Theatre Arts Projects

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Track 13A - Oral Presentations / Performance

This oral presentation will be discussing how I adapted the original lighting design of “#metoo,” choreographed by Amanda Benzin, to fit into the limited ten lighting cues called for by ACDA. This discussion will include thoughts on how a lighting designer helps support and communicate the intent of a dance per the vision of the choreographer. I will also explain and express the conversation and process of the original design to contrast it with the adapted design for ACDA.

This piece explores the raw side of what it means to have a passion for performance. It features a contemporary dance piece set to a recording of an original spoken word poem revealing the sacrifices, pain, joy, and love experienced by those who give their all to the art they believe can change the world. It will involve two voices and one to two dancers, and will last about 2-3 minutes.

This presentation explores the crossover of studio dance culture and academic dance culture by comparing my previous experience in choreography processes in studios alongside the multiple choreographic processes taught and used in academia. Using choreographic elements from each dance world creates a dance piece that not only exemplifies well rounded dancers, but also can be used in both a studio competition setting and a collegiate concert setting. By using these elements, I will provide a product that can help communicate the importance of a mixed choreographic process. Educating others on understanding the similarities and differences between the two dance cultures and how the processes and practices from each dance culture relate is crucial for developing dancers that are adaptable, versatile, and embody a bridge between these two dance worlds.

Dance Team offers an affordable option for lower income families to provide a dance activity for their children. However, the resources available to high school students and coaches in rural America who would like to participate in dance are limited. Current guidebooks for dance team programs offer paperwork for parent student contracts, tryout/competition guidelines, and information on advanced tricks. There is a gap in educational resources for teaching and practicing basic dance technique. This limited information can result in a high rate of injury due to lack of foundational knowledge. The research I have done in the realm of Dance Pedagogy has brought to light the need for a written and visual resource on basic Pom technique. In this oral presentation I will address a foundational dance team program I have created and implemented here in the Western Slope. I will provide a written explanation along with a corresponding step by step video that breaks down some essential dance techniques including proper pom arm positions, pirouettes, and toe touches.

Track 13B - Oral Presentations

Rhetoric is a concept that has been around for over 2,500 years. It is the backbone of communication and persuasion and has been studied by many famous and noteworthy scholars. However, despite this, no one has been able to define rhetoric and its theory in a way that is universally accepted. With this in mind, the class “Theories of Persuasion” asked its students not only to learn the history and evolution of rhetoric within persuasion, but it also laid the groundwork for students to define their own personal theory. From out of this project, the speaker developed a theory of rhetoric as “an ability to show rather than tell” the ideas an individual is attempting to portray, something commonly found within the art and science of storytelling. During this presentation, we will explore the theory and its historical roots (based on the rhetorical theories of Aristotle, Gorgias, Cicero, Plato, and Burke) and show its effect within everyday communication and persuasion.

The CDC reported in 2017 that on average, forty-six people die everyday due to opioid overdose. The International Anesthesia Research Society reported in 2017 that the US spent more than eighty million dollars treating opioid addiction. This is the opioid crisis. The speaker currently works as a pharmacy technician, and in August, she’ll be attending CU Denver to get her PharmD. As someone who fills medications for a living, the amount of narcotics going out of the door each shift raises incredible concerns. Something has to change about the way we educate patients and their families on what opioids are and how they function, why the people we love could be at risk, and how we can make a difference in the lives of people who have been affected by these medications and those who could be. This presentation aims to give listeners this information and the drive to take action with it.

I will be presenting an oral presentation about the poorest community in America, the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation located in the southwest corner of South Dakota. I grew up in South Dakota and participated in mission trips during the summers throughout high school to the Reservation, experiences that allowed me to get to know the Lakota people on a personal level and enabled me to learn more about their culture. In this presentation, I will share the many factors that contribute to poverty in the area, including (but not limited to) their housing, their unemployment rate, their lack of education, their poor healthcare, and the issue of alcoholism. When people think of poverty, they think of bad luck or personal failure, but the Lakota people have been living with these conditions for over a hundred years, and it’s become an unfortunate trend that they can’t seem to fight their way out of.

There are many people all around the world today who are choosing against vaccination. In this presentation, the speaker will educate people on why this position needs to be stopped. There are approximately 1.5 million people who will die all around the world due to vaccine-preventable diseases, and these numbers are far too high for something with such a simple solution. People who don’t vaccinate are just simply confusing causation and correlation--something everyone does--without even realizing it. If we don’t start to educate people on the mistakes that they are making by choosing to not vaccinate, these diseases will spread faster than ever. Using different sources of evidence, in this speech, I will talk about the reasons why people choose not to vaccinate, why they should, and a possible solution to this problem.

Track 13C - Oral Presentations/Essential Speech

The world was forever altered by the spread of disease from Europe to the Americas during the Columbian Exchange. There was an unexpected genocide of most of the indigenous tribes, a successful hostile takeover, and the creation of a new disease which ran rampant throughout Europe. Also, a natural immunity caused by another disease, led to a push towards Africa in search of slaves who could possibly have an immunity to smallpox. This presentation will explore how migration led to evolutionary changes, the power of disease during the Columbian Exchange, and how the disease impacted and changed the world.

The current education system in the United States comes from the industrialization period, using the assembly line model to form how students learn. One major flaw in this model is that it discourages the growth mindset, thereby encouraging the fixed mindset. Reform is necessary to increase the quality of education and to encourage students' progress. Changes like the open-ended questions and the 'not yet' system can help students apply the growth mindset in the classroom. This would result in more personalized lesson plans that promote focus, diversify learning strategies, and praise milestones students reach.