The Space Between Here and There: A Somatic Shift in Architecture and Dance

A Master’s Thesis

Presented to

The Faculty of the School of Liberal Arts

Saint Mary’s College of California

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In Partial Fulfillment
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of the Requirements for the Degree

Master of Fine Arts

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By

Tara Howse

2022 Summer Term

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Copyright © 2022 by Tara Howse

All Rights Reserved

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This master’s thesis, written under the direction of the candidate’s thesis advisory committee and

approved by members of the committee, has been presented to and accepted by the faculty of the

School of Liberal Arts, in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the Master of Fine Arts

degree.

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_____________________________________ ___________________
Candidate: Tara Howse IE Date

Master’s Project Advisory Committee:

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______________________________________ ___________________
Thesis chair: Rogelio Lopez Date
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______________________________________ ___________________
Director MFA in Dance: Rogelio Lopez, MFA Date

______________________________________ ___________________
Dean: Sheila Hassell Hughes, Ph.D. Date

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 Abstract
The Space Between Here and There: A Somatic Shift in Architecture and Dance
By
Tara Howse
M.F.A in Dance Creative Practice
Saint Mary’s College of California, 2022
Rogelio Lopez Garcia, Chair

When viewing architecture, one may be driven to ask questions about the design, another may

experience a range of emotions and others may not experience anything at all. There is unknown

and known meaning, purpose and well thought design elements that go into creating buildings,

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structures and other various types of architecture other than just the physical.
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As an artist, I have explored the possibilities architecture has given me, such as the invention of

choreographic processes, principles, utilizing phenomenological practices within different spaces

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as well as somatics.
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This exploration was an accumulation of various experiences, occurring in different spaces,

while studying the design of the space and/or architecture.

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 Acknowledgements

I would like to thank the following people for helping me with this research project. Dusti

Bongé Foundation located in Biloxi, MS and The Mississippi Museum of Modern Art in

Jackson, MS for allowing me to utilize the space and collaborate with the foundation. Alexander

Calder Foundation and The San Francisco Museum of Modern Art for providing the space and

giving me an opportunity to expand my artistic vision and processing. I would also like to thank

my thesis chair, Rogelio Lopez, for guiding me positively during this creative research journey,

making me feel more confident about my work and process. A huge thank you to my parents for

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believing in my abilities as a student and artist, encouraging me along the way.

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 Table of Contents
Page

List of Figures vii-x

Chapters

I. Introduction 1-6
Why should I explore architecture?

II. Research Chapter 7-31

Lawrence and Anna Halprin
Jessica Lang and Steven Holl

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III. Choreographic Chapter 32-56

IV. Performance Reflection IE 55-57

Works Cited 58
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 Chapter 1
Why should I explore architecture?
https://vimeo.com/smcperfa/review/722711991/ad4b858e23

Before ever considering dance to be my main profession, I always had an interest in

architecture, design and art. In my first year as an undergrad, I had a difficult time determining

whether I wanted to continue pursuing dance or move toward specific studies in design. I always

believed I had an eye for seeing lines and movement in everyday experiences. The incredible

correlation between the beauty of architecture and dance fascinated me as I developed into a

choreographer. I even began to visualize inventive ways to move my body, performing

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movements that I would have never done, had I not been inspired by something. This

‘something’ developed into my interest in creating works based on my own research of

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architectural spaces. As a young adult, I remember always feeling a calmness when viewing art

and design, the escape and getting lost in a work of art never failed to give me solace. Now, I am
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rediscovering how my choreographic path has also brought me healing as I have found ways to

merge my love of dance and architecture.

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Who knew that ten years ago, when I studied different modern architects such as

Alexander Calder and Frank Gehry, I would one day be using their work as a source of

inspiration to craft my choreographic works. I began to see similarities in how modern

architecture correlates with contemporary dance. The minimal, structural aesthetics allowed

perfect imagery for me to visualize the dancer’s lines in the space. As I researched these artists, I

found that their goal was very much linked to movement. Gehry’s work revolved around the idea

of creating buildings that looked as if they were moving and Calder focused on making art

move. Both of their practices centered around play - embracing the idea of unpacking what is

and what could be - architecture and art in motion. Creating a dance, architecture or a work of

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art can develop from finding pleasure in making the work by utilizing the tool ‘play.’ Rather than

focusing on making the final product, the artist finds joy in the process. I always felt as a

choreographer that my works centered around the same ideas and my dancing never seemed to

change. As a graduate student, I wanted to challenge my professional career as a student,

professional, dancer, artist and choreographer. My reasonings for going back to grad school were

to challenge myself artistically and to further my knowledge in my craft. I had lost everything at

this time in my life, including my job due to the pandemic but thought to myself, this is only the

beginning and this idea inspired me to keep going as a student and choreographer. In order to

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become an artist, I believe one must fail, one must not take themselves too seriously and

ultimately, one must enjoy the artistic journey.

