Making Sense of Contemporary Dance: An Australian Investigation
into Audience Interpretation and Enjoyment Levels.
A discussion of research findings by two cognitive psychologists.
This short report was written at the invitation of the Australia
Council for the Arts’ fuel4arts initiative, February 2005.
Authors: Renee Glass & Catherine Stevens, MARCS Auditory
Laboratories & School of PsychologyUniversity of Western
Sydney. Full text available at
http://marcs.uws.edu.au/people/stevens/pubs/Glass_ConcConns_eforum.pdf
All in the Mind: The Dancing Mind, Radio National, Australian
Broadcasting Commission (ABC) 19 March, 2005.
Presenter,
Natasha Mitchell, interviews three psychologists, Catherine
Stevens, Patrick Haggard and Shona Erskine for an exploration
of the dancing mind. Dance. she says, ‘is one of the few
art forms that we make out of our own bodies, and a potent form
of communication without language. Scientists, dancers and choreographers
are coming together in novel ways to explore the cognitive microcosm
that is this long-loved performing art’. Full transcript
and references available at
http://www.abc.net.au/rn/science/mind/stories/s1323547.htm
In a report on her progress late in 2005, PhD candidate, Shona
Erskine, writes of the rationale for her research with the
Quantum Leap Youth Choreographic Ensemble.
A study of the relevant literature revealed huge gaps in our
understanding of the process at play in, and the benefits of,
dance participation. To date studies into arts participation
that have involved the documentation of activities, the assessment
of program strengths and weaknesses, and the tracking of individual
progress have invariably been conducted using the arts as an
interrelated body of subjects rather than as unique disciplines.
This has served to confuse the validity of findings to specific
programs and results in serious limitations to the application
of the available literature to any given art form.
The findings of research have been further confounded due a
lack of differentiation between curriculum based dance participation
and out-of-school dance participation. The majority of research
has been conducted in the school environment where art courses
are bound by curriculum restraints and evaluative procedures
related to academic achievement. This has in turn lead to the
formation of a conceptual framework for research that focuses
on the ability of the arts to inform, support, and contribute
to improved academic achievement.
The consequence for the arts in justifying their existence
through academic values is that the little research available
does not
offer a platform for the research of the unique experiences
inherent in arts participation. There needs to be constructive
formulation
for the existence of arts programs, giving insight into the
arts phenomenon as it is known, as it is actually experienced.
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