Dance theatre is a performance form that reflects an array of creative processes and aesthetic parameters which seek to present the human condition through the lived experiences of the body. It emerged in the second half of the twentieth century, and the processes of developing these practices remain largely undocumented. Rather than attempting to define or delineate dance theatre as a product for analysis, dance theatre images is a concept that I have created to provide both a container for developing practice, and a currency for examining practice in all its disparate forms, processes, identities and artistic constructions. Subjectivity is at the heart of the process of the production and reception of dance theatre images, which are fluid cognitive-sensorial experiences that exemplify singular moments within the work or process. The research offers further new knowledge in its use of cognitive and neurological concepts for framing, expanding, and providing pathways for translating the subjective experiences, at both their neuronal and higher cognitive levels, into the tangible materials of dance theatre images, especially through the expressivity of the human body. A practice-led examination of how dance theatre images may operate from within the creative process is presented which draws on my own evolving subjective positioning as a dancer, choreographer, and teacher, and framed by the four parameters which also serve as variables of dance theatre images; subjectivity, aesthetic frameworks, the presentation of the human body, and cognitive studies. The outcomes of this research offer a range of insights into the processes of how the interplay of the component elements of dance theatre images allow scope for focussing on the individual subjective positioning and development of relevant and particular cognitive, physical, and expressive or aesthetic skills. The outcomes of this research reveal that many of the particularities of the processes involved in developing dance theatre images in different contexts and roles are person and situation specific and this mirrors the wider experiential fluidity of dance theatre as a form.
| Date of Award | 30 Sept 2025 |
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| Original language | English |
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| Sponsors | UCEN Manchester |
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| Supervisor | Eric Hetzler (Main Supervisor) |
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