UNews - Anne Flynn

The Dance of Change

david.kirby — Fri, 22 Nov 2013 15:37:44 +0000

Lisa Doolittle once lived the life of a professional artist, drawing on the passion for her craft as a dancer and choreographer to create a shared experience with her audience.

That passion still burns inside Doolittle, only now the outlet is academia, where her research expertise and love for dance and theatre have come together to effect real change in the community.

Doolittle, a professor of theatre arts in the ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Lethbridge’s Faculty of Fine Arts, is the Teaching and Learning Research Coordinator for the Art for Social Change (ASC) project, a comprehensive five-year national research program that examines the effectiveness of using the arts as a means of community engagement and to encourage positive social change.

“This is the kind of collaborative research that can ignite new ideas, move people’s hearts and possibly change behaviours and communities.” - Lisa Doolittle (Photo by Leslie Ohene-Adjei)

“We’ve known for years that the arts are an effective form of initiating change,” says Doolittle. “There are countless examples throughout the country where arts programs are used as a way to connect and engage communities, but there has been very little evaluation of why and how these programs are effective.”

What exactly is Art for Social Change? It is the application of arts-based processes to address issues of social concern and to encourage social innovation. It is an artist acting as a facilitator to spark dialogue, new ideas and actions with members of communities who would not otherwise define themselves as artists.

Doolittle cites an exciting international program based in Quebec, known as Social Circus, where Cirque du Soleil is working with at-risk youth and teaching them circus skills.

“It sounds almost counterintuitive to be working with at-risk youth and teaching them what most people believe to be very risky and dangerous behaviours,” says Doolittle. “But when you think about it, circus work is all about trust and when you are flying off a trapeze and have to be caught by somebody else, you learn a lot about responsibility and trust.”

That is the essence of ASC, bringing together diverse groups and using the arts as a catalyst to open lines of communication, to create community awareness and inclusivity and to encourage engagement for the betterment of our communities.

For Doolittle, dance is a powerful vehicle for change. This new research program enables study of an ongoing project initiated by the ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Calgary’s Anne Flynn (professor of dance) that involves residents of subsidized-housing complexes for senior citizens, many of which are first generation immigrants to Canada with varying degrees of English-language proficiency.

Doolittle and Flynn are also working with people who have been diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease, and, in partnership with Decidedly Jazz Danceworks, will study the impact of their participation in dance classes – not only looking at how dancing may assist in increasing independence and mitigating symptoms of the disease, but also how effective these classes are in creating a sense of community for an often-marginalized population.

“The arts bring people together,” says Doolittle. “The arts do not separate people – they are communal activities and when communities come together, big things can happen.”

The Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC) understands the potential value of ASC to Canadian communities. It is driving the national research program with $2.5 million in funding, allowing 20 collaborators, numerous national and local organizations and six partnering universities to come together for the first large-scale, systemic project of its kind in Canada.

Doolittle’s role as the teaching and learning coordinator is key for the project’s long-term sustainability. Its success will be dictated by the capacity that is built nationally between educational institutions, artists and both arts and non-arts community-based organizations.

“It’s so important that we are able to continue producing excellent practitioners who understand high quality artistic work as well as social-change work, and then are able to communicate with and bring together all different kinds of people,” she says, adding that the U of L could eventually become the site of a research institute that furthers the study and dissemination of ASC practices.

Doolittle will oversee the research and the eventual implementation of new teaching and learning practices, with considerable local support from Dr. Cynthia Chambers and Dr. Erika Hasebe-Ludt of the Faculty of Education, Ramona Big Head (BA ’96, BEd ’96, MEd ’09), Dr. Jean Harrowing (BSc ’78) of the Faculty of Health Sciences, Dr. Rachael Crowder (who teaches at the U of L for the Faculty of Social Work, ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Calgary) and the U of L’s Teaching Centre. Alumna Candace Lewko (BEd ’95, BFA ’95, MEd ’09) contributes an additional perspective from the context of her position as Curriculum Consultant, Educational Enhancement Team, at Lethbridge College.

“It seems like the time has come for this kind of work to get a higher profile,” says Doolittle. “This is the kind of collaborative research that can ignite new ideas, move people’s hearts and possibly change behaviours and communities. When people get together you can move mountains and I think that is the impact we will see in our communities – people will move mountains.”

Campus Kudos - December

trevor.kenney — Wed, 15 Dec 2010 17:56:32 +0000

Dr. David Renter (music) Trio performed at Southern Alberta Art Gallery on Dec. 3 as part of the second event organized by the brand new Lethbridge Jazz Society.

Dr. Goldie Morgentaler (English) was featured in the Fall 2010 issue of Pakn Treger magazine, the magazine of the Yiddish Book Center. Published in Amherst, Mass., the Pakn Treger story details Morgentaler's teaching of Yiddish literature in what is referred to as the "Canadian Bible Belt".

