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Research Field:
International b-boy/b-girl battles; 'global' hip-hop culture;
improvisation, social inclusion and creativity in community
dance.
Thesis Title:
"Breaking Worlds: Musical Tastes and Dance Practices"
Abstract:
My current PhD project examines global b-boying/b-girling
('breaking') cultural practices. I discuss the emergence of
activities such as international competitions, hip hop theatre
performances and media presentations of the dance, as well
as local, amateur and creative practices of performers. The
question that strings together all of these lines of enquiry
is simply: What do dancers listen to when they dance? The
answers I found in each of these arenas demonstrate how musical
knowledge (skills and competence), tastes and, most importantly,
judgments are central to dance practices. I argue that dance
is a vital way that people perform their musical tastes and
how they deliver that performance matters.
Supervisor: Prof. Simon Frith
Second Supervisor: Dr. Nick Prior.
Research Interests:
Popular music; street dance, vernacular dance; community dance;
dance competitions and judgment; documentary film and new
media; cultural sociology; rhythm theory; music mediation.
Conference Papers/Presentations:
'Towards a social history of a spectacular urban dance.'
Institute of Modern Art, Brisbane, Australia, November 19
2009. (Forthcoming invited guest lecture)
'Shane Mercado does Beyoncé: Dance practice and music
mediation.'
Music Research Seminar. University of Edinburgh, January 2009.
SEDIT (Scottish Ethnomethodology, Discourse, Interaction &
Talk), April 2009.
'Creating Aesthetic Reactions: Judges, DJs, competitors and
audiences at International B-boy/b-girl competitions'. Scottish
Pop Academic Network (SPAN). Glasgow University, October 2008.
'Popular Music and Dance Practices: A History of Connoisseurship.'
International Association for the Study of Popular Music UK.
Annual conference. Glasgow University, Sept 2008.
'Archiving performances: Subcultural video making practices
and music soundtracks.' Screen Conference. Glasgow University,
Scotland, July
2-6 2008.
'Wittgenstein's grinding teeth: Listening to dance and hearing
music.'
Dance, Timing, and Musical Gesture. Institute for Music in
Human and Social Development (IMHSD). Edinburgh University,
June 2008.
'Morality in Popular Dance Practices.' (about dance copyright)
International Association for the Study of Popular Music -
Canada.
Annual conference. Brock University, St. Catharines, Canada,
May 9-11 2008.
'Moment of Judgment.' Postgraduate Students Conference. Edinburgh
University Music Department. Edinburgh, Scotland, June 1 2007.
'"Whatever happened to 'breakdancing'?"' New Frontiers
in Arts
Sociology: Creativity, Support and Sustainability, Conference
of the European Sociological Association, Luneburg, Germany,
March 29 2007.
''Where street dance meets club culture: Underground videos,
travel and star-images in Toronto's b-boy/b-girl scene, 1990-1996.'
Manchester:
Music and Place. Manchester Metropolitan University, UK, 2006.
'Where street dance meets club culture: Music, place and
dance in Toronto's b-boy/b-girl scene, 1990-1995.' Popular
Culture and the Local. Brock University, St. Catharines, Ontario,
Canada, 20
'Toronto's b-girl: Lady Noyz' Hip Hop's Defiant Divas. Vanderbilt
University. Vanderbilt, TN, USA, 2006.
'Toronto's local hip-hop scenes: the internal 'place' of
embodiment in breaking performances.' Spanning the distance:
Regionalism and Reflections on Popular Music in Canada. IASPM
Canada annual conference, University of Regina, Alberta, Canada,
2006.
'Authenticity 'refunctioning' in online music videos: Performance,
capital and a B-Boy Stance.' Film Studies Association of Canada
Graduate Colloquium. NSCAD. Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada,
2006.
''K-OS' music videos: Representations of Canadian street
dancers.'
Popular Culture Forum, Brock University, St. Catharines, Ontario,
Canada, 2006.
'Ventriloquism and musical suture: Performances of popular
dance in music videos.' Mapping the New Knowledge Conference,
Brock University, St. Catharines, Ontario, Canada, 2006.
'I used to do it in the park: B-boys transcribed onto the
digital travel dial.' Annual Conference of the Film Studies
Association of Canada, University of Western Ontario. London,
Ontario, Canada, 2005.
Awards:
Overseas Research Students Awards Scheme (ORSAS) Award, University
of Edinburgh;
Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada
(SSHRC) Doctoral Fellowship;
Canada Graduate Scholarship (SSHRC);
Mark S.
Bonham Scholarship. Inside Out Toronto Film and Video Festival;
Faculty of Arts Alumni Award, University of Western Ontario;
University of Western Ontario In-Course Scholarship;
Warner Brothers Home Video Award;
Best Film Award: University of Western Ontario (director/editor).
Other:
Select Dance Performances:
We-Bgirlz Berlin crew battle with Tatsumaki San and B-girl
Remady (from Cambridge's Sin Cru). Berlin, summer 2008.
Dance Out Loud with Edinburgh's Eclectic Sheek (b-girl) crew.
Liverpool Institute for Performing Arts. April 5th 2008.
Breakin' Convention with Glasgow's Flyin' Jalapenos b-boy/b-girl
crew.
Edinburgh Festival Theatre. May 11th 2007.
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