Genocide Through Dance: A Senior Thesis
Okay, full disclosure up front: I'm not broad-minded enough to understand a lot of what passes for original thought on modern college campuses. I eat at Chili's -- non-ironically.
So when I stumbled upon this piece in the University of New Mexico's Daily Lobo about a student delivering his senior thesis in the form of a dance performance addressing genocide, my reaction was a hybrid of bewilderment and amusement. Then, however, hearing in my head the voice of every sweet-tempered, perpetually optimistic woman in my family tree, I thought, "Hey, it's unorthodox, but at least he wants to address a serious issue." That thought evaporated as I kept reading:
[Aaron] Hooper said he was inspired to do a show about different forms of genocide after a series of suicides by boys who were bullied over the past couple years. Since then, he said the concept grew to be based on “big business” and how the government breaks down individual and clan identities.
“When I look at genocide, it can be an emotional destruction of a people,” he said. “What I was thinking of in my paper and everything is how can we analyze these major genocides that happen that I’m showcasing here, and see the similarities to what is happening in our own country.”
Got that? Darfur is the moral equivalent of feeling bad because you can't afford the stuff in the Restoration Hardware catalog.
The seats in the audience are not bolted to the floor, so Hooper had every other seat removed, so attendees have nobody to sit next to. The choreography is set primarily to Pink Floyd tracks, and as soon as the audience enters, they become emotionally involved in the performance. He said he’s had a few test audiences, a few members of which left because it was uncomfortable.
The purpose of creating this in this intimate space is to make the people in the audience feel a sense of isolation and to feel almost as uncomfortable as the person that is being discriminated against, Hooper said.
Mission accomplished, sir. I'm two states away and I'm uncomfortable reading about it.
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Feb '11
Re: Genocide Through Dance: A Senior Thesis
Point well taken, I did that poorly, my concern is that he should be doing something that will demonstrate his mastery of dance (and for all I know he has), but if he hasn't - then no torrent of words to explain it will or should save him.
If his dancing has all the merit it should, why bother with the clap-trap.
That was the sort of linguistic ridiculousness I sat through as a double History/English major whenever I had a professor who was oh so post-modern.
Not to mention the utter inappropriateness of his main "thesis": a dance performance that reflects on genocide, and also serves as a critique of modern American consumer/corporate culture?!? Really, the Armenians, the Holocaust, Rowand = Walmart via dancing to Pink Floyd.
Aside from his youthful inexperience as a wannabe artist. Doesn't that strike you as at least in awfully bad taste? The more I think about it I find it morally repugnant.
Or am I (in all seriousness) missing his point.
Misthiocracy
Even if I was an expert in dance, the article provides me with no information to judge the technical quality of this student's dance thesis.
Feb '11
Re: Genocide Through Dance: A Senior Thesis
Good point Maggi, I'm also glad no one will ever read my undergraduate papers or listen to my toddlings on the organ from those days. But you hit on something that Wilber did - in your discipline you were building up and working with the great lights of your art - and expected to derive a basic, intelligent synthesis; and we all had professors that expected us to regurgitate their pet theories, yet isn't that the problem. It's not really about the harm one student's lousy dance program causes, not the fall of Western Civ.; but it is indicative, to me at least, at how low our standards in art and thinking have fallen, and how pathetic the professoriate have become in our nation and it's institutions of higher learning, and that grieves me mightily. Plus it was funny.
wilber forge
Point taken, however, if a student is to make a presentation in this manner should they not have availed themselves to previous success.. refer to those that tread the same ground before you.
Aug '10
Re: Genocide Through Dance: A Senior Thesis
Maybe. It depends. Maybe he's just terribly misinformed on the definition of the word "genocide". Maybe he, or the reporter (also a student), simply did a lousy job describing the piece. Maybe he's an idiot. Who knows?
I bet there are people out there who think it's bad taste to produce a lavish musical (of questionable historical accuracy, no less) about the lives of Eva and Juan Peron.
If this was a multi-million dollar show on Broadway I'd think it was outrageous, but it's not. It's an undergraduate dance project, being performed in a gym, at the University of New Mexico.
Aug '10
Re: Genocide Through Dance: A Senior Thesis
Is it really, or is it simply indicative that the undergraduate dance program at the University of New Mexico is a bad place to go for insights into international politics?
Oct '10
Re: Genocide Through Dance: A Senior Thesis
RE. Misthiocracy.
Therin lies the rub, we happen to be short on facts of the events outside of seeing the performance ourselves.
In as much as all here wish to postulate on an event we have never seen, objectivity seems to take flight.
This includes most posts here.
Aug '10
Re: Genocide Through Dance: A Senior Thesis
At the very least, he's misinformed about the nature of the phalanx. I have scant hope for a liberal arts major who can not even title his piece appropriately.
Dec '10
Re: Genocide Through Dance: A Senior Thesis
St. Salieri
But the real question is, can you eat too ironically at Chilli's, and would that be an act of Genocide?
Depends on what you eat while you're there.
Edited on April 13, 2012 at 11:03amOct '11
Re: Genocide Through Dance: A Senior Thesis
Would it be appropriate to ask whether college cause brain cells genocide in this case ?