Lisa Doolittle (Theatre & Dramatic Arts) was a plenary speaker with ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Calgary professor Anne Flynn and U of L alumnus Troy Emery Twigg (BFA '03) at the American Society for Theatre Research and Congress on Research in Dance international joint conference in Seattle in November. They presented the paper, Performing Negotiations: Blackfoot Dance in Colonial and Multicultural Canada. Doolittle also presented, Dance Research on the Move: Connecting across the academy and engaging with community, to graduate and PhD students at York ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ.

��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Lethbridge Senate member, Paul Gale Pharo, was appointed to the Alberta Provincial Court Bench. Pharo is also the incoming president of the Rotary Club of Lethbridge and has three children attending the U of L.

Taras Polataiko (Art) recently exhibited his new work at the 5th International Biennale of Video Art in Israel.

Leanne Elias (New Media) recently had a chapter published in the book, Mobile Learning: Pilot Projects and Initiatives. The chapter is, Using Smartphone Technology to Extend the Educational Experience.

Nick Wade (Art) spoke at the Alberta Public Planners Institute in Lethbridge on the subject of art in the public realm.

The ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Lethbridge home page, www.uleth.ca, was selected as one of the Top-30 Outstanding Websites of Higher Education by Vandelay Design (http://vandelaydesign.com/blog/galleries/higher-education/). It was mentioned along websites from Johns Hopkins ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ, Virginia Tech ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ and ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Southern California.

Emily Luce's (New Media) exhibition, Parallel Park (Lab Space), is showing in the Helen Christou Gallery until Jan. 14, 2011.

Catherine Ross's (Art staff) exhibition, Field Sightings, is currently showing in Lethbridge's Mueller Art Gallery.

Dr. Josie Mills (U of L Art Gallery director/curator) presented, Deaccessioning: The Root of All Scandal, as part of the Southern Alberta Art Gallery's, Articulations: Art Appreciation Lecture Series, in November.

Matthew Blackburn (BMus '09), winner of the 2009 Lethbridge Symphony Orchestra Young Artist Competition, performed with Musaeus String Quartet as part of the Lethbridge Symphony Orchestra's Chamber Series.

For a look at the full issue of the December Legend in a flipbook format, follow this link.

Celebrating National Aboriginal Day

trevor.kenney — Fri, 18 Jun 2010 17:44:14 +0000

A large collection of interviews about Blackfoot culture and traditional dances, compiled by a pair of ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Lethbridge researchers and their colleagues, will return to the Blackfoot (Kainai) community in a most un-traditional way – on DVDs, CDs, and with a 'digital deposit' to the Blackfoot Digital Library at Red Crow College.

��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Lethbridge researchers Lisa Doolittle (theatre arts) and Troy Emery Twigg (Native American studies), along with Anne Flynn (kinesiology) from the ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Calgary and their colleagues, will be handing back to the community all the materials generated by their five-year-long research project which investigated the various forms of Blackfoot dance from the perspective of several elders and young people in Southern Alberta Blackfoot communities.

An archival image of a traditional Blackfoot pow wow. Courtesy Glenbow Museum.

The ceremony will take place Monday, June 21 to coincide with National Aboriginal Day.

"Traditionally, when elders passed on knowledge, it was the duty of the learner to ensure it would benefit the whole community and be returned to the community," says Emery Twigg. "This very contemporary digital format is a new way of transferring ancient knowledge."

Beginning with the criminalization of indigenous dances, such as sun dances and give-away ceremonies, which were made illegal through changes to Canada's Indian Act in the late 1800s, the researchers looked at a wide range of dance practices and collected in-depth information through interviews with selected elders and young people.

"To us as outsiders, the resilience of this community in the face of multiple assaults on their way of life is most striking, and that resilience is powerfully expressed in the unbroken practice of dance ceremonies, and in the immense popularity of dance competitions and in contemporary artistic expression," says Doolittle.

If the overall aim of the project is to stimulate conversation and increase research about dance and related aspects of Blackfoot life over the past century, opening the collection of materials up to the worldwide community puts a whole new perspective on the traditional method of transferring knowledge, according to a Red Crow College spokesperson.

"If this sort of transfer were to become a trend, there would be far less strain in relationships between native communities and universities and other institutions like museums," says Ryan Heavy Head, who has been instrumental in initiating and managing the digital library.

"The collaboration of Red Crow College and the Kainai Studies/Blackfoot Digital Library initiative enables wide distribution, allowing others to see the materials for themselves, and reinterpret and reuse them."

Local community members, teachers, international scholars and any interested members of the public will be able to easily access videos, sound recordings and print materials through the Blackfoot Digital Library.

The materials are also accessible through the ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Lethbridge Library web pages through a link to the Blackfoot Digital Library. Red Crow College partnered with the ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Lethbridge Library to establish the Blackfoot Digital Library.

