This study examines the educational journey and professional challenges faced by performing artists holding a Bachelor of Fine Arts (BFA) degree. Utilizing an Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis (IPA) methodology, the research delves into the lived experiences of ten BFA holders in the performing arts, exploring their motivations, career…

Performing Gender is an interdisciplinary course studying the history, media, and creation of drag and burlesque performance. This article outlines the academic, emotional, and transformative journey that my students and I embarked on during the Fall 2018 semester. We built a Drag Family House, went to a professional show off-campus, examined our…

Teaching artists typically work as solo agents, without the comradery of a like-minded community. After a year of focus groups, teaching observations, and conversations with school and arts administrators, we identified a need for experienced teaching artists to have a chance to reflect upon, renew, and reconsider their teaching practices with…

Beginning in the 1980s, and throughout years of employment on Broadway and beyond, I was an unwitting participant-observer to scenes of sexual harassment in musical theater dance workplaces. I experienced being a target of sexual harassment, not as trauma, but as an uncomfortable and accepted aspect of the employment landscape. The…

This study investigates opportunities for and challenges faced by Chinese dance and movement educators at the higher education level in the United States, drawing from interviews with seven influential Chinese dance and movement academics. The article probes the boundaries of what is considered Chinese dance in the US context, including Chinese…

Experientially, this article explores issues and problems vis-à-vis the teaching and learning of dance in Nigeria. The article finds that the relegation of dance education in Nigerian higher schools of learning is linked to many factors which include: lack of manpower, lack of infrastructure and knowledge of the numerous values of dance education…

This article is dedicated to an underdeveloped, but a highly relevant aspect of work of museums, first of all, the theatrical ones, namely keeping, studying and promoting the works associated with choreographic heritage. The artistic and aesthetic potential of material and visual exhibits related to the ballet theatre is revealed. All the…

This book explores learning in the arts and highlights ways in which art and creativity can ignite learning in schools, informal learning spaces, and higher education. The focus is on learning in, with, and through the arts. Written from a range of international perspectives, "Multidisciplinary Approaches to Art Learning and Creativity"…

Ensemble practices have been essential to the performing and visual fine arts over centuries. The skills of working in ensembles, including team work and collaborative learning, are increasingly understood to be critical and transferable professional attributes. However, much teaching of ensembles is practical and embodied, relying on tacit…

This article describes how the authors completed a project at Central Michigan University (CMU) with undergraduate theater majors and minors and dance minors as part of the annual mainstage dance concert. Although the concert is predominantly choreographed and designed by CMU faculty, students are engaged in every step of the performance and…

The purpose of this ethnographic study was to investigate the Montclair State University's West African drum and dance ensemble. Analyses of the data revealed three themes related to individual participants and the "lived reality" of the group as a whole, and to the social-cultural teaching--learning processes involved: spirituality,…

The research behaviors and library use of dance scholars are widely unknown, particularly in regard to issues of access to historical materials and new technology preferences. In the past thirty years, college and university dance departments in the United States have developed into independent, research-based programs. Despite the lack of current…

People who do not know theatre may think the only creative artist in the field is the playwright--with actors, directors, and designers mere "interpreters" of the dramatist's vision. Historically, however, creative mastery and power have passed through different hands. Sometimes, the playwright did the staging. In other periods, leading…

Researchers analyzed data from 14 participants in a collaborative, interarts, intergenerational community partnership project entitled "An Evening with Harvey Dunn's Feminine Images," to understand the effects of the project design on participant learning. The year-long project included collaboration among faculty and students from six…

Overexcitability (OE) and optimal flow are variables shared by talented individuals. This study demonstrated that the dancer (n = 86) and opera singer (n = 61) groups shared higher OE profiles compared to the athlete group (n = 50). Two self-report instruments assessed flow (global and subscales) and the five OE dimensions. All groups endorsed…