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I had entered grad school at a pivotal moment in my career and was ready to discover

something new about myself as a person and choreographer. I started noticing something about
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myself within the first few months of grad school, a comfortable shift of change in who I was as

a person and artist. When you enter grad school, the first question that they ask you is, ‘what is
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your topic of study? And by not staying in the familiarity of my natural tendencies, I decided to

keep my senses open as a student, to become inspired with life again at a not so beautiful time in

my life, I began to find the beauty of art, movement, life, experiences again all while healing and

assimilating it all together with my experiences in dancing making based on the intersection of

modern architecture and dance. “The late advertising creative Paul Arden once said, ‘You cannot

produce great work by normal means (Beadle 15).” As I go into this further, I will explain how

play informs a new movement language which brings me to another question: how can I create a

new language that intersects with modern architecture and modern dance. Also, by studying the

relationship of modern architecture and modern dance, I believe that when combined, it can be a

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sourceful tool for composition, healing and performance. I will take you on my journey of how I

explored movement investigations in art museums, by studying immaculate sculptures in the San

Francisco Art Garden, researching versatile modern architects that chose to focus on the creative

process rather than the final product and also other various choreographers that have developed

an interest in the cross between contemporary dance and modern architecture.

For the past two years, I have looked at the world differently, through an artistic lens of

investigation based on my experiences of how different spaces intrigue me to create. This new

strategy subconsciously has sparked my artistic drive. I had doubted myself my first year of grad

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school as the pandemic reached a climax and all learning experiences were taking place behind a

screen. I was creating works from my living room, my kitchen, my bedroom and even my
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backyard but I did however spend a great deal of time researching architecture in my spare time

as it was always intriguing to me as an artist. Even if I was not there to physically see the
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structure, I could view it from the internet. Unable to perform and create in a studio or stage, I

was drawing inspiration from other ideas such as architecture and interesting spaces.
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Composition, a way of making a dance, when combined with the analysis of modern architecture

has encouraged me to generate precise, intricate, linear gestures that inform the design of the

space. As a dancer, I have always had a tendency of moving in a free-flow manner, but as a

choreographer with the base as the intersection of dance and architecture, my selection of steps

and movements have been manipulated from a different mind-set to compose a dance. Dance

composition is arranged by an idea and as choreographers, we work with this idea, cutting,

editing the work until it has developed into a final piece. I will go into detail on how I used

modern architecture as my focal point for this project.

By using a somatic approach as I moved in different architectural spaces, I began to

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experience new sensations and a connection to the spaces I was moving in that promoted healing

properties. Lowered blood pressure, a release of tension, clarity and even freedom. Somatics, a

form of movement therapy that is centered around the idea of an internal experience that can be

used as an alternative to self-healing. From this new place of creating, I was now drawing

inspiration from a new journey of self-healing. I would often refer to my choreographic moments

of play, as a healing self-journey through architecture and dance. This beautiful relationship

between myself, the architecture, the space and my body allowed me to invent new self-practices

and a new choreographic movement language.

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The human body and architecture reflect one another in that they both utilize space as the

main medium for interpretation. When a dancer moves in space, the audience is aware of the
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emotional response they are inhibited by how they are moving in the space. Emotions portrayed

in a performance allow the audience to experience what story the dancer is conveying. When
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viewing architecture, there is an emotional response that happens. Architects also study how

viewers interact with their work by using techniques such as the five senses. How does the
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structure impact your vision, touch, olfaction, taste and what is heard? There may be no words

associated with dance and architecture, but the two forms speak volumes. When viewing a

building, there is cultural context that allows you to appreciate the stylistic approach the architect

created, there is also an emotional response that you may experience that gives you sensations,

maybe a vibe, that could be overwhelming, intrigued, emotional, happy, healing, or creative.

