arts and the community: breaking the aesthetic of disempowerment christine m. lomas edited by: laura...

ARTS AND THE COMMUNITY: BREAKING THE AESTHETIC OF

DISEMPOWERMENTChristine M. Lomas

Edited by: Laura Pratt and Dr. Kay Picart

• Company philosophy: ____________________________________________________________________

• Students of the school are said to be _______________

Lomas’ new definition of the “aesthetic”

• Our culture (Western) currently deems the theatrical aesthetic as – _______– _______

– Lomas (and Jabadao) propose a “more appropriate” (150) definition:

– _______– _______

Dance is aesthetic because what it actually is, is the symbolization of what you (dancer) feel (166-70).

• 1st: ____________________________________________________________

“A Heuristic Model to Illustrate Non-Theatrical Performance Contexts” (151)

NATURE CULTURE (_____) (________)

CELEBRATION CEREMONIAL RITUAL_______________ _____________ ______________

______________ ___________ _____________

Framework for Culturally Learnt Ideologies

• ________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

. . . But change is not impossible!

_________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

This separation is ________however the rejoining of the individual is where change lies.

The return to ____________________________________________________________________________

Dance as a means of self-discovery

• When the “body does the knowing” we “reveal our authentic selves to ourselves and others.”(153)– _____________

She describes self-discovery- ________________________________________________________________________ This is the return to the natural self.

Dance

• ____________________________________________________________________

• Lomas says dance is the harmony in the celebration of ourselves (153).

• Communitas: ____________________________________________________________________

• Means for ______ bonding

• Can be seen as microcosm for our own culture and the positive change that can occur.

Discussion ?

• “With dance that emphasizes adaptive rather than authentic behavior, a paradox is implied in the role of the dance animateur because an adaptive form is being used in an attempt to encourage natural behavior.”(157)

• Why???? (think Langer’s virtual vs. natural gestures)

Improvisation: Process and Purpose

• “ the spontaneous fusion of the mind and movement”(161)

• “…dance becomes accessible because product is not main concern.” (162)

• Question: What is the main concern?

Virtual or Real?

• Lomas questions any spontaneous improvisation inside a classroom setting (for obvious reasons) and thus terms it as, “creative devising instead of improvisation” (163). described as: “Potential development” :_____________________________________________________

_________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Do you think creativity can run out to cause the once “real” (spontaneous/improv.) into a “virtual” performance?

DANCE EDUCATION IN/AND THE POSTMODERN

Isabel A. Marques

Isabel Marques

• Her inquiry came from her background of being a dance education teacher at a pubic university in Brazil.

• Found that students were uninterested in dance education because “dance education is typically isolated from our [Brazilian] society and from art being made in the so-called ‘post-modern world’” (174).

Sao Paulo living conditionshttp://images.google.com/images?q=SAO+PAULO&hl=en&lr=&tab=ni&ie=UTF-8&sa=N

Rudolf Laban:theorist of educational discourse

(Marques’ jump-off point)• Believes that every

__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

• Being a white, European man, imprinted his own views of the body, movement and dance that were inseparable from his personal, cultural, historical, and social condition (176).

• Therefore, his belief in universal movement patterns do not apply to Brazil’s multicultural society (176).

Ponder this!

• Do you believe that talking has a place in dance classes? Perhaps because it allows us to process through talking (thus thinking about) to “comprehend the dance more thoroughly” (177)?

• Does talking take away from the creative/spontaneous/improvisations that take place, or does it only enrich the final creative moment/movement?

Dance and the Dance Educator:

• She found that quite a difference was conceptualized inside of her students’ minds:– ___________________________________________

___________________________________________________________________________________

– Marques then asks herself:» “Why do we keep alleging that the dance we teach at

schools has nothing, or little, to do with education future artists?” (173).

Breaking the Feminine Dance Body Stereotype

• The interesting turn (or rather, no change in) despite the proven (LOMAS) advantages in dance, for all people, these “modern” principles are still used:

• __________________________________________________________________________________________

• Marques points out:“In ballet we learn what it is to be a woman in this

world in a ‘perfect’ white, skinny, flexible, light body” (174).

______________________________________________________________________________________________________

PAULO FREIRE

• Brazilian theorist, who revolutionized views of education. • His ideas emerged from living, experiencing and

reflecting on Brazilian society and it’s inequalities. • Put the students’ harsh and urban social realities at the

center of the curriculum (178). A union between their outside realities and what is learned in the school walls is described as “ ‘society-centered’ education” (179).

• Marques takes his theory and practice out of Brazil and globalizes it to a understanding of “validating diversity” and creating an important relationship “between and with the different” and adds it as a “universal” “educational approach” (179)

3 SPHERES OF REALITY• Marques points that we cannot separate “real” world from

“imaginary,” but what we do seek between the two is the understanding of the intersection. This happens through our spatial practices in society:

1. Living space: ______________________________________________________________________________________

2. Perceived space: ______________________________________________________________________________________

3. Imagined space: ________________________________________________________________________________________________________

With the application of these elements to DANCE EDUCATION Marques has constructed a proposal for

Terms:

• Context-based Dance Education: __________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

• Eco-action: __________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ – According to Capra (the creator of term above) “builds

cooperation and relationships instead of separation and individualism” (181).