Publications
Ballet's Binary Genders in a Rainbow-Spectrum World: a call for progressive pedagogies (2021)
book chapter published in (Re)Claiming Ballet, edited by Adesola Akinleye
Since its inception, the art form of ballet has continually evolved in an effort to remain relevant to society. Given that our contemporary society views gender quite differently than the societies of the socio-historical context in which classical ballet was first born and developed, issues raised within this chapter contribute to discourses surrounding the evolution of ballet in relationship to the performance of gender. Accepting gender as a performance and social construct that exists on a non-binary spectrum, the author incorporates notions of gender politics prevalent in popular culture, while simultaneously engaging with scholars from the fields of performance studies and critical and feminist pedagogy. Focusing on gendered behaviors that are instilled during the formative childhood years of ballet training, the author analyzes the current practices of professional conservatory schools, investigating the manner in which the performance of gender is evidenced in ballet training through commonly-accepted traditional practices.
The Uneasy, Unexplored, and Under-examined Existence of Ballet in American Higher Education (2021)
academic article published in Research in Dance Education
Ballet programs were established in universities in the United States as early as the late-1940s, but are generally omitted from the story of dance in American higher education. This essay partially addresses this absence in the literature, speculates about the reasons for ballet’s limited legacy in the story of dance in American higher education, and describes how the lack of import given to ballet resulted in the formation of CORPS de Ballet International, an academic organization whose mission specifically aims to support ballet in higher education. A relatively young academic discipline, little has been written about dance’s disciplinary formation and evolution. The existing literature focuses almost exclusively on a handful of early programs, organizations, and pioneering educators, emphasizing modern dance and its roots in academe. Since modern dance educators were the voices involved in the early curricular development and evolution of dance as an academic discipline, including the formation of the accrediting body National Association of the School of Dance (NASD), it is logical that modern dance would figure prominently in any discussion of dance in higher education. However, this article addresses how ingrained practices and philosophies have unintentionally perpetuated certain ideologies that result in the homogenization of American dance curricula.
Selling Ballet: the Commoditization of Dancers in the Advertising Campaigns of American Ballet Companies (2014)
academic article published in the Journal of Emerging Dance Scholarship
This essay focuses on two branding strategies and marketing campaigns deployed by major ballet companies to explore how the dancers may be portrayed as products. Analyzing the advertisements with tactics from the field of visual studies, the author questions how companies might ethically advertise in a capitalist society.
Writing as a Meaningful Component of the MFA Curriculum (2022)
academic article published in Dance Education in Practice
This essay follows my experience creating and teaching a writing course for first-year graduate students in a master’s in fine arts (MFA) in dance program. Starting with polling MFA graduates about what might have been missing from their degree programs, to developing specific learner-centered goals, to crafting assignment that unpack the writing process, I share my journey and argue for the importance of the inclusion of writing curricula in all MFA in dance degree programs.
Collaborative Syllabus Building: the "buffet-style" career preparation course for dance majors (2021)
academic article published in Dance Education in Practice
This article follows my experience building a syllabus collaboratively with students. When assigned to teach an existing career-preparation course for senior dance majors in a BFA program, I noted the course had been offered for many years with little evolution despite the consistently changing professional dance landscape. I was eager to re-envision and update the course, incorporating progressive pedagogies and learner-centered education, simultaneously catering the course to the current students, who held a variety of interests and would soon be entering an ever-in-flux professional milieu. Engaging with theories from the scholarship of teaching and learning, I reevaluated the way the course had traditionally been offered and overhauled the outcomes and content through an experiment with student–instructor collaborative syllabus-building. This article shares my journey with this process, including excerpts from the syllabus, elaborations on the successes and difficulties of the process, and reflective thoughts on the results and impacts.
Framing Dance Only as Art: the Philosophical Conundrum of Dance in Education (2022)
academic article co-authored with Dr. Steven R. Murray and Megan Glynn Zollinger, published in Dance Education in Practice
This article explores various historical moments in the academic disciplines of dance and physical education in which “dance as art” was debated, points to various considerations in how dance is framed in educational settings, and argues for prioritizing dance offerings for all students by resisting the urge to compartmentalize dance as discretely an art form. This approach offers an opportunity for collaboration between education professionals in dance and physical education to work together to support the ideal of providing dance for all.