Nostalgia, a longing of the past, for a specific place, a person or experience can be an emotional

response to viewing different spaces and buildings that could bring back memories of time spent

here in the past. When we come back to these places, we relieve the emotions that we once

experienced. This severely impacts dance-making and performance enhancements.

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 When walking into different spaces, from room to room, from building to building, from

one bridge to another, from one city to another country, from viewing one artist to another artist,

you feel different emotions within these spaces based on their design and what they were

expressing. Even the design of a building portrays a different interpretation, one bridge may have

details that are confined, modern and simplistic whereas another may have more carvings and a

thicker frame. Architecture, in all of its unique forms, can trigger responses such as nostalgia,

when you go to a space you once were in years ago, and it may bring you to the point of longing

for that moment. Assorted art forms interlace in a beautiful connection that is powerful when

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combined. The phenomenological concepts of both Ma and Butoh began to appear in my

research explorations, as I realized I could utilize phenomenological principles within these

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spaces, to develop movement inventions based on my relationship to the architecture explored.

As I have continued these architectural explorations, I ask myself when entering the space, how
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can I breathe life into the space?

By using my body as a tool to generate movement based on architecture, artists,

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sculptures and unusually shaped buildings, I have developed resourceful ways to reveal space to

viewers and the many ways it can be utilized, physically and emotionally. Architecture and

design has always been of interest to me because of the different forms it takes in space. One of

the elements of designing architecture is its ability to utilize space in different forms such as

shape, color or even creating more space out of space. Dance is mobile while architecture is

static and studying how my body takes form in the architecture allows me to find movement

within the non-mobile form. When creating a dance, I strive to use the space as an architect

would construct the design of a building. There are many ideas of how architecture can help

assist the art of dance. This thesis will explore the following questions: The similarities between

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architecture and dance and how artists and architects used living forms as a means of inspiration

for their works. How are spatial concepts perceived in dance? How does dance change when

analyzed through an architectural lens? How have other choreographers utilized architecture

within their works? How can the connection between dance and architecture promote somatic

healing?

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 Chapter II

Other Choreographers Utilizing Architecture

The study of the human body has been linked to architecture since Leonardo Da Vinci’s human

figures to the drawings of Michelangelo's anatomy as architecture. Architects have been

exploring humans for quite some time.

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Figure 1. 1: Da Vinci’s Vitruvian Man. (Source: http://crujonesrock.com/beauty/science-behind

human-body). Date Accessed: Februrary 28, 2022.

City Choreographer, written by Alison Bick Hirsch, reveals architect Lawrence Halprin’s

creative processes that shaped his best-known built work with wife and modern dance pioneer

and choreographer in the Bay Area, Anna Halprin. Throughout Lawrence’s life, he encountered a

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 number of life happenings that led him to dancer Anna Halprin. During the beginnings of their

relationship, they created an artistic symbiosis, a collective that moved in harmony reshaping

urban areas, known as the urban renewal period in the United States. The Halprin’s created

alongside, collaborating and displaying their work in drawings and documents.

During this time in history, war had drawn to closure and they were beginning to create

work together. An awe-inspiring project in Portland and another recognizable work in

Minneapolis. Lawrence’s creative process differed in that he was more interested in the process

more than the actual built form. At the time, he was constructing community workshops for

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certain designs that emphasized the process rather than the final product.

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Now this brings me to my question, who are Lawrence and Anna Halprin and why should I

care about them?

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Anna Halprin was an American choreographer and dancer that was beginning her artistic

career in refining dance postwar, known as postmodern dance in the 1960s. She was also well
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known for being rebellious and breaking the rules with her art form. She graduated with a degree

in dance at the University of Wisconsin, where she met Lawrence Halprin. Anna’s presence in

the world of dance uncovered a range of qualities within movement forms that dissolved the idea

of what is considered art in its most appreciated form and everyday life happenings. The list of

Anna’s work is extensive, but this concept is her most consistent as a choreographer. In the

1960s, she was making tremendous impact on the West Coast while also staying connected to

what was happening on the East Coast at the time. Her work, similar to choreographer Merce

Cunningham, who was also intrigued by ‘chance methods', and also John Cage. John Cage, New

York musician, who worked with Cunningham developing musicality for modern dance. Anna,

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