Feb '11
Re: Genocide Through Dance: A Senior Thesis
But isn't that my point - maybe the dance faculty at the University of New Mexico shouldn't indulge in politics, (please stop laughing) and perhaps they should not green light a senior project that shows an appalling lack of knowledge, thoughtfulness, and, dare I say it, sensitivity?
One other thought I've had since last night -
This is what bother(s)ed me about the Art department versus say the Music department as a student, and as someone who goes on campuses /campi to perform now.
It is the crappy art (judging from his description, and the article, which may be deceptively inaccurate, but somehow I doubt it), that grabs the headlines. Try playing Bach's "The Wedge" Fugue as part of a two hour recital and writing a detailed historically accurate nuanced graduate level paper on it and see if the local paper covers it.
Bad art is rewarded in our culture because of the political preening and posturing, the real art, is consigned to oblivion, because it IS difficult to execute and understand.
Misthiocracy
Is it really, ...?
Feb '11
Re: Genocide Through Dance: A Senior Thesis
Lots of art exists about horrid events in history, and I think, unlike some, that we need art to help cope with the horrors of life as lived, but that takes maturity, skill, and wisdom.
Maybe one shouldn't attempt art about something that important as a novice, (although the Senior Thesis bit indicates the culmination of at least this part of the novitiate). Maybe one should be counseled, if one is inclined on one's own to dance about genocide to Pink Floyd, to wait until time, age, and wisdom have been gained. Again who should be giving such advise...
Secondly, the fact that an undergraduate in a gym does something awful still means its awful.
If it's wrong to approach genocide this way at 45 with a cast of thousands, it's wrong (if not AS wrong) to do so with no budget at 22, and if you don't know that it's wrong or at least poor idea, shame on you and MUCH more so shame on the culture and institutions that shaped you.
Misthiocracy
It's an undergraduate dance project, being performedin a gym,at the University of New Mexico.
Oct '11
Re: Genocide Through Dance: A Senior Thesis
This reminds me of when Ariane Mnouchkine did a show at Lincoln Center about international refugees. They took out all the seats and replaced them with custom made, purposefully uncomfortable, wooden benches. The tickets cost, I'm sure, at least $150 or more. The idea was to make the audience uncomfortable while they watched a 7 hour play about poor, disadvantaged third-world refugees. I suspect that that backfired somewhat, though, as I imagine that most of the audience came out comfortably smug.
I couldn't help laughing at how proud the dance student seemed to be that a few people who had left his preview performance because they were "uncomfortable." I would suggest they might also have left because the performance was boring, or insufferable.
Edited on April 13, 2012 at 3:32pmOct '10
Re: Genocide Through Dance: A Senior Thesis
St. Salieri
Blah, Blah, Blah.
I think Ricochet's own mole has unintentionally outed himself. Could anyone but a true Liberal even feign this stuff? Salieri, confess.
Feb '11
Re: Genocide Through Dance: A Senior Thesis
I am shocked at the implication, the irony, the imposition, I am well known as that severely conservative composer, a play and a movie wouldn't lie about such a thing, would they!
To prove my conservative bonefides, may I submit as exhibit A. my Puritanical take down of that arch liberal and all around danger to 18th century culture, the goody-two shoes, Jane Austen.
I rest my case.
If I were to be a Mole, I'd be named Milton.
Severely Ltd.
St. Salieri
Blah, Blah, Blah.
I think Ricochet's own mole has unintentionally outed himself. Could anyone but a true Liberal even feign this stuff? Salieri, confess. · 6 minutes ago
May '11
Re: Genocide Through Dance: A Senior Thesis
I would judge his senior thesis a success if he can make a coherent (all be it naive) statement about corporate genocide thru dance. It sounds like what he's trying to do has a high degree of diffculty. I would think worst case scenerio for this artist is that it would be unintentionally hilarious and come across as something like "Springtime for Hitler" from the "Producers."
May '10
Re: Genocide Through Dance: A Senior Thesis
Good art, rigorously composed and executed, matters. That said, I hope that kid can find gainful employment when he finishes his degree. Based only on the quotes from the article, he may be struggling for awhile, especially in New Mexico, unless he moves to Santa Fe or Taos.My other reaction was to roll my eyes. I'm a UNM graduate, but my degree's a baccalaureate in computing science from the engineering school, which was a completely different world from Mr. Hooper's rarified world of interpretive dance! Hence my lack of surprise upon hearing such a story from the student paper produced in the hallowed halls of my alma mater.
Oct '10
Re: Genocide Through Dance: A Senior Thesis
Troy, I apologize for yet again not speaking to your original post, but I just quickly ran through St. Salieri's faux-deconstructionist-speak and it is very impressive. Ricochet has it's own Alan Sokal. Saint, dude, you need to brainstorm with James O'keefe.
Oct '10
Re: Genocide Through Dance: A Senior Thesis
What are the chances that his professor's response to the dance was: "That sucked. Try again next semester."Now what are the chances that would have been the professor's response if the student had explained that his dance was a commentary on the destructive power of the socialism throughout human history?