Poster Session
Exploring Designer and Choreographer Collaboration: Design for Dance View Digital Media
Poster Session Angela Bacarisse
Choreographers and Designers work collaboratively to create representations of humanness through movement and design. Design for dance is essential in enhancing the choreographer's vision. The many elements of production, choreography, costume, scenery, lighting and sound, come together to give dimension and depth to the performance. In order to reach this point choreographers and designers need to develop skills in collaboration. This includes specific vocabulary in the elements and principles of design, as well as the "soft skills" of listening and interpreting. In my position as professor of design I model these skills working with faculty and professional choreographers. I teach this vocabulary and skill set both in the classroom and in practical events. Including students in the process of collaboration teaches them the importance of the partnership between choreographers and designers. Examples of collaboration that will be included: RED TENT, choreography by Haley Hoss-Jameson/design by Angela Bacarisse, and AURORA, choreography by Heather Samuelson/design by Angela Bacarisse, and a piece by Haley Hoss-Jameson collaborating with a student designer.
Tradition Transforms: Inclusive Language Strategies Applied to Italian Opera
Poster Session Brittany Bryant
The Italian language maintains an overt morphological gender marking, generally differentiating between masculine [o] and feminine [a] forms. This structure is evolving, with linguists and genderqueer Italians advocating a language that transcends the binary through Strategies for Gender Neutralization (SNG) such as the schwa [ə], asterisk, /u/, /x/, and @ symbol. While SNG has been explored in written and informal contexts, there is a gap in scholarship concerning formal applications and visibility. I postulate that intrinsic to Italian opera are characteristics and history that position it as an ideal outlet for contemporary genderqueer representation. The written libretto (text of an opera) is foundational to each work’s realization; one may incorporate SNG to facilitate visibility. I place two stories of transformation at the foundation of my analysis: La Calisto (1651) by Cavalli features singers en travesti (dressed as members of the opposite sex), underlining Italian opera’s foundations in gender fluidity and multiplicity. The latter, entitled (m)0rpheus (2021) by Apostolov, highlights identities under the genderqueer umbrella as the first Italian opera on the transgender experience. By using an interdisciplinary framework incorporating queer and sociolinguistic theory, I use case study analyses and reviews of gender-neutralization/nullification strategies, the debate surrounding these strategies, and historical and present-day genderqueer representation in Italian performance spaces. My research offers a framework for activists and artists and promotes discussion of inclusivity and linguistic diversity in the Italian cultural context.