Researchers Doolittle and Flynn, who titled their project "Blackfoot Dance History: Selected Perspectives," investigated how dancing affects identity and influences public policies both within communities and in cross-cultural situations. They have presented aspects of this research at international conferences in the UK, the United States and Canada, and, along with Emery Twigg, will be featured plenary speakers at the International Conference of the American Society for Theatre Research in Seattle in November.

The project is part of a Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council–funded investigation into dance and multiculturalism in Canada, and has received additional funding from the ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Lethbridge Research Fund and the ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ Scholars program.

To view a brief video clip of elders speaking about Blackfoot dance, follow this link.

Campus Kudos

trevor.kenney — Tue, 10 Mar 2009 20:35:24 +0000

Campus Kudos

Lisa Doolittle (Theatre & Dramatic Arts), with Anne Flynn from the ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Calgary, is presenting the paper "Assimilating and Accommodating: Bodies and Dancing, Canada's Choreography of Multicultural Nationhood in the 20th century" at the British Association of Canadian Studies international conference "Being, Becoming and Belonging: Multiculturalism, Diversity and Social Inclusion in Modern Canada" at Oxford ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ, UK, Mar. 28-30.

Mary-Anne McTrowe (Art) has received an Alberta Creative Development Initiative grant to produce work for a solo exhibition in the Art Gallery of Greater Victoria's contemporary space, the LAB. The exhibition opens in October 2009.

Richard Epp (Theatre & Dramatic Arts) appears in Theatre Calgary's production of An Ideal Husband by Oscar Wilde, Mar. 3-22.

Jim Steacy (kinesiology student) and Heather Steacy (music student) brought home three gold medals from the Canada West track championship meet in Regina recently. Jim Steacy won both the men's weight throw and shot put, giving him eight career Canada West gold medals. Heather Steacy won her third consecutive Canada West women's weight throw gold medal. Both athletes were named top athletes of the meet and Jim Steacy was also named top male track athlete for the year.

Dr. Arlan Schultz (Music) has received a Community of Research Excellence Development Opportunity from the U of L Research Office to support his development of tools for electroacoustic composition in the form of audio spatialization software and unique audio-sample databases. Schultz recently returned from Paris, France where he was studying and designing audio spatialization algorithms and studying advanced MAX/MSP programming techniques at the Institut de Recherche et Coordination Acoustique/Musique (IRCAM) in the Centre Georges Pompidou. During this spring/summer, he has been awarded a research residency and has been appointed a Visiting Scholar at the Center for Research in Computing and the Arts (CIRCA) in La Jolla, California. He has also received a Canada Arts Council grant for the composition of two new works of interactive acoustic/computer music. One is a commission from New Works Calgary's "Rubbing Stone" Ensemble for soprano, chamber orchestra, real-time audio spatialization and computer processed audio, which will be premiered in 2010.

Ryan Pottruff (education student) and Dustin Moore (pre-management studies) of the Pronghorns men's hockey team, won silver medals while representing Canada at the 2009 Winter Universiade in Harbin, China.

Deanna Oye (Music) performs a solo piano recital at Lakehead ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ on Mar. 17, as part of the 20th anniversary celebrations for Lakehead's Department of Music. She was a graduate of their B.Mus.(Honours) program during its first decade.

Trio Amaranth (Peter Visentin, violin; Tido Janssen, cello; and Deanna Oye, piano) performed at Convocation Hall at the ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Alberta on Feb. 27.
Dana Inkster (New Media) has been invited to be a discussant in the "The Role of the Employer and Legal Implications For Foreign Workers" plenary, Mar. 19 at the 11th National Metropolis Conference in Calgary. She will speak about her 2007 documentary "24 Days In Brooks" as well as her current projects in development, "Los Invisibles" and "Ladies of the Saturday Night". In March, she also speaks on the Collaborative Research in Ethnicity, Social Care and Health program in Faculty of Nursing, ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Alberta, where she will use her film 24 Days in Brooks as a case study for the use of documentary film as a facilitation tool in intercultural exchange.

Peter Visentin (Music) presented "Violinist's Cool Move" to music majors at the ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Alberta recently. The presentation explores his research with biomechanics researchers to gain insight into the art and science of playing the violin.

Lani Maestro (Art) is among 50 artists from around the world to participate in the Sharjah Biennial 9, this spring.

Ed Wasiak (Education/Music) was elected president of the Canadian Music Educators' Association (CMEA). CMEA provides leadership for music education in Canada and is also the national affiliate to the International Society for Music Education. Wasiak's term as president runs from July 1, 2009 to June 30, 2011.

Dr. Rolf Boon's (Music) composition "First Light" has been selected for publication in the Canadian National Conservatory of Music's Northern Lights Level 5 piano syllabus. Several of Rolf's works are also under consideration for publication for their Grade 6 and 7 piano repertoire.

UNews - Anne Flynn

The Dance of Change

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