Showing papers on "Performing arts published in 2019"

Negotiating individuality and collectivity in community music. A qualitative case study

Abstract: In this paper, we report on a qualitative study based on the “Meet4Music” (M4M) project recently developed at the University of Music and Performing Arts Graz, Austria. M4M is a low-threshold commu...

Cinema as Cultural Discourse: A Study of Cultural Symbols in Selected Contemporary Gĩkũyũ Comedies

Abstract: A Research Thesis Submitted to the School of Creative and Performing Arts, Film and Media Studies In Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Award of the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy (Film Studies) of Kenyatta University

Posture and sequence recognition for Bharatanatyam dance performances using machine learning approach.

Abstract: Understanding the underlying semantics of performing arts like dance is a challenging task. Dance is multimedia in nature and spans over time as well as space. Capturing and analyzing the multimedia content of the dance is useful for the preservation of cultural heritage, to build video recommendation systems, to assist learners to use tutoring systems. To develop an application for dance, three aspects of dance analysis need to be addressed: 1) Segmentation of the dance video to find the representative action elements, 2) Matching or recognition of the detected action elements, and 3) Recognition of the dance sequences formed by combining a number of action elements under certain rules. This paper attempts to solve three fundamental problems of dance analysis for understanding the underlying semantics of dance forms. Our focus is on an Indian Classical Dance (ICD) form known as Bharatanatyam. As dance is driven by music, we use the music as well as motion information for key posture extraction. Next, we recognize the key postures using machine learning as well as deep learning techniques. Finally, the dance sequence is recognized using the Hidden Markov Model (HMM). We capture the multi-modal data of Bharatanatyam dance using Kinect and build an annotated data set for research in ICD.

Arts, Health and Well-Being: A Critical Perspective on Research, Policy and Practice

Abstract: This important book develops a critical understanding of the bridging of arts and health domains, drawing on models and perspectives from social sciences to develop the case for arts and health as a social movement. This interdisciplinary perspective offers a new research agenda that can help to inform future developments and sustainability in arts, health and well-being. Daykin begins with an overview of the current evidence base and a review of current challenges for research, policy and practice. Later chapters explore the international field of health and the arts; arts, with well-being as a social movement; and boundary work and the role of boundary objects in the field. The book also includes sections summarising research findings and evidence in arts and health research and examples from specific research projects conducted by the author, chosen to highlight particularly widespread challenges across many arts, health and well-being contexts. Arts, Health and Well-Being: A Critical Perspective on Research, Policy and Practice is valuable reading for students in sociology, psychology, social work, nursing, psychiatry, creative and performing arts, public health and policymakers and practitioners in these fields.

Ballet and Contemporary Dance Injuries When Transitioning to Full-Time Training or Professional Level Dance: A Systematic Review.

Abstract: This systematic review examines the relationship between injury and two stages of a dancer's career development: when transitioning to full-time training and to a professional dance company. The findings are discussed in relation to managing transitioning loads with regard to injury prevention. Six electronic databases (PubMed, Embase, CINAHL, SPORTDiscus, Scopus, and Performing Arts Periodicals Database) were searched from inception to July 2018, inclusive of English language peer reviewed studies investigating injury in pre-professional and professional ballet and contemporary dancers. Seventeen studies met the inclusion criteria. "Limited" evidence revealed that dancers transitioning to professional ballet had a significantly higher rate of time-loss injuries per exposure hour relative to established professionals, whereas transitioning professional contemporary dancers had a significantly lower rate of both medical-attention and time-loss injuries. "Limited" evidence also showed a decreased rate and trend toward lower prevalence rates for time-loss injuries per exposure hour for transitioning ballet students and an increased rate of medical-attention injury in a combined cohort of transitioning ballet and contemporary dance students. Thus, this review provides some evidence that injuries tend to occur as dancers are transitioning to full-time ballet or contemporary dance training or to professional careers.

Theory and Practice in Late Nineteenth-Century Violin Performance: An Examination of Style in Performance, 1850–1900

Abstract: With most of Western art music, it can be argued that music-making requires performers to interpret a composer's original, notated ideas. Often, an informed and perceptive reading of the score needs to be combined with the inspiration to convey the feelings and emotions intended by the composer. The difficulties inherent in such an undertaking are further heightened when the music was composed several generations ago. In this book, David Milsom argues that in order to convey late 19th-century musical style appropriately, the performer needs to have a grasp of the philosophical orientation of musical thinking at that time. In effect, one must "unlearn" the value systems of the present, in order to assimilate those of the late 19th century. To arrive at a better understanding of performance in this period, the book examines performing style in the German and Franco-Belgian schools of violin playing from c.1850 - c.1900. Milsom explores selected instrumental treatises written by noted players and theorists, together with a number of recorded performances given by celebrated artists in the early years of the 20th century, to review the similarities and differences between theory and practice. An accompanying CD illustrates this relationship.

