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Session 30	National Identity
Meredith Ashton	Assessing the role of dance in presenting China’s national identity in the 2008 Olympic Games
	An analysis of dancing within a specific culture yields insight and knowledge into the evolving politics, economics, religion, science, intellectual life, and art of that culture; dance is a reflection of the culture. Historically, China has used media mega events such as the 50th Anniversary of the People’s Republic of China in 1999 to stage cultural performances in which national ideology is expressed through dance. Since 2001 dance has played an important role in the buildup of the Olympic Games that will culminate in the opening ceremonies and the subsequent cultural festival. The purpose of this research is to investigate the role dance plays in the nature of Chinese national image management on the international stage. This project will assess the degree to which the opening ceremonies of the 2008 summer Olympics in Beijing conform to or deviate from China’s previous uses of dance as a tool of state.
Carolina San Juan	Stariray Dances: Perspectives in Philippine Vaudeville Dance
	From her larger research project on Bodabil (from the Filipino pronunciation of vaudeville), Carolina San Juan analyzes an excerpt from the popular movie Stariray (1979), which features Philippine Bodabil star, Dolphy. While Dolphy’s performance questions Filipino perceptions of bakla which includes cross-dressing behavior it also inserts the Philippines into the global mediascape with its inclusion of a Filipino folkdance among other western cosmopolitan dances. Additionally, through a close analysis of this scene, San Juan argues that while it appears that Dolphy is deploying the signifiers of femininity against the hegemonic, masculinist empire further investigation reveals that Dolphy’s dance in fact reinforces dominant constructions of gender in his parody of a cross-dressing man.
Laura Blakely	Running Like a Girl: A Look at British Suffragettes and Modern Dance Artists in the Early Twentieth Century
	My work began with a specific look into the lives of British suffragettes and modern dancers in the early twentieth century. By looking critically and empathetically at these women, I discovered deeper questions about my relationship to history and time. Although considering how these women struggled to carve out spaces for themselves in a patriarchal world was important, my creative work began to uncover a more personal sense of struggle. Through these women’s stories, I discovered that my own body struggles against my fears of losing time and expresses itself by making personal meaning out of history. This project became about the struggle of not knowing the full story of both a distant and a more immediate, personal sense of history. The lived experiences of dance, writing and the creative process were ways to access this knowledge. The female body, finite, articulate and powerful was essential to this meaning making.
	Meredith Ashton is a senior dance student in the Modern Dance department at Utah Valley University. She will complete her BFA in April 2009 with Honors and pursue further study in graduate school. This summer her dance studies propelled her to Beijing where she was able to continue her research looking at dance in China in connection with the 2008 Olympic Games. As a native of Utah Valley, Meredith finds joy in the process of learning and looks forward to the adventure ahead.
	Carolina San Juan is a Doctoral Candidate in Culture and Performance at UCLA’s Department of World Arts and Cultures. While her dissertation focuses on American Vaudeville in the Philippines, her research interests include the intersection of imperialism with popular culture, visual arts, and performance. As a former ballroom dance instructor turned performance artist/scholar, her projects include teaching Tinikling Hip Hop, promoting her performance/activist art spectacle, "The Imperial Mole Project," and investigating disco dance and music in the performance video, “discolevel3.proj.”
	Laura Blakely graduated from the University of Utah with her MFA in Modern Dance in May 2008. As an undergraduate, Laura studied Philosophy of Religion and English at Bowdoin College, graduating with her BA in 2001. During graduate school, Laura performed in the works of faculty members, Eric Handman, Pamela Geber, Steve Koester, Abby Fiat, Brent Schneider and Satu Hummasti. Her graduate research focused on history and how it translates through the body. Currently, Laura lives in Salt Lake City and plans to move to the Bay Area to pursue movement, writing and choreography this winter.
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