bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Everything I needed to know about teaching I learned in kindergarten
Authors: Pollard Shannon , Duvall Robert C.
Published: May 2006

By expanding the teaching styles used in computer science classrooms, we can expand the audience of students that enjoy and excel in technology. Rather than focusing on major curriculum changes or new programs specifically for non-traditional students, we propose that relatively simple expansions in teaching style can have significant results. In particular, we advocate incorporating teaching techniques reminiscent of kindergarten: games, toys, stories, and play. These techniques promote an active learning environment, level the playing field for non-technical students, provide motivation beyond grades, and make class time fun. In this paper, we want to acknowledge the many activities others have proposed by providing a coherent categorization of such activities and show how to use these techniques throughout the curriculum rather than as special experiences.
Design of class hierarchies
Authors: Proulx Viera K. , Gray Kathryn E.
Published: May 2006

We report on the experience of teaching an introductory second semester computer science course on Fundamentals of Computer Science that uses our curriculum

How to Design Class Hierarchies

and the
ProfessorJ
programming languages implemented within the
DrScheme
programming environment.This comprehensive curriculum for an introductory course focuses on principled design of class based programs in an object-oriented language (Java) with a carefully structured gradual increase in the complexity of the class structure and the programming language.The curriculum includes extensive lecture notes, programming assignments, closed lab plans, exams, and the first part of a textbook. The curriculum is supported by a programming environment
ProfessorJ
with a series of gradually more complex teaching languages that support a novice learner. The pedagogy focuses on teaching the students problem solving and design skills that transcend the study of programming. The organization of the topics draws its strength from the theory of programming languages by focusing on the structure of data rather than on algorithms, user interactions, or arcane details of the programming language syntax.
A UNIX concurrent I/O simulator
Authors: Robbins Steven
Published: May 2006

This paper describes a simulator that allows users to explore concurrent I/O in UNIX. UNIX I/O provides an interesting example of how a shared variable, in this case the file offset, can be affected by concurrent access. The examples given can run on the simulator or a real UNIX-like system such as Linux, Solaris for Mac OS X. The simulator can run programs written by the user and display pictorially the relationship among various data structures involved in I/O, including the process file descriptor table, the system open file table, the inodes, and the data stored on disk. The user can run the program slowly, or step forward or back through the program to examine the data structures in detail. The simulator supports the creation of both child processes and threads as well as open, close, read, write, wait, join and detach functions. The simulator is freely available for download. It can be also be used directly from a browser without the need for installation.
Storytelling and puzzles in a software engineering course
Authors: Rao M.R.K. Krishna
Published: May 2006

Storytelling has been used from time immemorial as a powerful educational tool to exchange and propagate complex ideas. Similarly, puzzles have been known as stimulators of thinking and problem solving skills. Both storytelling and puzzles found their rightful place in primary and secondary education through the years. However, their value in higher education has only been recognized recently. This paper describes how these two educational aids can be used for motivating various
concepts
of software engineering.
Software project demonstrations as not only an assessment tool but also a learning tool
Authors: Liu Chang
Published: May 2006

Software project demonstrations are commonly used as an effective assessment tool in software courses. We found that in addition to helping instructors find out the status of student projects in a short period of time, project demonstrations motivate students and challenge them to synthesize, organize, prioritize, and articulate different aspects of their projects, all of which are important skills of professional software developers. Our experiment shows that project demonstrations are an effective learning tool as well. In this paper, we describe different types of project demonstrations in our experiment, including short, frequent five-minute demonstrations and formal final project demonstrations. This study was conducted in the context of a software engineering capstone project course.
Scavenger hunt
Authors: Talton Jerry O. , Peterson Daniel L. , Kamin Sam , Israel Deborah , Al-Muhtadi Jalal
Published: May 2006

This paper describes Scavenger Hunt, a team-based orientation activity for incoming freshmen in the Department of Computer Science at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Like many large research universities, Illinois has struggled with the high attrition rate of first-year students in computing disciplines. Scavenger Hunt, which has been held each of the past three years, is intended to foster a sense of community within the department and acclimate new students to undergraduate life as computer science majors. A unique aspect of the activity is the use of handheld computers to manage most aspects of the competition, which enables physically handicapped students to participate on an equal footing with their able-bodied peers. Thus far, Scavenger Hunt has been directly responsible for the increased participation of new students in departmental activities and organizations. In addition, we have observed a significant correlation between student participation in Scavenger Hunt and retention rates in the department. Along with other retention-oriented activities, Scavenger Hunt is measurably improving the attitude of new students towards computer science.
A template library to facilitate teaching message passing parallel computing
Authors: Paul Jerome L. , Kouril Michal , Berman Kenneth A.
Published: May 2006

