Examining the Cultural and Artistic Elements of Dance Work “Water, Disappearing in Water”: A Comprehensive Analysis

For my MFA project, I aimed to explore the differences between Chinese and Western dance cultures and investigate strategies for integrating them. This thesis reflects on the process of creating my original dance work, "Water, Disappearing in Water," and how it informed my understanding of choreography and creation. Through a combination of theoretical knowledge and practical experimentation, I have gained new insights and techniques for choreography. My work, which draws on Tai Chi, calligraphy, somatics, and modern dance, exemplifies the potential of cross-cultural collaborations to inspire new forms of artistic expression. Under the umbrella of integrating Eastern and Western cultures, my goal was to extract elements of Chinese traditional culture to make modern dance more open and inclusive, while also exploring new possibilities for incorporating traditional culture. The first chapter investigates the construction of the narrative text of dance works by examining the pre-choreography and creation stages. It also examines the transition from narrative text to feasible dance work structure, which poses a significant challenge in the practice process. The second chapter delves into the possibility of integrating Eastern and Western cultures in dance from a theoretical and practical perspective. Using the first and second parts of the work as examples, I analyze the "force" of modern dance, the "shape" of Tai Chi movements, and the relationship between emotion and the lines of Chinese calligraphy. The third chapter centers on exploring the significance of imagery expression in somatic choreography. The fourth and final chapter of this thesis sets a new goal of combining dance and multimedia technology to challenge the limitations of traditional dance performance. Overall, this thesis showcases how my original dance work combines theory and practice to explore new possibilities in future dance works.