Artist Biography
My senior thesis project examines the relationship between dance, music, color, and emotion. The sources I reference in my paper explore all areas: color in relationship to emotion, dance in relationship to music and emotion, and lastly, music in relationship to dance. All in all, I found the common ground between all four areas and tested my theory on four dancers. To cap off my thesis project, I asked four dancers to participate in a performance, alongside me. Each dancer was assigned one primary color and an instrumental version of a song. It was up to each dancer to determine the emotion between the color and song and demonstrate that emotion through dance. The dances were completed twice, once with lyrics and once without. Lyrics have the ability to influence the emotion interpreted by the listener. I put that idea to the test and asked each dancer to create their own story with movement alone, and to not dance with the words. By doing that, the dancer is left completely vulnerable with their raw emotion.
Thesis Abstract
I am a dancer, singer, and actor with a special interest in musical theater and choreography. My work is focused on sharing the emotions of artists with the audience through color, music and dance. I have grown up as a performer through and through. From my first dance class at the age of two, I have considered the stage my home. Through the highest of highs and the lowest of lows, I have always turned to the arts in time of need. At a young age when I experienced a hardship in my life, I realized how important dance was to me. There is just something about blasting music and jumping around that makes you feel better than anything else ever could. When it came time to create my thesis, I wanted to explore this on a deeper level. I conducted three artistic experiments in Thesis I in reference to colors and emotions when music is played. From here, I went on to explore the benefits of dancing and its effects on the mental wellbeing of people. My final thesis was then created by combining all of these areas into one big research project of how color, emotion, dance, and music are all connected. No matter how many times I dissected each section, I always seemed to find that with one came the other, almost like a chain reaction. As I continue my journey through graduate schooling and furthermore into my professional career, I will take this knowledge with me. This will not only be present in my work but also in my daily life.