Perceptions and interpretations of life experiences and actions vary across individuals. When these differences are linked to colors, they become more apparent and discernable. Colors have the ability to convey a range of emotions, evoke diverse feelings, and conjure up different images for different people. For dancers, these colors and emotions can impact the execution of a movement, resulting in variations in quality and texture, despite performing the same choreography. Notably, the same color can hold opposite meanings in different cultural contexts. Consequently, the objective of this project is to employ dance performance as a means to communicate these disparate cultural perspectives.

First, this study is intended to comprehend what is perceived to be “good” dancing from two perspectives: the dancers and the dance choreographer/teacher. Second, the goal of this research is to achieve their perceived idea of “good” dancing using the categories of dance aesthetics, movement efficiency, and performance quality as a direction. A phenomenological research approach was applied to understand the terminologies: movement aesthetics, movement efficiency, and performance quality and whether they are essential and contribute to defining what is considered to be “good” dancing. The research was conducted over the course of ten weeks, which included workshops/rehearsals, discussions, and journals and concluded with the showcase of the choreographies in the dance concert performance. This study revealed that there were many similarities in the participants and the researcher’s perception of what “good” dancing is. Through the application of the various somatic methodologies and frameworks, they learned how to perform in their own best way in the different movement styles so that it is beautiful to look at, easy on their bodies, and safe for their bodies. All of the participants were able to achieve a better understanding of their own bodies. Besides gaining individual heightened awareness and understanding of their bodies, they also gained a better understanding on how to work as a collective to achieve the aesthetics of the group from the perspective of the entire dance piece.

Whispers from Above is a creative project that aims to normalize the conversation and validate the emotional experience of grief, through the use of art therapies. Art therapy can be expressive in which someone creates their own work, such as visual art, poetry, performance, music, movement, etc. Art therapy can also be receptive in which someone analyzes and understands someone else's artwork. This project was released on SoundCloud in order to make grief resources more accessible to all and to build an online community.<br/><br/>Whispers from Above worked with twelve poets, fifteen artists, six different interviewees, and multiple musicians to create a month of grief support. The finale piece of Whispers from Above was devised from the twenty-nine poems used within this month-long healing journey. All the individual poems were woven into a single devised poem to be presented as the final piece symbolizing that no one is alone in grief.<br/><br/>Whispers from Above is creative community exploration of grief, loss, and death in which we hope contributors, and listeners find solace and support. This series will exist on SoundCloud after March 27th, 2021 with a monthly release of a poem or interview accompanied by art, and music.

My dissertation topic engages in the trajectory of Roma/Gitano culture and flamenco and its implications for Chicanx culture in New Mexico. New Mexicans have the reputation amongst US Chicanx as referring to themselves as Hispanic and aligning culturally with a Spanish sensibility. Historically in the larger US Chicanx community this type of popularity for flamenco would be described as typical of New Mexico’s wavering Chicanidad that yearns to be connected to a Spanish colonial past more than to its indigenous Mexican roots. However, I believe the reality is a bit different. What makes New Mexican Chicanx different from the larger US Chicanx community is that they utilize flamenco and its Gitano roots as a cultural example of their Chicanidad. There is scant research on how Chicanidad as a historical movement has been influenced by the flamenco culture that exists in New Mexico. This dissertation will begin a conversation that places flamenco and the precarious identity of Chicanx, Gitanos and Nuevomejicanos in dialogue through the body, the art form, and the cultural stylings of flamenco rooted in the Flamenco Festival Internacional de Albuquerque (FFI).

Our lives are full of possibilities but also of self-imposed limitations. For some, finding their purpose in life and their place in the society is instinctive, but for many of us it requires a deliberate search. For the latter, self-discovery is a journey; an intentional path of many turns and twists, ups and downs, some surprises. It requires a person to slow down and assess oneself. What has been so far, what is right there on the surface, what is hidden deep down, and what is it that one strives for? Now, imagine narrowing down that path even more, and try to answer the question: Who am I as an artist?

"beautiful secrets," a movement art piece engaging the audience in the art-making, exists in the in-between, an indeterminable place, fluid like the water of Kiwanis Lake. The performers sang, danced and built an architectural environment with the help of the audience to create a transformational place betwixt here and there, day and night, death and life; an in-between land where the language is mystical and symbolic, and the water of Kiwanis Lake served as a symbol of transformation. Beneath the art was a method called Somatic Yoga Dance in which the performers trained in preparation for the performance. Below the method was a blessing in which beautiful secrets took root --- a prayer for peace.

"Recontextualizing Music for Social Change" proposes alternative ways through which the traditional setup of a vocal recital may be transformed into a multidisciplinary performance with a specific social purpose. This task might be achieved by the conscious use and merging of elements such as innovation, ritualistic significance of music, and hopes for social change.

Rather than exclusively analyzing the nature of these three elements, this document seeks to exemplify the artistic use of these tools through the description of two doctoral recitals. These performances focus on the portrayal of two specific social issues concerning gender identity: the femme fatale, and sexual identity.

The first performance, "Defatalizing the Femme Fatale: The Voice behind a Stereotype," reflects on the negative connotations of the French femme fatale stereotype. This dangerous image has been perpetuated through popular and mass media since the nineteenth century. The femme fatale has achieved an iconic status thanks to her appealing, damaging, unrealistic, and hypersexualized traits. Nevertheless, this male-constructed stereotype was actually conceived as a parody of female emancipation. "Defatalizing the Femme Fatale" seeks to create awareness of this image through a staged approach of Shostakovich's Michelangelo Suite, feminist poetry and prose, and euphonium music.

The second performance, "Un-Labelling Love: A Scientific Study of Romantic Attachment in Four Seasons," analyses the biological nature of love. According to this perspective, "Un-Labelling Love" transforms a vocal recital into a scientific lecture. This lecture examines four developmental stages of romantic love through the performance of art songs and the inclusion of a narrator, who describes the biological and psychological changes experienced by two research subjects--the performers--during these love stages. Through a plot-twist at the end of the performance, "Un-Labelling Love" also questions the patriarchal assumption that heterosexual kinship represents, by default, the unmarked category of adult pair-bonding. In summary, and based on scientific facts, this vocal performance seeks to encourage social assimilation of non-heterosexual kinship systems.

In this document I detail the inception of the community service learning program, Flashback, that I created for Actor's Youth Theatre of Mesa Arizona. I first provide the organization's history and then expound upon my beliefs and how the ASU theatre for youth program, along with the needs of AYT, led me to create the program. I then describe the goals and processes of implementing the community based project. I also define service learning and why the program was designed around its principles. Finally, I describe the program's curriculum, devising process and Flashback's first trial run, and then continue, evaluating the performance and reflecting upon the process. The appendix includes the devised script, photos of the performance and interaction with the community, some of the planned curriculum and portions of my journals written during the process.