Maestro: Enrico Cecchetti and Diaghilev's Ballets Russes (2017)
academic article published in Dance Chronicle
With a few notable exceptions, the literature in ballet history generally discusses Enrico Cecchetti solely as a ballet teacher, ignoring his contributions as a performer, and even as a ballet master, to ballet history. During his affiliation with Diaghilev's Ballets Russes from 1911 until 1928, Cecchetti played a significant role, as a performer and a teacher, in the development of Diaghilev's Ballets Russes along three trajectories: as a virtuosic dancer who raised the standard for male dancing, as an exceptional mime artist who inspired choreographers and dancers alike, and as a ballet master who created a solid corps de ballet from a group of dancers with diverse training and backgrounds.
The Physical Practice of Dance and Sport as Cultural Expression (2017)
academic article co-authored with Dr. Steven R. Murray,
published in the Journal of Kinesiology & Wellness
Dance and sport are both considered prehistoric forms of human physical activity. Cultural scholars agree that values and belief systems may be reflected through physical practice and the way individuals within a culture move. Given the current situation of globalization, in which various cultures mix with historically unprecedented regularity, the study of cultural dances and sport activities might inform us about those cultures. Perhaps, much in the same vein as de Coubertin attempted to use sport as a means to bridge cultural differences through the Olympic movement, the sharing of cultural dance and sport might encourage harmony among those with vastly differing cultural backgrounds. This manuscript explores ways in which connections between physical cultural practices of dance and sport have historically reflected cultural values, thereby providing an additional perspective for the importance of human physical activity as a means of studying and understanding human culture.
The Performance of Gendered Movement in American Dance (2017)
academic article co-authored with Dr. Steven R. Murray, published in the Journal of Kinesiology & Wellness
With kinesiology defined as the study of human movement, then dance, as one of the oldest forms of physical activity, should be considered. Dance permeates contemporary American culture—from social dancing, to community dance studios, to popular television shows. Dance scholars and cultural theorists agree that the way a society dances elucidates cultural values. If we accept the notion that a culture’s dances reflect the values of that culture, then a scrutiny of American gendered dance practices is warranted. Contemporary society views gender differently than the societies of the socio-historical context in which common Western dance genres, such as classical ballet, were born and developed. By highlighting ways that most dance training reinforces gendered codes of behavior, this paper contributes to discourses surrounding the evolution of dance in America and evolving notions of gender, while also providing a lens that might be applied to a multitude of physical practices.
Repetitions and Variations: the Embodied Cultural Memory of Ballet (2022)
academic article published in The Athens Journal of Humanities & Arts
The corporeal practice of ballet training, comprised of visual and aural input along with kinesthetic awareness and sensation, serves to transmit and reify a specific form of embodied knowledge. Passed from generation to generation and body to body, from at least mid-19th century Europe to its current global representations, systems of ballet training and modes of ballet performance have moved through history and geography continually enacting and reenacting a legacy of repertoire rife with collective/cultural memory and meaning. Ballet training methodologies and choreography have evolved significantly, yet well-established vocabulary, syllabi, curricula, and repertoire continue. Given the continually evolving yet perennial nature of ballet, theories from the field of performance studies provide an interesting lens through which we might examine classical ballet and its repertoire. This article contributes to the existing academic literature by framing ballet as a living culture – an ever-evolving, self-perpetuating, way of life - rather than as a purely historical or aesthetic topic. By engaging with performance studies theorists to explore notions of culture, tradition, ritual, orature, and repertoire, this article encourages further investigation of ballet through a variety of lenses
The Status of Physical Education Service Programs in Utah's Colleges and Universities (2021)
academic article co-authored with Dr. Steven R. Murray and
Dr. Kristin Heumann, published in the
Journal of Kinesiology & Wellness
Physical education service programs on college and university campuses vary across the United States. In the 1920s some 97 percent of institutions required physical education for their students, and that requirement held strong, with some 84-87 percent of colleges and universities still requiring it as a graduation requirement up through the 1960s. In the last 60 years, that percentage has dropped to an estimated 39.5. To get a clearer picture of the current status of physical education service programs across the United States, analyzing offerings on a state-by-state basis is needed. The purpose of this study was to determine the status of physical education service programs in Utah’s colleges and universities by examining the specific requirements of each institution to get as detailed and as accurate results as possible. Of Utah’s 10 traditional institutions of higher education, all 10 (100%) offer physical education courses; 1 (10%) mandates a wellness course as a graduation requirement for all students, and 4 (40%) have physical education courses as requirements in specific majors. These results corroborate the current trend that required physical education programming is decreasing across the nation. Nonetheless, physical education service programs are robust in Utah’s colleges and universities, with a wide range of offerings. These data are useful for the leaders in kinesiology as well as campus administrators to support the continuation of physical education service programs, if not to champion requiring physical education on college and university campuses because of its known effectiveness in improving the health and wellness of students and alumni.