This paper discusses a template-based approach to aid in introducing the upper-division undergraduate (or first year graduate) to the rapidly emerging message passing parallel computing paradigm. Our template library facilitates an accelerated MPI programming learning environment that can realistically be included as one topic among many in an algorithms course. One template module is based on a backtracking solution to the satisfiablity problem (SAT), which the student first solves in the sequential setting. With the aid of a modified template, the student then develops a simple parallel SAT solver. The template includes such things as I/O functions, allowing the student to focus on the algorithm itself. The parallel part is partially provided by the template, with indicators given in places where the student needs to plug in missing MPI function calls. The students are excited about this hands-on-experience in the increasingly important world of message passing parallel computing, which might be missed if their curriculum does not include a course devoted to this topic.
Reversing
Authors: Ginat David , Armoni Michal
Published: May 2006

Program and proof designs are fundamental in computer science (CS). The designs involve the employment of various heuristics that may be considered rather inherent and natural, such as decomposition. Yet, not all heuristics are natural. One less natural, and rather unintuitive heuristic is that of reversing, in which a task is approached by reasoning backwards or viewing entities through "inverse lenses". One primary form of this heuristic is recursion. But, there are additional forms throughout the CS curriculum that are essential yet not underlined. In this paper we display these forms, underline their important role, and illustrate them in five core courses. In addition, we describe our experience with student difficulties due to unawareness and lack of competence with this heuristic, and offer preliminary guidelines for elaborating it during CS studies.
Introductory game creation
Authors: Chamillard A. T.
Published: May 2006

Many incoming college freshmen have accumulated a significant number of hours of experience playing computer games. Extending that experience to actual game creation activities can be highly motivational for these students. Most of these activities require some level of programming expertise, however, making them activities too advanced for the majority of incoming students.In this paper, we describe a freshman-level course called Problem Solving through Game Creation. Students learn to use a number of drag-and-drop game creation tools to develop both 2D and 3D games, with no programming required in the course. We also cover a variety of other topics and tools related to game development.Our experience has been that students enjoy the course, but we have more formal course goals as well. Specifically, we hope to motivate students to declare and complete the computer science major and to better prepare students for the initial required computer science courses. We describe these goals in detail and discuss the process we have initiated to continually evaluate achievement of those goals.
Image understanding as a second course in AI
Authors: Canosa Roxanne L.
Published: May 2006

This paper describes the development and structure of a second course in artificial intelligence that was developed to meet the needs of upper-division undergraduate and graduate computer science and computer engineering students. These students already have a background in either computer vision or artificial intelligence, and desire to apply that knowledge to the design of algorithms that are able to automate the process of extracting semantic content from either static or dynamic imagery. Theory and methodology from diverse areas were incorporated into the course, including techniques from image processing, statistical pattern recognition, knowledge representation, multivariate analysis, cognitive modeling, and probabilistic inference. Students read selected current literature from the field, took turns presenting the selected literature to the class, and participated in discussions about the literature. Programming projects were required of all students, and in addition, graduate students were required to propose, design, implement, and defend an image understanding project of their own choosing. The course served as preparation for and an incubator of an active research group.
Two-layer bus routing for high-speed printed circuit boards
Authors: Ozdal Muhammet Mustafa , Wong Martin D. F.
Published: May 2006

The increasing clock frequencies in high-end industrial circuits bring new routing challenges that cannot be handled by traditional algorithms. An important design automation problem for high-speed boards today is routing nets within tight minimum and maximum length bounds. In this article, we propose an algorithm for routing bus structures between components on two layers such that all length constraints are satisfied. This algorithm handles length extension simultaneously during the actual routing process so that maximum resource utilization is achieved during length extension. Our approach here is to process one track at a time, and choose the best subset of nets to be routed on each track. The algorithm we propose for single-track routing is guaranteed to find the optimal subset of nets together with the optimal solution with length extension on one track. The experimental comparison with a recently proposed technique shows the effectiveness of this algorithm both in terms of solution quality and run-time.
Summary in context
Authors: McDonald Daniel M. , Chen Hsinchun
Published: May 2006