Imposed leadership in UK funded theatre and the implications for risk and innovation

Abstract: Using the theory of stakeholder salience and stakeholder discourse, this article questions the effect of arts policy bodies on the way the cultural sector assigns leadership. It argues that in satisfying the demands of risk-averse public management, arts policy bodies implicitly and explicitly impose the role of sectoral leader on the heads of largest best-funded cultural organisations. As a result, opportunities for alternate forms of leadership to emerge outside organisations are restricted. It renders organisational leaders in conflicting obligations to multiple stakeholders – their funders, their organisations and their sector – and exposes implicit perceptions of value. Finally, in reinforcing existing organisational structures, imposed leadership inhibits the risk-taking and innovation these same arts policy bodies promote in their strategies. This prevents the emergence of more transgressive forms of leadership and innovative cultural production and affects the ability of artists to be perceived as leaders. Consequently, artists’ sectoral and policy influence is diminished and their precarity and inequality reinforced at a structural level. While focused on subsidised theatre in the UK, this research offers wider implications for how we understand policy influence on ethical leadership behaviours in the cultural sector.

People with dementia as ‘spect-actors’ in a musical theatre group with performing arts students from the community

Abstract: A collaborative music and drama therapy initiative with performing arts students and people with dementia yielded an innovative framework. Twelve people with dementia residing in a nursing home and twelve students from a performing arts school took part in two consecutive groups (6 residents and 6 students in each group). Each group was 10 sessions long. The groups were co-facilitated by a music therapist and a drama therapist. A qualitative research embracing action research ideas was used, and content analysis of all written documents revealed three major categories: (1) Combining music and drama expanded the emotional and creative modes of expression for people with dementia, (2) The supporting engagement of performing arts students helped people with dementia to play an active role in the musical-dramatic space, and (3) The joint framework enabled people with dementia to participate as actors in the final performance of an auto-biographical therapeutic theatre. Promoting modes of creative self-expression for people with dementia is important when autonomy is gradually lost with the progression of the disease. A new perspective of viewing people with dementia as ‘spect-actors’, moving from spectators to actors, contributes to various aspects of autonomy, such as mastery, dignity and independence.

Bharata Natyam training at The Temple of Fine Arts: Pre arangetram, arangetram and post- arangetram / Bhanumathi K Nadson

Abstract: Solo debut recital called arangetram is an essential part of training in Indian classical dance, particularly, Bharata Natyam. Years of training in Bharata Natyam usually culminates with the staging of the major and sometimes “spectacle” recital, arangetram. While it is looked upon as a means to introduce the dancer to the public and launch his/her dance career, scholars of Indian dance have variously argued that arangetrams often lead to the degeneration of dance careers. However, I do not see this trend in my study which focuses on Bharata Natyam training at the Temple of Fine Arts (TFA). The TFA Kuala Lumpur was inaugurated in 1981 by its patron, the late His Holiness Swami Shantanand Saraswati. It is one of the leading institutions of Indian classical dances in Malaysia. TFA has branches in Penang, Johor Bahru, Malacca in Malaysia as well as branches in other countries such as Singapore, Colombo in Sri Lanka, Perth in Australia, Coimbatore and Chennai in Tamil Nadu, South India and in New Zealand. Bharata Natyam is the oldest and most popular Indian classical dance form taught in TFA for more than three decades now. Not only is the training unique as it adheres to the traditional guru-sishya relationship despite institutional training that is based on exams, it also provides a pathway for students to emerge as soloists and choreographers through different platforms. This study will trace that pathway by focusing on phases of pre-arangetram, arangetram, and post-arangetram. While this study highlights challenges and problems in launching a career as a performer and choreographer in Indian classical dance in Malaysia, it will also demonstrate how arangetram is a gateway that helps to shape one as a public performer. TFA goes one step further and provides a platform for its graduates to emerge as soloists, group performers, and choreographers, continuously nurturing the artistic growth of its students. In this dissertation, I will examine the training methods that culminate with TFA arangetram and further investigate what happens to dancers at post-arangetram phase by looking at several dance performances. This study draws materials from ethnographic research conducted with teachers, graduates of TFA, students, parents and management.

