Date of Award

2019

Document Type

Thesis

Publisher

Edith Cowan University

Degree Name

Bachelor of Arts (Dance) Honours

School

Western Australian Academy of Performing Arts (WAAPA)

First Supervisor

Nanette Hassall

Second Supervisor

Emma Fishwick

Abstract

This research project titled Dancing Elements explores choreographic conversations between the body and natural elements, specifically water on film. I question how natural elements when viewed in relation to the dancing body, can begin to be seen as a dancing entity. This research is divided between scholarship and the creation of a new dance film, su dansi which is Turkish for ‘water dance.’ su dansi is a collaborative and explorative outcome that plays with the dancing body and water through the art form of film. Drawing from author Sylvie Vitaglione (2016), I have adopted her term “natural elements’’ in reference to elements such as earth, water, fire, sand and air and look to Vitaglione as a departure point to discuss dance on film that is centred on such elements. Through the medium of film I attempt to take the twenty-first century gaze away from urbanity, technology and consumerism, and point toward the beauty and virtuosity of the human amidst the organic natural elements of the world. The creative process uses practice-led research as a paradigm to investigate how water moves, more specifically how it ‘dances’. I studied the movement of water and bodies through various filmed scenes to portray cinematic and choreographic techniques that highlight the ‘dance’ of water.

Share

 
COinS