior Seminar in Dance I-II” course. This
piece will be accompanied by a concise written statement in the program. At each stage in my
research I will also produce written reflections and analyses which, in aggregate, will serve as
the written component of my Honors thesis and will ultimately be edited for publication in
appropriate journals.6 This paper will be of interest to choreographers, dancers, and educators,
particularly at the university level. It will also be relevant to any scholars of performance theory
and gender studies.
Movement Research’s Critical Correspondence publication accepts writings on long-term,
process-based choreographic research; their readership will be an appropriate audience for my
essay.
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Part III: Feasibility
Feasibility statement:
As much of my research is process-based, the majority of my project will not require costumes,
props, lighting or other technical elements. Performances in the Choreography Salon and the
DanceWorks concert offer lighting, but require choreographers to obtain costumes, set, or prop
pieces. I have included $300 in my budget to accommodate the purchase of necessary technical
elements for these two kinesthetic rhetoric labs’ performances. Due to the collaborative nature of
Elon’s “Senior Seminar in Dance I-II” course, the final kinesthetic rhetoric lab’s product will
almost certainly be performed in concert with the works of my peers. This concert ensures that
my final piece will have a performance space, technical attention from lighting designers,
potential aid from costume designers, and collaborative effort from my dance major cohort. I will
also have support from dancers, other student choreographers, tech designers, and dance faculty.
I have included $200 in my budget to purchase supplemental technical elements for the final
piece.
When filming my cumulative dance piece for submission to external conferences and
showcases, I will require the expertise of a student videographer to create an appropriate video
reel. I have included $50 in my budget for the purpose of hiring a student videographer to film,
edit, and produce several copies of a reel.
While the construction of gender expression through dance style will be the clear focus of
my written essay, that focus will serve as the structural spine7 of my choreography. Therefore,
the subject matter of each kinesthetic rhetoric lab’s performance may or may not demonstrate the
Choreographer Twyla Tharp’s postulate on the spine suggests that any creative work may rely
on an idea for coherence while choreographing; however, that structural idea may or may not be
related to the content, aesthetic, or perceived meaning of the piece (2005).
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relationship between dance style and gender expression. Kinesthetic rhetoric lab dialogues will
guide each piece’s development structurally and conceptually, but the narrative subject matter of
the work may develop into some seemingly unrelated topic.
Budget:

2013 Keigwin and Company Intensive – $950
o Five days of Keigwin and Company Intensive tuition - $500
o Housing in New York City from June 9 to June 14 - $390
o Transportation to New York City - $60

2013 David Parsons Master Choreography Workshop – $1,145
o One week of David Parsons Master Choreography Workshop tuition – $695
o Housing in New York City from June 15 to June 20 – $390
o Transportation from New York City – $60

2013 MELT Intensive with Movement Research – $830
o One week of MELT Intensive tuition – $320
o Housing in New York City for six days – $390
o Transportation to and from New York City – $120

2014 Choreographic Residency with San Francisco Conservatory – $3,975
o Choreographic Residency Audition Fee - $30
o Choreographic Residency Tuition - $2,200
o Transportation to San Francisco for Choreographic Residency – $660
o McAllister Tower apartment in San Francisco for four weeks – $1085

Unforeseen additional choreography classes and workshops – $300

Choreography showcase application fees – $60
o North Carolina Dance Alliance – $30
o Young Choreographer’s Showcase – $30
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
Hiring student videographer – $50

Digital voice recorder and microphone for kinesthetic rhetoric lab interviews – $440

Costumes, props, or other technical elements in performance – $500
o First Kinesthetic Rhetoric Lab – $150
o Second Kinesthetic Rhetoric Lab – $150
o Third Kinesthetic Rhetoric Lab – $200

Additional supplies for kinesthetic rhetoric labs – $100

Books - $450
o Rhetorical Moves: Reclaiming the Dancer as Rhetor in Dance Performance by
Cynthia Roses-Thema; Choreographing Difference: The Body and Identity in
Contemporary Dance by Ann Cooper Albright; The Knowing Body: The Artist as
Storyteller in Contemporary Performance by Louise Steinman; Gender Trouble:
Feminism and the Subversion of Identity by Judith Butler; The Body, Dance and
Cultural Theory by Helen Thomas; Excitable Speech: A Politics of the
Performance by Judith Butler; Performance Studies: An Introduction by Richard
Schechner; Theories of Performance by Elizabeth Bell; Of the Presence of the
Body: Essays on Dance and Performance Theory by Andre Lepecki – $267
o Additional books and journals – $183

