Master of Fine Arts

thesisLaughter is a physiological and psychological response when people perceive something as funny. In my choreographic thesis work "float away," I explored how laughter can create intimacy between audience, performer, and dance artist. Physical humor derived from dance brings the artist, dancers, and audience together in a shared experience that is conveyed through the human body. I believe that the audiences' experience of the emotive expressivity of the performers' physical body has the potential to deeply connect them to one another. Through my own dance experiences, I believe that humor and the act of laughter can allow audience members to emotionally open up, creating more receptivity to choreographic themes and creative work. This thesis will consider how humor explores and can be elicited through relationships of the performers on stage, as well as the relationship between performers and audience. As a non-native speaker, jester, and dance artist, I choreographed the piece "float away," which served as an exploration of humor in modern dance, and questioned whether or not it is an effective tool for connecting the audience to the performers on stage. "float away" was choreographed for my thesis and shown at the University of Utah 2014 Fall Graduate Concert