thesis mind map before field review
thesis mind map after field review
The common thread that brings these sources together is their contribution to the creation of brave space—a space where everyone involved can actively participate, feel seen and heard, take risks, and have their needs met. Whether the participants are engaging in the creation of a dance, intergroup dialogue, addressing a social issue in their community, healing from past or current traumas, or simply sharing a space together, these sources provide the tools necessary to facilitate a learning environment which centers voices of the people involved. These sources emphasize the importance of collaboration and collectivity, while simultaneously finding creative ways to deconstruct hierarchical structures of our dance studios, classrooms, work environments, and social spaces. They focus on creating pathways of communication across difference. They open space for those who have been marginalized to share their stories. They all are informed by social justice initiatives. This common thread lays the foundation for my project by offering me the tools to work with a group of dancers of varying experience, ability, and perspectives while addressing my own personal biases and areas for growth as a facilitator.
Emergent strategy—a framework for building complex patterns and systems of change through relatively small interactions (brown 2017, 3)—makes up the boney structure of my project through a micro-to-macro approach. Each of the six elements of emergent strategy (fractals, intentional adaptation, building interdependence, nonlinear and iterative pathways of change, building resiliency, and creating more possibilities in community) will serve as the central theme of each month throughout the duration of the project. This process of working from an individual, internal perspective to one of analyzing our roles in community will act as a guide for assessing how small-scale changes in individuals can lead to large-scale shifts in society.
Both Lerman’s Hiking the Horizontal and The Shipyard Dance have taught me horizontal frameworks of collaboration with dancers, artists, and researchers which I will utilize during weekly dance classes and in the development of monthly workshops. Additionally, these sources also demonstrate ways of generating movement vocabularies with people who have varying levels of dance experience. For example, Lerman often collaborates with her dancers to create movement scores by using gestures from their daily lives. Lastly, these two sources offer strategies for discussing art in community, emphasizing a shift away from dance as an elitist artform reserved for the concert stage and instead highlighting the benefits of dance in non-traditional spaces.
Landreman’s The Art of Effective Facilitation is an invaluable resource in guiding me in my facilitation duties throughout the duration of my project. This source has taught me how to apply social justice theory to become a better facilitator, how to prepare differently for workshops around specific identities, and how to effectively respond when classes or workshops aren’t going as planned. Additionally, the advice on design techniques while planning a workshop has prepared me to create an arts program that exceeds superficial discussion of issues in our society and guides project members toward addressing the structural causes of inequity in their local community through small-scale changes in their everyday lives—which is central to the framework of adrienne maree brown’s emergent strategy.
Both Menakem’s My Grandmother’s Hands and Halprin’s documentary Dance to Heal offer embodied approaches to healing from trauma and guide my project’s mission of combining arts and healthcare. These sources view wellness from multiple perspectives (physical, mental, emotional, social) with the belief that to fully heal, one must engage in processes that allow for psychological, emotional, spiritual, and embodied reflection. Menakem’s text is powerful in its ability to lead project members through the process of healing from racial trauma, which could come up in our discussions around community advocacy. However, I believe that many of the embodied exercises—including visualization, humming techniques, self-massage, and tapping techniques—are also useful in recovering from personal or collective trauma, even if discussions around racial justice do not come up. I believe both sources will be particularly useful once project members and I begin to address the element of resiliency within the larger framework of project.
In Making Dances That Matter, Halprin offers concrete strategies for collaborating in community and starting the healing process, including the “Psychokinetic Visualization Process,” the “Five Stages of Healing,” the “RSVP Cycles” and the “Life/Art Process” (Halprin 2019, 20-30). This source is also unique in its emphasis on interdisciplinarity in healing, offering exercises such as painting self-portraits, which I plan to include in this project. Halprin’s work inspires me as I embark on the beginning of my thesis journey by demonstrating how dance and other artforms can be powerful tools for healing, learning, and mobilizing change on both individual and communal levels.