The use of text summaries in information-seeking research has focused on query-based summaries. Extracting content that resembles the query alone, however, ignores the greater context of the document. Such context may be central to the purpose and meaning of the document. We developed a generic, a query-based, and a hybrid summarizer, each with differing amounts of document context. The generic summarizer used a blend of discourse information and information obtained through traditional surface-level analysis. The query-based summarizer used only query-term information, and the hybrid summarizer used some discourse information along with query-term information. The validity of the generic summarizer was shown through an intrinsic evaluation using a well-established corpus of human-generated summaries. All three summarizers were then compared in an information-seeking experiment involving 297 subjects. Results from the information-seeking experiment showed that the generic summaries outperformed all others in the browse tasks, while the query-based and hybrid summaries outperformed the generic summary in the search tasks. Thus, the document context of generic summaries helped users browse, while such context was not helpful in search tasks. Such results are interesting given that generic summaries have not been studied in search tasks and the that majority of Internet search engines rely solely on query-based summaries.
Action and media in interorganizational interaction
Authors: Goldkuhl Göran
Published: May 2006

Coordinating the role of IT with business processes.
Low cost trace-driven memory simulation using SimPoint
Authors: Laurenzano Michael , Simon Beth , Snavely Allan , Gunn Meghan
Published: May 2006

Trace-driven memory simulation tools such as MetaSim Tracer [1] capture the address stream of an application during an instrumented program run. Various statistics can be measured using the in-flight address stream including anticipated cache hit rates. This paper reports on performance improvements of MetaSim Tracer gained by using techniques developed in SimPoint [2]. Concurrent research [3] addresses techniques that can be used to reduce the instrumentation overhead involved in memory tracing, and this work addresses a technique that can be used to decrease the amount of cache simulation that is required on top of this. The result is a tool for trace driven cache simulation that is practical to use for memory performance studies of full sized scientific applications.
Surfing the net for software engineering notes
Authors: Doernhoefer Mark
Published: May 2006

The World Wide Web is a wonderful place for research, but finding relevant information can sometimes be a problem. Most of the major search engines are great at finding key words or performing Boolean searches on key words, but there's no way to add meaning to the searches. For example, every month I pick a software engineering topic and search the web, looking for web sites containing research and reference material pertaining to the selected topic. Traditional Google searches yield tons of results, but very few of these hits actually wind up as featured sites in the column. When I run a search, instead of the reference and educational information I'm looking for, I get
all
sites relating to the selected topic, including advertising, jokes, blogs, eBay auctions and other content unsuitable for my purposes. I have no way of telling the search engines to show me all white papers or journal articles relating to "topic X".
Adrian David Cheok
Authors: Lee Newton
Published: May 2006

Prof. Adrian David Cheok is Director of the Interaction and Entertainment Research Center, incorporating Mixed Reality Lab, at the Nanyang Technological University in Singapore. He has been working on research covering mixed reality, human-computer interaction, wearable computers and smart spaces, fuzzy systems, embedded systems, power electronics, and multi-modal recognition. He was IEEE Singapore Section Chairman 2003, and is presently ACM SIGCHI Chapter President. In the video interview, you will hear Adrian's answers to the following questions:1. What is mixed reality entertainment?2. Can you tell us about your research on social and physical gaming such as Human Pacman and Age Invaders?3. Tell us about your work on the Internet Pajamas.4. What is your vision for the next generation entertainment technology?5. You are the founder of the Singapore Chapter of the ACM Special Interest Group on Computer-Human Interaction, what do you like most about running the ACM chapter?
The visual effects of The Chronicles of Narnia
Authors: Wright Dean , Westenhofer Bill , Berney Jim , Farrar Scott
Published: May 2006

In terms of both size and complexity the scope of the visual-effects work on Narnia was more than anyone working on the project had ever experienced. By the end, we had completed 1,617 visual effects shots for the film, more than 1,000 involving extensive 3D character animation work, from extreme close-ups of talking animals with fur, to crowd scenes numbering more than 15,000 creatures.
Evaluating the LEGO--RoboLab interface with experts
Authors: Karoulis Athanasis
Published: May 2006

This work presents the results from a joint usability study concerning the LEGO programming environment "RoboLab". LEGO has already performed numerous evaluations on various usability aspects, aimed to enhance the overall usability and utility of the product. This study focuses on a more academic parameter; namely, the combination of different evaluation methods on the same software piece, as well as on their combined results. Therefore, two expert-based methods have been applied at the Department of Informatics of Aristotle University: a cognitive graphical walkthrough and a heuristic evaluation. The results of the study unveiled some deficiencies of the interface and some limitations of the employed methods as well.
Words in Stone?
Authors: Macdonald Sharon
Published: May 2006