Balancing artistic and financial performance: is collaborative governance the answer?

Abstract: Opera houses have been traditionally publicly financed in many western countries. However, today many opera houses are facing serious financial troubles, due to the recent financial crisis. There is thus a widespread public debate on measures to ensure agency efficiency for performing arts organizations. Focusing on the reform implemented recently in Italy, which submitted opera houses that had severe financial difficulties to a recovery plan and encouraged forms of collaborative governance (CG), the purpose of this paper is to investigate the impact of CG on the performance of the arts sector.,Multiple case studies are used, on longitudinal data from multiple sources over a period of up to five years, in order to triangulate the narrative of financial and artistic performance and ensure trustworthiness. The study thus spans the period before the Bray Law came into force (2013) and covers the entire period in which recovery plans were implemented.,The analysis explores how opera houses are building sustainability for themselves and the community in terms of financial and artistic performance through CG. Various forms of CG adopted yielded positive results. Furthermore, more robust forms of CG generated better performance, especially from a financial point of view.,This paper adds to the limited knowledge of CG in the non-profit sector by bridging the fields of agency performance and CG. It discusses how the introduction of forms of CG can build up long-term sustainability, solving the dilemma of how to achieve financial equilibrium without compromising artistic quality, focusing on the case of opera houses, which are notably affected by Baumol’s cost disease.

Nigeria’s cultural policy and the needs of the performing arts

Abstract: Nigeria is a country reputed for its rich and diverse cultures from the multi-ethnic nationalities that make it up. Indeed, the diversity of traditions and cultures are evidenced in the nation’s more than four hundred and seventy (470) tribes. It is in the bid to ensure that each cultural entity is preserved, projected and promoted, that Nigeria has a cultural policy. The cultural policy is decidedly synonymous with the arts and artists since the arts and artists mainly generate the bulk of what materially, at least, constitutes culture. Of course, culture is derived from material and immaterial products all which are products of the creative ingenuities of artists. It is in line with this reasoning that this paper is written, to determine to what extent the Nigerian Cultural Policy has attended to the needs of the arts and artists, with particular emphasis on the performing arts. The performing arts in every culture make up the major part of such Culture’s creative and entertainment industry hence this paper is embarked upon to determine to what extent the policy has accommodated the needs of the performing arts. This is done through a detailed analytical assessment of the cultural policy. Recommendations are then made based on the conclusions drawn from the analysis.

Training the homo cellularis: attention and the mobile phone

Abstract: Drawing on literature from philosophy of technology, mobile media studies, performer training as well as practice-based research, this article examines the use of mobile phones in performer trainin...

The Atypique Approach: Disability Aesthetics and Theatre-Making in Montréal, Québec and Vancouver, British Columbia

Abstract: Although there is literature on disability and theatre across central and western Canada, very little scholarly work has been done on Quebec. This dissertation explores how theatre companies and programs working with disabled artists in Vancouver and Montreal are changing perspectives of disability and theatre making. Whereas other scholarly work within Canadian contexts has focused on the histories and professional survival of said companies and programs, I will theorize on how they are changing new aesthetic standards and practices for the performing arts. My research uses intensive fieldwork with three case studies- Theatre Terrific (Vancouver, British Columbia), the performance training program Les Muses (Montreal, Quebec), and Les Production des pieds des mains (Montreal, Quebec). Through my participant observation and ethnographic research of their classes, workshops, and rehearsals, followed with interviews with participating artists and artistic directors, I theorize on how disability is approached and creatively used as a generative tool by my participants. My research explores the personal and ethical complexity of this kind of community fieldwork, and the centrality of the personal relationships I built with my participants. I theorize on the aesthetic politics and practices that emerge from my participants within Anglophone and Francophone cultural contexts. For my Montreal participants, I situate their work within what I call an atypique approach whereby disabled artists and non-normative bodies are artistically privileged and meaningfully socially integrated. I also explore how slowness is used as a way to pedagogically move away from valuing one temporal pace of learning and artistically creating. I then bring slowness and the atypique approach into dialogue with my concept of tenderness- a term I use to articulate how performance and human encounters deformalize static ways of understanding the world. My participants break through the molds of ableism whereby their creative work is still often perceived through medical lenses of being art therapy or overcoming their challenges. Using critical disability studies and community performance studies to frame my arguments, my research extends how disability is a complex lens of how to move in the world that opposes normative standards of time and space. This dissertation lends new language, aesthetic theorization, and pedagogical understanding to disability theatre in Canada.

