What? Do I look like this?: A qualitative study of mirrors’ impact on contemporary dance pedagogy students’ experiences of themselves
2018 (English)Independent thesis Basic level (degree of Bachelor), 10 credits / 15 HE credits
Student thesis [Artistic work]
Abstract [en]
The purpose of this study was to describe how mirrors affect contemporary dance pedagogy students’experiences of themselves. Empirical material was collected through semi-structured interviews with four dance pedagogy students at the School of Dance and Circus, and analyzed with the help of post-humanistic perspective and Lacanian mirror stage theory. The results suggest that mirrors are active agents that participate in several things, for example they create an evaluating gaze, objectification, alienation from the subject as a unity, experience of two-dimensional bodies and distraction. The results also suggest that the mirrors actively create afront and direction, and therefore they shield dancers from sensing their ‘inner selves’ as well as others in theroom, time and space. The feeling of success and mood affect the way dancers feel about their mirror images and themselves. In summary, this study stresses that the mirror, an object, is active and agentic, instead of thinking that the dancer is the only active part in the dancer-mirror relationship.
Place, publisher, year, edition, pages
2018. , p. 35
Keywords [en]
ance, mirror, reflection, contemporary dance, the self, dance pedagogy, qualitative interviews, post-humanistic perspective, the Lacanian mirror stage
National Category
Performing Arts Pedagogy Pedagogical Work
Identifiers
URN: urn:nbn:se:uniarts:diva-351OAI: oai:DiVA.org:uniarts-351DiVA, id: diva2:1210562
Educational program
Dance Pedagogy
Presentation
2018-05-24, Dans- och Cirkushögskolan, Brinellvägen 58, Stockholm, 13:00 (English)
Supervisors
Examiners
2018-06-012018-05-282025-09-10Bibliographically approved