Tuition
o 2013-2014: $3,100
o 2014-2015: $3,100
Tuition: $6,200
Expenses: $8,800
Total: $15,000
Timeline:
Proposed Experiences
Summer 2013 Participate in one week of
Keigwin and Company’s
summer intensive June 10-14.
Participate in one week of David
Parsons Master Choreography
Workshop June 17-21.
Participate in one week of
MELT intensives with
Proposed Products
Written analysis of three-pronged
methodology
Written design for the first kinesthetic
rhetoric lab
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Movement Research program
August 5-10.
Fall 2013
Begin three-pronged preliminary
research methodology, gaining a
functional understanding of
rhetorical analysis, dance style,
and gender representation in
performance.
(1 research credit hour)
Submit Hollow Hands,
Charming Armies (piece from
the “Choreography I” course) to
North Carolina Dance
Conference.
One 10-12 minute dance piece
Written reflection and analysis of the first
kinesthetic rhetoric lab’s process and
performance
Enroll in Professor Chris
Burnside’s “Choreography II”
course, and apply first
kinesthetic rhetoric lab to a
quintet.
Present the “Choreography II”
piece in Choreography Salon.
Winter 2014
Enroll in Professor Rebecca
Pope-Ruark’s “Introduction to
Professional Writing and
Rhetoric” course.
Design and implement a second
kinesthetic rhetoric lab with a
larger group of Elon dancers.
One 5-8 minute dance piece
Written reflection and analysis of the second
kinesthetic rhetoric lab’s process
Submit the second kinesthetic
rhetoric lab’s product to the
DanceWorks Concert.
Spring 2014
Audition and apply for a
Choreographic Residency with
the San Francisco Conservatory.
(2 research credit hours)
Hold biweekly sessions for the
second kinesthetic rhetoric lab.
The presentation of the second kinesthetic
rhetoric lab’s product
Written reflection and analysis of the second
kinesthetic rhetoric lab’s performance
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Present the second kinesthetic
rhetoric lab’s product at the
DanceWorks Concert.
Summer 2014 Complete a Choreographic
Residency with San Francisco
Conservatory June 6 – July 10
Fall 2014
Cumulative written analysis of first two
kinesthetic rhetoric labs’ processes and
performances
Continue three-pronged research Written plan for the final kinesthetic
methodology, evaluating the first rhetoric lab
two kinesthetic rhetoric labs and
planning the final kinesthetic
rhetoric lab.
(3 research credit hours)
The first 10-15 minutes of the final 30minute dance piece
Enroll in Professor Lauren
Kearns’s “Senior Seminar in
Written reflection and analysis of the final
Dance I” course.
kinesthetic rhetoric lab’s process
Hold an audition-interview
session to build my final cast of
8-12 dancers.
Winter 2015
Hold biweekly sessions for the
final kinesthetic rhetoric lab.
Hold biweekly sessions for the
final kinesthetic rhetoric lab.
The composition of one complete 30-minute
piece
Begin consultations with lighting Additional written reflection and analysis of
and costume designers.
the final kinesthetic rhetoric lab’s process
Oversee the filming of the piece
for submission to choreographic
events.
Spring 2015
Submit a section of the piece to
the Young Choreographer’s
Showcase in New York City.
(2 research credit hours)
The presentation of one 30-minute piece
Enroll in Professor Lauren
Kearns’s “Senior Seminar in
Dance II” course.
Written reflection and analysis of the final
kinesthetic rhetoric lab’s process and
performance
Hold bi-weekly sessions for the
final kinesthetic rhetoric lab.
The compilation of all written reflections,
edited into an essay for publication in
appropriate journals
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Submit final written product to
be considered for publication in
Critical Correspondence.
Apply to Critical
Correspondence internship with
Movement Research program.
List of sources:
Banes, S. (1998). Dancing women: Female bodies on stage. London: Routledge.
Daly, A. (2000). Feminist theory across the generational divide. Dance Research Journal, 32 (1),
39-42. Retrieved from: http://www.jstor.org
Daly, A. (1991). Unlimited partnership. Dance Research Journal, 23 (1), 2-5. Retrieved from:
http://www.jstor.org
Dempster, E. and Goellner, E and Murphy J.S. (Eds). (1995). Women writing the body: Let’s
watch a little how she dances. Bodies of the text: Dance as theory, literature as dance.
New Brunswick: Rutgers U P.
K + C Summer Intensive at the Julliard School. Available from:
http://www.keigwinandcompany.com/calendar/event/KC-Summer-Intensive-2013-06-10
Movement Research MELT Intensives. Available from:
http://www.movementresearch.org/classesworkshops/melt/
Novak, C.J. (1995). The body’s endeavors as cultural practices. In S.L. Foster (Ed),
Choreographing history (177-184). Bloomington: Indiana University Press. Available
from: http://books.google.it/books.
Parsons Dance 2013 New York City Summer Intensives. Available from:
http://www.parsonsdance.org/calendar/summerworkshops/
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Perl, S. (1979). The composing processes of unskilled college writers. Research in the teaching
of English, 13(4), 317-336. Retrieved from: http://www.jstor.org
Reed, S. (1998). The politics and poetics of dance. Annual review of anthropology, 27(1), 516.
Retrieved from: http://www.jstor.org
Roses-Thema, C. (2008). Rhetorical moves: Reclaiming the dancer as rhetor in a dance
performance. Saarbrücken: VDM Verlag.
San Francisco Conservatory of Dance Choreographic Residency. Available from:
http://www.sfconservatoryofdance.org/summer-intensives/choreographic-residency
Tharp, T. (2005). The creative habit: Learn it and use it for life. New York: Simon & Schuster.
Thomas, H. (2003). The body, dance and cultural theory. Houndmills: Palgrave Macmillan.
Wardle, E. & Downs, D. (2011). Writing about writing: A college reader. Boston:
Bedford/St.Martins.
Wolf, J. (1990) Reinstating corporeality: Feminism and body politics. Feminine sentences:
Essays in women and culture. Oxford: Blackwell Publishers. 134-135.