Identity Formation: Exploring Personal and Shared Narratives of a Black Woman Through Movement

• Main Author: Irobunda, Cynthia
• Format: Others
• Published: Scholarship @ Claremont 2018
• Subjects: dance; thesis
• Online Access: http://scholarship.claremont.edu/scripps_theses/1160; http://scholarship.claremont.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=2269&context=scripps_theses

The focus of this creative project is on the formation of identity through the lens of a black woman. I will be exploring stereotypes, the black woman’s body, the process of teaching and learning and double consciousness. Through research into the history of African American dance, and through the researcher and choreographer’s personal experience of being a black woman and shared experience of being a woman, I will be studying how movement can mediate resistance, assimilation, and encourage progress and development in a racially, politically charged environment. The choreographic component of this creative project was completed in three parts, The Walk Part I, The Walk Part II and Nneka. Visual records of the three choreographic pieces are available through the Scripps Dance Department.