Rosella Vasta Thesis

In “Stripping the Emperor: The Africanist Presence in American Concert Dance”, Gottschild begins by introducing unique aspects of the Africanist aesthetic including how it embraces differences and instead of the tradition European idea of resolving conflict, Africanist aesthetic presents a question and demonstrates the beauty in accepting conflict. One way in which the Africanist aesthetic differs from European ballet is how they utilize polycentrism, having multiple centers of movement, and polyrhythm, when different body parts keep multiple rhythms. Other ways include the high-affect juxtaposition, changes in mood, movement, or tempo, to the drastically contrasting sharpness and intensity in the movements. Gottschild’s main point in

Dance movements are very synchronous throughout the entire performance. Dancers move gracefully but with the force and energy, their faces express pride and joy.

My overall response to the dance concert is spectacular because each dance piece was moving, remarkable, and motivational. Each dance had an astounding affect on me and allowed to me repelled into the performance. These impressions came from me analyzing the dance pieces, “A Brief Study of Recent History and “One Heart, Two Worlds”, for the Spring 2016 Studio 115 Dance Concert Series at USM’s Dance and Theatre Building on May 4th. The first performance, “A Brief Study of Recent History” was choreographed by Elizabeth Lentz-Hill and introduced by the dancers Jennifer Alafat, Megan Bradberry, Shaquille Hayes, etc. While the second piece, “One Heart, Two Worlds”, was choreographed by Dejonelle Gleeton and the performers were Brittain Allgood,

Through songs many people express their feelings of the world threw the words they have wrote. Many songs talk about civil rights of the people and how change should be an option. In the world we live in today we have social issues that people have to face such as: police brutality, racial profiling, discrimination etc. Through Kendrick Lamar, Public Enemy, The Game, Bebe Winans, and N.W.A they will use their voice as a weapon for change among all people. Music with a message thrives in a live setting, for obvious reasons, and many politically conscious musicians aim to channel the heightened emotions

There is no denying that over a multitude of years, music has inevitably found ways to challenge power and power structures around the world. Music has found a way to use not only lyrics, but also the gender of musicians and genres of music to oppose powerful entities. Throughout music 's long lived history, lyrics have been the most obvious example of musical oppositions to power. Music and songs have been created to protest wars, raise awareness to violence, express pride in one 's race and culture, and challenge political forums, only to name a few examples. For example, “We Didn’t Start the Fire” by Billy Joel was created to oppose United States involvement in the Vietnam War, along with raising awareness of both drug and race problems in America. Furthermore, lyrics are a way in which an artist or composer can specifically tailor a message to explicitly state their take on a given institution or outlet of power. On the other hand, lyrics have also been used in a coded fashion to indirectly attack structures of power rather than explicitly attacking structure of power, which has been proven useful in times of serious civil oppression. Lyrics tell a story, and historically singers and songwriters have used them in a multitude of ways to construct a variety of messages that have challenged societal norms and structures of power.

The New York City Ballet conducted a dance performance titled “New Beginnings” on the 57th floor of the Four World Trade Center in New York. The performance took place September 12th, 2013 and was intended to commemorate September 11th, 2001. A tragic event, such as September 11th, tends to leave a bitter taste in one 's mouth. The public is generally heartbroken, angry, and distressed. This performance seeks to influence the general US audience by using dance as a means of changing the perception of the aftermath of disaster. By following a narrative structure, the dance performance begins by setting the scene of New York City. The performance is then followed with analogies through dance designed to provide moments of action, climax, and resolution. The New York City Ballet uses pathos and an instance of logos through movements to enforce their attempt to alter one’s perspective. There is plenty of pathos used throughout the dance performance in order to motivate a change in thinking from the audience. I believe this strategy was extremely effective because by influencing how the audience emotionally reacts to the performance there is more likely to be a change in audience perception. The ballet incorporates inductive reasoning by taking the specific situation of September 11th and implying that, after tragedy, we will ultimately have a “new beginning”. I believe the logical appeal of this implication is effective because the audience is naturally inclined to believe if

The melody sounds somber and serious and the energy of the dancers suddenly changes. A spoken word takes place and all of the dancer begin to tell their stories of pain and struggle through movements. The spoken word talks about the journey of men and women who overcame social injustice. In the dancer's movements you could clearly see how they correlated together. Movements were powerful and restraint at the same time giving the audience the idea of the women were pushing through something that was bearing them down. There was a lot of expansion in the chest, back, and arms followed by contractions in the body. As soon as the spoken word was finished the mood of the piece change again and the pianist began to play a upbeat tune that brought the dancers back in to a more positive and high spirit. A lot of polyrhythms take place as the dancers jump high and move their arms back and forth moving throughout the space. This happens in unison at first and then solos, trios, and duets happen in this section of the dance. The expression on their faces add charismatic charm to this piece. Their expressions continue to move them into different emotions and feelings that are relatable to everyday