Finally, the viewings from the All Bodies Dance project (Ho:Me, Broadway and Commercial, and Inflect) provide visual inspiration for imagining the ways dance can be an inclusive, accessible, and equitable space for dancers of any and all abilities. These pieces demonstrate a variety of ways to create movement vocabularies that include, rather than exclude or simply accommodate—such as creating gestures from daily activities or utilizing forms of locomotion that are available to every dancer on stage. Additionally, I believe viewing these sources could be useful inspiration for some project members who may potentially feel hesitant, unexperienced, or out-of-place during our weekly movement classes.
In conclusion, the elements that make these ten sources similar are equally as valuable as what makes them each unique. These sources teach me, the project facilitator, the importance of understanding my own identity as a white, able-bodied, queer, young adult as I learn alongside those of another generation through the process of personal and communal transformation. These sources set me up for the launch of my project by offering the tools, techniques, strategies, and exercises necessary to effectively facilitate classes and workshops while also prompting me into a process of continual feedback, reflection, and adaptation to ensure my project member’s voices are heard and uplifted along the way.
Bibliography
Readings:
(1) Brown, Adrienne Maree. 2017. Emergent Strategy: Shaping Change, Changing Worlds.
Chico: AK Press.
(2) Halprin, Anna & Kaplan. 2018. Making Dances That Matter: Resources for
Community Creativity. Middletown: Wesleyan University Press.
(3) Landreman, Lisa. 2013. The Art of Effective Facilitation: Reflections from Social Justice Educators. Sterling: Stylus Publishing.
(4) Lerman, Liz. 2011. Hiking the Horizontal: Field Notes from a Choreographer. Middletown: Wesleyan University Press.
(5) Menakem, Resmaa. 2017. My Grandmothers Hands: Racialized Trauma and the Pathway to Mending Our Hearts and Bodies. Las Vegas: Central Recovery Press.
Viewings:
(1) Bergonzoni, Carolina. N.d. “Ho:Me.” https://vimeo.com/233391022/864fd51587. Accessed May 14, 2021.
(2) Halprin, Anna. 2017. “Dance to Heal: Healing Trauma with the Power of Movement.” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zgdu6JEB2RA&list=RDCMUCx8LIRh6VuPamPrqYDNF2QQ&start_radio=1. Accessed April 14, 2021.
(3) Lerman, Liz. 1996. “Shipyard Project.” https://lizlerman.com/2018/05/17/shipyard-project/.
Accessed March 5, 2021
(4) Seary, Cheyenne. 2017. “Broadway and Commercial.”
https://vimeo.com/401084438/95ccd4759c. Accessed May 14, 2021.
(5) Taylor, Harmanie. 2019. “Inflect.” https://vimeo.com/352546519/38c1cff31f. Accessed May
14, 2021.
Supplemental:
(1) Albright, Ann Cooper. 2018. How to Land: Finding Ground in an Unstable World. New York: Oxford University Press.
(2) Bastings, Anne. 2020. Creative Care: A Revolutionary Approach to Dementia and Elder Care. New York: Harper Collins Publishers.
(3) Bogart, Anne. 2007. And Then, You Act: Making Art in an Unpredictable World. New
York: Routledge.
(4) Cohen-Cruz, Jan & Schutzman. 1994. Playing Boal: Theatre, Therapy, Activism. Abingdon: Routledge.
(5) Franklin, Eric. 1996. Dance Imagery for Technique and Performance. Champaign: Human Kinetics.
(6) Jacob’s Pillow. 2021. “What’s on Top: Conversation with Jawole Willa Jo Zollar and Liz Lerman.” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HljEUJc2yG0. Accessed April 24, 2021.
(7) McGregor, Paloma. 2013. A Working Guide to the Landscape of Arts for Change: Dance and Civic Engagement. Americans for the Arts.
(8) Sholette, Gegory and Brass. 2018. Art as Social Action: An Introduction to the Principles and Practices of Teaching Social Practice Art. New York: Allworth Press.
(9) Soriano, C. & Hugenschmidt. “Life Skill: Improvisational Movement” on Tedx Talks. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WndFUdVRdXU. Accessed April 17, 2021.
Comments