Introduction: dance in Africa and beyond: creativity and identity in a globalized world

Abstract: In this introduction to the special issue on dance in Africa and beyond, we review the anthropological study of dance in Africa since the 1920s and introduce the seven contributions, organized around the key themes of transformed identities (both contemporary and historical), decoloniality, new media, morality, and the problematic representations of African diasporic identities in contemporary Europe. With this special issue, we argue that the study of dance and music provides an important window into the myriad creative ways in which people in Africa and in the African diaspora deal with problematic situations, generate new artistic forms, engage with questions of ethics, and carve out spaces in which they experiment with novelty and reinvigorate their lives.

‘Sell[ing] what hasn’t got a name’: An exploration of the different understandings and definitions of ‘community engagement’ work in the performing arts:

Abstract: Widely known to promote broader involvement in the processes which define the arts and culture, community engagement work in the performing arts – despite employing a set of commonly recognised nor...

Determinants of Prices for the Performing Arts

Abstract: The performing arts constitute a significant share of demand in the public's arts consumption spending. Despite the growing volume of research in the marketing of the arts, research specifically fo...

Guyanese Mass Games: spectacles that “moulded” the nation in a North Korean way

Abstract: This paper examines the Guyanese Mass Games, multi-media spectacles of visual and performing arts initiated by the leader of the Co-Operative Republic of Guyana and performed by Guyanese artists an...

Becoming small: Concepts and methods of interdisciplinary practice in theatre for early years

Abstract: This article aims to look at core concepts in two artistic research projects exploring interdisciplinary approaches to performing arts for young children (interdisciplinarity can here be understood...

Creative Industries: Existence of Arts Traditional Industries in Indonesia

Abstract: The contribution of performing arts is 0.26% of all creative economic contributions in Indonesia’s GDP. Performing arts are divided into three categories: dance, theater and music, all moving in traditional spaces, commercial and artistic experimentations (which are varied and freely categorized into modern or contemporary “terms” or “genres”). Traditional performing arts became one of the categories inherent in the culture and values of the noble values in society. The method used in this paper was descriptive research method. Data collection techniques used is literature studies by looking for reference theory relevance with cases or problems found. Analysis using SWOT analysis method is by looking at the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats. This study also analyzes from the external environment then it discuss about the internal environment of the industry by using Business Model Canvas. Recommendation from the study are: after knowing the problems and the circumstances, we recommend for the government by building a center of art that will become the center of community activities and art groups to exercise and perform staging. In addition, other impacts are aimed at making people who are also consumers, easy to gain access to traditional performing arts. Enhancing community closeness with traditional performing arts and increasing the importance of traditional performing arts part of social life. In addition, with the improvement of technology that can encourage the creative industry, especially in the performing arts sector, business actors in this sector should be able to utilize technology wisely and pack it more interesting without removing the cultural values that characterize the creative industry.

"Eating Hanness": Uyghur musical tradition in a time of re-education.

Abstract: In February 2019, two major musical performances by residents of the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region were widely circulated on Chinese social media. These two performances, one a Mekit County Harvest Gala and the other a performance by a Uyghur school teacher from Qumul, featured Uyghurs dressed in Han cultural costumes performing Beijing Opera. Over the past five years, since the “People’s War on Terror” started, the space for Uyghur traditional song and dance performance has deeply diminished. Simultaneously, the space for Uyghurs performing Hanness through Chinese traditional opera and Red songs has dramatically increased. Drawing on open source Uyghur and Chinese-language media, ethnographic fieldwork, and interviews with Uyghurs in diaspora, this article analyses the changing role of music in Uyghur religious and ritual life by tracing the way state cultural ministries have dramatically increased their attempts to separate Uyghur music from its Sufi Islamic origins in order to produce a non-threatening “permitted difference” (Schein 2000). Since 2016, the re-education campaign of the Chinese government on Uyghur society has intensified this disconnection by promoting an erasure of even the state-curated “difference” of happy, exoticized Uyghurs on stage. Han traditional music is now replacing Uyghur traditional music, which shows an intensification of symbolic violence toward Uyghur traditional knowledge and aesthetics. In a time of Uyghur re-education, musical performance on stage has become a space for political rituals of loyalty to a Han nationalist vision of the Chinese state.