In “Stripping the Emperor: The Africanist Presence in American Concert Dance”, Gottschild begins by introducing unique aspects of the Africanist aesthetic including how it embraces differences and instead of the traditional European idea of resolving conflict, Africanist aesthetic presents a question and demonstrates the beauty in accepting conflict. One way in which the Africanist aesthetic differs from European ballet is how they utilize polycentrism, having multiple centers of movement, and polyrhythm, when different body parts keep multiple rhythms. Other ways include the high-affect juxtaposition, changes in mood, movement, or tempo, to the drastically contrasting sharpness and intensity in the movements. Gottschild’s main point in her article is to describe how the Africanist aesthetic is much less strict

The piece was trying to convey the idea of freedom. Liberating the soul by expressing what it feels in a form of dance, which is something that can be seen. The movements were free, the performers moved around the stage depicting natural dance movements.

Bredella asserts, “In some cases the colonized have even internalized the demeaning and degrading images the colonizers have imposed on them to such an extent that these images have become an essential instrument of their suppression.” (Bredella) Bredella is stating that people who are inferior internalize the images and the stereotypes that superior people place on them which causes the images to be a major part of their suppression. The main idea supporting idea is that due to images placed by superiors the inferior black people have to change that image of their group. “Since African-Americans as a group have been treated as inferior, they must change the image of their group as a whole.” (Bredella) This quotation is stating that is that

For instance, the anti-draft poster containing the text “Fuck the Draft” was designed in 1968 by Kiyoshi Kuromiya, a devoted activist whose causes included civil rights, gay rights, HIV and AIDS awareness, and Vietnam War protests (**). As a college studen, Kuromiya belonged to the same demographic group as his target audience, and he held the same manner of anti-war sentiment as they did. The “Fuck the Draft” graphic protest appeared on a mail-order flyer that advertised it as “a little something for Mother’s Day,” with the option to send an additional copy to the wives of prominent political figures (**). In Kuromiya’s poster, black and white only color choice lends the poster very significant contrast, while it also creates a discordant, uncompromising appearance that matches the poster’s almost tenacious, and definitely combative tone. Its minimalist nature allows it to rely purely on the provocative style of its content to convey its crucial

On April 14, 2017, my friend and I visited for the first time Salt Lake City Community College dance company’s annual performance. The show was presented at the Grand Theater at the South City Campus of the college. The performance’s name “Moving Words” imply what the audience was about to experience. “Moving Words” consists of 18 different dances and each of those dances brought a unique feeling to the overall performance. I thought that the dancers and choreographers have done an amazing job. However, after seeing all the different dances there were two that stuck together with me, because of the ideas and the morals these dances introduced.

Daniel Canogar’s video instillation, Asalto Toronto, consists of a projection of pedestrians crawling up and down, approximately, four pillars outside of Union Station at 65 Front Street West. This piece symbolically demonstrates the overcoming of life’s obstacles, while engaging spectators as participants (Nuit Blanche Toronto, 2016). Furthermore, this installation is a form of ethnic dance that demonstrates universality in the struggles individuals face within a community.

The style of art of Political Protest is often driven from anger, brutality, war, protest and feelings of government misrepresentation. The piece is designed to get these emotions across, to make people understand how the artist feels. Often colors and hidden images or phrases are embedded to create a more lasting effect.

I became a ballet student at the University of North Carolina School of the Arts in 2014. Being a high school student here gave me the opportunity to expand my horizons and take in as much art as I possibly could. During my first fall at UNCSA, I attended the Emerging Choreographers performance and was privileged to see works created by fourth year contemporary majors. These stunning works showed me the possibilities that dance holds to truly convey powerful and meaning messages. One work in particular stood out to me. It was a piece that showcased five dancers all dressed in pedestrian clothing. At first it appeared to be a casual street scene but a the music progressed one girl began making incredible sharp movements as if she was possessed. She made tiny movements of her hands and feet all the while moving a great distance across the stage. The others started going off what she was doing and all moved together as one giant body supporting the girl in the middle. She continued dancing in the most amazing way have many small movements combined with huge movements that made her seem a thousand feet tall. Intrigued I spoke to one of the dancers about the intention of the dance. She told me that the