Embodied Gender Identities Through the Lens of Movement and Dance: A Phenomenological Study of Ballet Dancers in Action
| dc.contributor.author | Sonik-Henderson, Dyana | |
| dc.contributor.supervisor | Garlick, Steve | |
| dc.date.accessioned | 2023-09-05T17:36:18Z | |
| dc.date.available | 2023-09-05T17:36:18Z | |
| dc.date.copyright | 2023 | en_US |
| dc.date.issued | 2023-09-05 | |
| dc.degree.department | Department of Sociology | |
| dc.degree.level | Master of Arts M.A. | en_US |
| dc.description.abstract | Academic interest in and focus on gender binaries has led to a new expanded understanding of what defines male and female bodies and experiences. What was missing, however, was academic scholarship and research that predominantly focuses on gendered bodies in action as the primary source of knowledge/data collection. Ballet was introduced as a site for the study as it is a gendered art form that contains rich embodied data that has not been well explored or analyzed as a serious subject with regard to how it produces gender norms and how it might challenge them. Inspired by Judith Butlers theory of gender performativity, this research focuses on movement in the moment of creation, centres the body as the primary source of knowledge and the participants as the narrators of this knowledge. This was done by interviewing professional ballet dancers residing in B.C, starting the interview with a two minute improvisation exercise then allowing the dancers to interpret their movements guided by open ended interview questions. The findings found that most participants felt that it was beneficial to dance out their gender and were able to provide more natural and authentic answers than a traditional interview. The participants also were able to vocalize their experiences creating the moves and watching it back which uncovered multiple layered expressions and gendered narratives in their movement that they were unaware of or had not had the platform and/or opportunity to explore. This is an ongoing study with a small sample size, but by allowing the dancers to share their stories in the lens/scope/field then interpret the performance, this research uniquely responds to the promise of phenomenological methodology by examining alternative ways of documenting the nuances and complexities of gender and how they manifest through the embodied dancers experience. | en_US |
| dc.description.scholarlevel | Graduate | en_US |
| dc.identifier.uri | http://hdl.handle.net/1828/15351 | |
| dc.language | English | eng |
| dc.language.iso | en | en_US |
| dc.rights | Available to the World Wide Web | en_US |
| dc.subject | Dance | en_US |
| dc.subject | Ballet | en_US |
| dc.subject | Embodied | en_US |
| dc.subject | Gender | en_US |
| dc.subject | Movement | en_US |
| dc.title | Embodied Gender Identities Through the Lens of Movement and Dance: A Phenomenological Study of Ballet Dancers in Action | en_US |
| dc.type | Thesis | en_US |