A Resource-Oriented Approach to Performing Arts Organizations: An Ethnographic Study of Dance Companies

Abstract: This article explores the organizational practices of large dance companies in Europe. To capture intangible and intrinsic aspects, a multi-sited ethnographic study at the Vienna State Ballet and B...

I Feel Very Fortunate to Still be Doing What I Love: Later Career Performing Arts Teachers Still Keen and Committed

Abstract: The problem of attrition among early-career teachers has generated a substantial body of research. However, less research has been devoted to later-career teachers who survive and thrive. This article explores the career experiences of four later-career performing arts teachers who remain keen and committed to teaching. Informed by IJEA Vol. 20 No. 7 http://www.ijea.org/v20n7/ 2 seminal studies by Huberman (1989, 1993) and Day and Gu (2007, 2009) into teacher career trajectories, and using a phenomenological ‘lens’ of portraiture methodology, members of the research team undertook a series of in-depth interviews to gain insight into how these teachers maintain their positivity and commitment to teaching. Four key themes emerged: the fundamental influence of social networks, the ability to recognise and embrace one’s strengths, the importance of being adaptable in maintaining relevance and social responsibility, and understanding the difference one makes to the lives of students. Findings highlight the key mechanisms by which these later-career teachers rationalise and maintain their enthusiasm. Given they are not fixed, articulating these mechanisms as attributes to be encouraged, practiced, nurtured, and developed among all teachers may be the overall key finding of this study.

Motivation and tourists’ loyalty in performing arts festivals: the mediator role of quality and satisfaction

Abstract: Festival tourism has been growing considerably over the years, acquiring a prominent position and with strong popularity in society. Festivals and/or events promote a cultural exchange at international, national and local levels, with the opportunity for cultural sharing, from history and tradition, culinary and drinks, music and dance, involving all publics (organization, services, artists, participants and local inhabitants). Festivals are recognized as an effective strategy for host destinations promoting economic, social and cultural development. The present study aims to test the mediator role of quality and satisfaction in the relationship between the motivation in the choice of performing arts festivals and the loyalty of the tourists. The sample consisted of 532 respondents, collected at two performing arts festivals: Andancas festival (Portugal) and La Sierra festival (Spain). The results of the study show that tourists motivated to attend performing arts festivals, tend to perceive the festival as having quality, and are satisfied with the service, which in turn tend to revisit and recommend the festival. The study discusses the implications of the obtained results. It also presents limitations and suggests future studies.

Holding Us Accountable: Arts Education in California Multiple Subject Credential Programs

Abstract: To ensure a robust and comprehensive educational experience, every K-12 learner must have access to high quality Visual and Performing Arts (VAPA) education. To make this happen, their teachers mus...

Theatre-Voice Pedagogy within the Royal Shakespeare Company: A Historical Perspective

Abstract: This article examines the theatre-voice pedagogy history of the Royal Shakespeare Company (RSC), one of Britain’s most long-lasting and prominent performing arts institutions. The article traces th...

Ancient Greek Tragedy as Performance: the Literature–Performance Problematic

Abstract: In this article Mario Frendo engages with the idea of ancient Greek tragedy as a performance phenomenon, questioning critiques that approach it exclusively via literary–dramatic methodologies. Based on the premise that ancient Greek tragedy developed within the predominantly oral context of fifth-century BCE Greece, he draws on Hans-Thies Lehmann's study of tragedy and its relation to dramatic theatre, where it is argued that the genre is essentially ‘predramatic’. Considered as such, ancient Greek tragedy cannot be fully investigated using dramatic theories developed since early modernity. In view of this, Walter J. Ong's caution with respect to the rational processes produced by generations of literate culture will be acknowledged and alternative critiques sought, including performance criticism and performance-oriented frameworks such as orality, via which Frendo traces possible critical trajectories that would allow contemporary scholarship to deal with ancient tragedy as a performance rather than literary phenomenon. Reference will be made to Aristotle's use of the term ‘poetry’, and how performance criticism may provide new insight into how the Poetics deals with one of the earliest performance phenomena in the West. Mario Frendo is lecturer of theatre and performance and Head of the Department of Theatre Studies at the School of Performing Arts, University of Malta, where he is director of CaP, a research group focusing on links between culture and performance. His research interests include musicality in theatre, ancient tragedy, and relations between philosophical thought and performance.