Do You Hear the Bodies? An Exploration of Dance

Author

Fiona Lazar

Date of Award

2012

First Advisor

Wendy Shifrin

Second Advisor

Joan DelPlato

Abstract

This thesis explores the concept of dance as female language through a performance in modern and contemporary ballet styles as well as a complementary textual analysis in three parts. The first chapter discusses the foundational ideas behind the performance in an essay on the ballet, Swan Lake, using Jacques Lacan’s theories about the gaze to discuss the objectification of the ballerina; the second chapter documents the rehearsal process, and the third analyzes the choreography. The performance was danced by six women, whose personal essays served as the soundtrack for the piece. This thesis attempts to explore the collision of male and female languages by having women dance to words, as well as to create a place for female expression, only achieved in the space of male silence.

Comments

Ask at the Alumni Library circulation desk for the companion piece that accompanies this thesis.

Recommended Citation

Lazar, Fiona, "Do You Hear the Bodies? An Exploration of Dance" (2012). Senior Theses. 655.
https://digitalcommons.bard.edu/sr-theses/655