Honors Research Distinction Senior Thesis
Dance Reconstruction: Recreating Dance Outside of its Time
For my senior distinction research project, I restaged the "Woman in White" solo from Martha Graham's Diversion of Angels (1948). With information collected from the Dance Notation Bureau collection, the Martha Graham Dance Company archives, and the memory of Peggy Lyman, an expert in the work, I researched various archived materials and media to perform an authoritative version of the work. This process further explored the use of historical records to produce a work in present time. The final performance kept the legacy of the work alive while serving as an additional record for future research and reflection.
Undergraduate Research Library Fellowship
The Preservation and Accessibility of World Dance Archives
In the summer of 2021, I worked as an undergraduate research fellow with the Ohio State University Libraries Special Collections. The Dance Notation Bureau archives at Ohio State have been available to students and researchers since 1968. While concert dance was archived through various mediums and processed in the collection, scores of traditional dances from around the world were not organized in a way that ensured accessibility for dancers, students, and researchers.
International Council of Kinetography Laban Conference 2022
Digital Librarianship with Dance Notation Scores
I developed a research aid to an unprocessed dance notation collection. This project prompted me to consider what format would allow for hundreds of traditional dances to be accessible for and meet the information needs of users. I explored various digital platforms and created an interactive map, which categorized the materials geographically.
International Council of Traditional Music Conference 2022
Notating Across Borders: Notator Intent and Cultural Context in Examining Dance Archives
In connection with the research aid I developed for notated world dances, I aimed to examine the process of notating, reading, and embodying traditional and/or indigenous dance. Since the dances archived in this collection originated from cultures all around the world, it was also important to consider how the information could be shared ethically and with accurate context. When presenting my research abroad at international conferences, this idea initiated critical discussion about the relationship between institutional archives and traditional knowledge with a diverse community of dance researchers; further motivating my interest in archives and cultivating important questions.
