This project concerns justification for why partner dance, particularly ballroom dance, should be a part of the Arizona public-school curriculum. It consists of a review of peer-reviewed scientific research on the subject, as well as interviews conducted with local experts on dance. Moreover, a sample curriculum is supplied that should provide guidance on how to implement a ballroom dance program in the K-12 system. The goal of this paper is to empower educators to create ballroom dance programs in their schools, with the ultimate plan to help develop students into better citizens.

“Loose Lace Baby” is a multimedia creative project that includes the creation of a song, a music video, and cover art. The project began with the songwriting process, which became the inspiration for the video concept. The final cover art is based on the themes and aesthetics of the song and video combined. This project’s purpose was to explore the creative process across multiple media forms and how those forms can work to inspire and enhance one another. The first stage of the project was the songwriting and recording stage. The song is a simple love song about feeling insecure in a relationship and is centered on the metaphor of “tripping over loose shoelaces”. The process in this stage included creative idea exchange, songwriting, music production, and research in different methods of song creation. This portion of the project was then used to inspire the second stage, which was the music video. The music video is about a young boy’s first major crush and follows him on his journey to tell her how he feels, which ultimately ends poorly for him, but goes to show that love can be a divisive but also binding force. The caveat to this boy’s crush is that it ends up being his babysitter, who is much older than him and therefore does not reciprocate his feeling despite having a meaningful connection of a different nature with him. This portion of the project involved many elements, namely using sound as a source of inspiration for moving visual art, production and design, learning about camera work, directing, scripting, screenplay, acting, editing, and most of all, collaboration. Finally, Once these stages of the project came together, the final stage was to draw on the core ideas of the two to create a piece of cover art that represented the messages from both the song and the music video, cohesively binding the multiple media forms into one final product. This stage involved photography, image editing, and pulling from the two other media forms to create a cohesive representative image The final product is a music video and song that are approximately four minutes long each, and a single cover art image. The main software used for music production was Ableton Live. The camera used was a Sony A6300 and the main video editing software used was Adobe Premiere. Many learning outcomes were reached, including multiple filming and editing techniques, video production and the work that goes into organizing and directing a film project, music production methods such as vocal recording and processing, live instrument recording, song arrangement and the use of a Digital Audio Workstation for production and mixing. An in-depth analysis of the entire process is given in detail in the following pages.

"Loose Lace Baby" music video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K5uPf7Psht8&feature=youtu.be

While growing up, I was placed into dance classes, dance started out as a hobby, but as I grew up it became a way for me to escape from the struggles life itself brings. While I was taking a dance culture class at Arizona State University, I stumbled across research that revealed that dance does not just help people like myself, but it also has the ability to help those with more difficult life-altering situations like Parkinson’s Disease. With having about 970 million adults aged 65 years old and up (United Nations), around 10-million of these individuals have Parkinson’s Disease (PD) (Parkinson’s New Today). With these large numbers, Parkinson’s is the second leading neurodegenerative disease worldwide (Parkinson’s News Today) behind Alzheimer’s. Parkinson’s is a motor system disorder that affects the production of dopamine in one’s brain (Harvard). With the current treatment of PD being medication as well as surgical therapy based on the severity of each patient (Parkinson’s Foundation), there is one form of treatment that has been tested but not certified, partnership dancing. The way that partnership dance benefits those with Parkinson’s Disease is by using many areas of the brain to facilitate dopamine production. The four main areas used are the motor cortex, the somatosensory, the basal ganglia, and lastly the cerebellum (Harvard). With the vast amount of existing research, as well as the information gained through secondary research, I feel as though there needs to be a study to open the development of partnership dance as a therapy modality for those with many of the forms of degenerative mental diseases. Although unable to put on this research, I have outlined what this study could look like to be continued in the hopes of having partnership dance become a certified form of therapy for those with Parkinson’s Disease.

The purpose of this case study is to observe how social dance combined with somatic practices can encourage internal, physical perception and experiences of the body perceived from within for an adolescent boy with high functioning autism and dyspraxia; an impairment or immaturity of the organization of movement (Boon 7). More specifically, this research seeks to observe the impact that social dance instruction can have on an individual’s kinesthetic responsiveness, such as efficiency in movement patterning through increased movement awareness and somatic facilitation. In addition, this study seeks to observe the impact that social dance lessons could have on the participant’s communication and listening skills; attentiveness; initiation of movement, such as taking the role of a leader and lead patterns; organization of movements, such as performing movements within a specific order; and performance of movements that might lead to personal and social growth. Finally, this study investigates exercises from Alexander Technique and ways to incorporate them into pedagogical practices for adolescents with psychological limitations.

According to a survey conducted by the National Endowment for the Arts, 32% of adults in the United States participated in social dancing in 2012, more than any other form of art-making and art-sharing. Partnership dance styles including Ballroom, Latin, and Swing are the most commonly practiced forms of social dancing. T.V. shows like "Dancing with the Stars" and "So You Think You Can Dance" have piqued the interest of local high schools in partnership dance. Arizona State University's (ASU) School of Film, Dance and Theatre (SoFDT) is uniquely positioned to leverage the large partnership dance program and the vibrant Phoenix Metro partnership dance community to address this interest. The School of Film Dance and Theatre should implement a course teaching partnership dance in local high schools. The class will be modeled after existing student teaching programs with changes made to reflect the requirements of teaching partnership dance. Specifically, ASU students will spend one day a week teaching a partnership module in a local high school and one day a week developing pedagogical skills in a lecture and discussion group format. High school students will learn the basic steps of 3 dances and perform a partnership dance showcase. ASU students will get hands-on experience teaching as part of a team in high school settings. This program fulfils ASU and SoFDT goals by making dance accessible to new audiences and engaging students in the local community. This proposed program benefits current undergraduate students by developing a functional understanding of teaching partnership dance in a group setting. Beyond ASU, it stands to give high school students a chance to learn a cost-prohibitive art and teach them a lifelong skill.