Honors in Dance
Honors in Dance can be achieved through a project in history, choreography or performance designed by the student. Invited dance majors begin planning their research in their junior year with a faculty advisor. The entire senior year is devoted to the development of the dance major's creative scholarship. A committee consisting of dance faculty and at least one outside faculty member evaluate the caliber of the final research project.
Dominique Jones (2024)
Motherhood at the Barre: Navigating Pregnancy and Beyond in Ballet
My honors thesis explores why motherhood is incompatible with the ballet world. Through literary and social media analysis, I argue that the cultural history of ballet encourages an all-encompassing dedication to the art form and an expectation of a consistently thin body, which harms dancers as they become pregnant and grow their families. The result is an outward show of exercise and dance throughout pregnancy and postpartum on social media, which I argue, is a sign that pregnant dancers feel compelled to display their work ethic and show that they embody the superhuman aspect of ballet expectations, making up for their lack of thinness. What sparked this interest for me was my own observations of when my favorite ballet dancers would retire soon after pregnancy and a hidden understanding among adults that pregnancy is synonymous with the end of a dance career. Through this research, I hope the struggles of pregnant ballet dancers will be better understood, and that the wisdom and artistry that comes from motherhood will be more appreciated and recognized as an asset for the ballet world to support.
Madison Lee (2024)
soft underbelly: Performing Queer Softness Through the Physical and Psychological
soft underbelly explores softness in queer masculinity. Through the framework of defining and embodying, the dancers express concepts such as vulnerability, support, individuality, inner strength, and care of self and others. Madison’s research focuses on the cultivation of their artistic process and how that shaped the creation and performance of this work. Their research methodologies included reading on the following topics: historical queer genders, the performance of gender, and care in queer relationships. They also utilized lived experiences from the cast members and queer artists in Atlanta. soft underbelly digs beneath the persona to showcase authenticity and honesty: being comfortable enough to be physically and psychologically vulnerable.
Mia Shocket (2024)
Unconscious Entrainment: Investigating the relationship between movement, music, and the brain
Unconscious Entrainment intersects dance and neuroscience, researching the neurological processes behind the phenomenon of when certain music makes humans want to move. This instinct to dance can be found in universal head bopping, foot tapping, hand clapping, or body swaying. Entrainment occurs naturally and unconsciously as our bodies synchronize with biological and external rhythms. The phenomenon of coordinating physical movements to sounds has remained one of the strongest behaviors uniting humans through natural selection. Through academic, choreographic, and performance research, she investigates the relationships between movement, music, and the brain.
Recent Honors Projects
Merryn McKeough (2022)
Play Meter: Investigating Play as Process in Movement Work
Merryn created a movement work exploring different aspects of play, examining themes of engagement, collaboration, effort, fun, and the value of process over outcome. Her research focused on the relationship between the final piece, Play Meter, and her choreographic process, which was rooted in game structures, generating movement through play.
