Year of Graduation

2023

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

MFA: Dance

Directing Professor

Jeffery N. Bullock

Abstract

This research is an exploration of personal utopia by locating oneself within the worlds of dance and dance studies, deconstructing past lived experiences where queer futurity presents itself, and connecting them with present and future realities. The critical research manifests within a practice of reconstructing a non-linear understanding of one’s personhood. Creating artwork and sculpture, songwriting, editing dance and dance on film, and exploring the self as a partner of each medium reveals a greater sense of physical, emotional, and social structures that allow, inhibit, or deny one their place historically. Investigating one’s agency and personal autonomy, and the lack thereof, reveals a greater understanding of identity, privilege, and the effects of marginalization across intersections of those under dominant power structures. These practices bring greater empathy and solidarity with Queer, Crip, Black, Brown, Indigenous, and Feminist communities, those most affected by systemic racism, capitalism, imperialism, and patriarchy. The research of personal utopia has encouraged an agency and responsibility to the histories, sacrifices, and inspirations of those that have come before within these communities, those present, and those that will come after.

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Performance Access Statement

If you wish to see the creative piece or performance that accompanied this thesis, please complete the Request Form, and you should receive a response from the Dance Department within two weeks.

Included in

Dance Commons

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