Becoming incredible: healing trauma through performance

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Publication Type thesis
School or College College of Fine Arts
Department Dance, Modern
Author Heller, Molly Anne
Title Becoming incredible: healing trauma through performance
Date 2015-08
Description In this thesis, I explore how dance performance can be a catalyst for healing trauma. Throughout my own research on performance, it has been my experience that the act of being witnessed itself triggers a healing response. The intimacy of performance, where I channel my emotional intelligence through the body, can allow for space to clear the past of any "unfinished business." This is a witnessed evocation, and with it comes a softening of the heart and the possibility for transformation - a potential for both individual and communal expansion. The experience of moving with and through my emotions has influenced not only my own performative presence, but it also influences the ways in which I engage with collaborators in my choreography. In my thesis piece, "This is your Paradise," a trio performed at the Ladies' Literary Club in Salt Lake City on November, 2014; overwhelming experiences (both in movement and emotional climate) were negotiated by each of the three performers. The piece created a safe space for the performers and audience to experience heightened states of emotion, transitioning between the metaphoric states of Earth, Sun and Stars. These three shifts in existence relate to human conditions of struggle and resistance (Earth), hope and reverence (Sun), and lastly the infinity of possibility (Stars). I conclude by relating my creative process to the healing process itself - where together sensorial awareness and desire act to repair life's wounds.
Type Text
Publisher University of Utah
Subject Dance; Healing; Modern dance; Performance studies; Therapy; Trauma
Dissertation Name Master of Fine Arts
Language eng
Rights Management © Molly Anne Heller
Format Medium application/pdf
Format Extent 438,265 bytes
Identifier etd3/id/3973
ARK ark:/87278/s6rf93cd
Setname ir_etd
ID 197523
Reference URL https://collections.lib.utah.edu/ark:/87278/s6rf93cd