This article considers questions of agency, materiality and identity through a focus on a landscape largely shaped by the German National Socialists in the 1930s: the former Nazi party rally grounds in Nuremberg. It looks at Nazi ideas about architecture and the agency of buildings as ‘words in stone’ and the Nazi intention that the built heritage would endure and continue to ‘speak’ over time. It then goes on to discuss some of the post-war struggle with the Nazi heritage (and more specifically the Zeppelin Building) and the ways in which agency has been variously attributed. This highlights contests and changes in the attribution of agency, and shows how such attributions are embedded in wider understandings and politics of identity (including processes of ‘de-Nazification’ and ‘facing the past’), as well as being coshaped by the connotations and ‘suggestiveness’ of material forms.
The Cambridge Triumvirate and the Acceptance of New Testament Higher Criticism in Britain 1850–1900
Authors: Treloar Geoffrey R.
Published: May 2006

By 1900 the higher critical method of studying the New Testament, once fiercely resisted, had become an acceptable activity for the staff of the ancient universities and representatives of the churches in Britain. Making use of the heuristic and analytical tools furnished by Randall Collins'sThe Sociology of Philosophies, this paper seeks to explain the role of the ‘Cambridge Triumvirate’ of Lightfoot, Westcott and Hort, conceived as a distinct group operating at the centre of a wider intellectual network, to this change. It argues that social process as much as individual and collective achievement furnishes an historical explanation of their contribution to the acceptance of New Testament higher criticism in Britain.
Preparation of Montmorillonite-Organic Intercalation Compounds by Solid-Solid Reactions
Authors: Ogawa Makoto , Kuroda Kazuyuki , Kato Chuzo
Published: May 2006

Montmorillonite-organic intercalation compounds were prepared by solid-solid reactions using acrylamide, methacrylamide, and urea as the guest organic molecules. It took only a few minutes to complete the reaction even when dried montmorillonite was used.
A Convenient Method for the Preparation of Furan and Pyrrole Derivatives via Palladium(II)-Catalyzed Intramolecular Cyclization of 3- and 4-Alkenyl Alcohol or Amine Derivatives
Authors: Igarashi Susumu , Haruta Yoshihisa , Ozawa Motoyasu , Nishide Yoshiyuki , Kinoshita Hideki , Inomata Katsuhiko
Published: May 2006

Several furan and pyrrole derivatives were prepared through palladium(II)-catalyzed intramolecular cyclization of 2-(p-toluenesulfonyl)-3-butenols and 2-methanesulfonyl-4-pentenyl alcohol or amine derivatives in good yields.
Ruthenium Complex Catalyzed Selective Deoxygenation of Ketoximes to Ketimines
Authors: Akazome Motohiro , Tsuji Yasushi , Watanabe Yoshihisa
Published: May 2006

Ru3(CO)12 showed high catalytic activity for the deoxygenation of various ketoximes to the corresponding ketimines under carbon monoxide pressure (20 kg/cm2). For the deoxygenation of propiophenone oxime, ethyl phenyl ketimine was obtained in 100% yield. On the other hand, heptanal oxime which was aldoxime was dehydrated under the same reaction conditions to the corresponding nitrile in 32% yield.
Richard Wallasche's Nineteenth-Century Contributions to the Psychology of Music
Authors: Graziano Amy B. , Johnson Julene K.
Published: May 2006

Richard Wallaschek's (1860 1917) is most widely known for his contributions to comparative musicology; however, he also made significant contributions to the field of music psychology. From 1890 to 1895, Wallaschek pursued interdisciplinary studies at the British Museum in London. During this time Wallaschek proposed theories about the perception and production of music. According to Wallaschek, the perception of music occurs through two types of mental representation: Tonvorstellung (tone representation), which referred to the perception of individual musical elements, and Musikvorstellung (music representation), which referred to the perception of t he higher-order structure of music. Wallaschek emphasized Gestalt-like concepts in his discussion of Musikvorstellung. He also proposed a theory about the production of music, arguing that music and language involve different brain processes. For Wallaschek, music is an expression of emotion while language is an expression of the intellect. Although not widely recognized, Wallaschek was an early contributor to the field of music psychology.
The Law of Entropy and Dance
Authors: Gray Judith A.
Published: May 2006

Have you ever wondered what distinguishes dance movement from random motion of the human body? To what degree is ordered or organized motion necessary for communication through dance? The Second Law of Thermodynamics deals with order and disorder, probabilities and tendencies, in physical systems. Can analogies drawn from this physical principle contribute something to our understanding of the nature and meaning of dance?

The Second Law of Thermodynamics, also known as the Law of Entropy or the Law of Increasing Disorder, applies to physical systems in which a number of different configurations are possible. The law states that spontaneous changes in such a system will tend away from an ordered configuration towards the more probable one of greater disorder. An example of this is the distribution of oxygen and nitrogen molecules in the air in a room. Normally these molecules are distributed evenly throughout the room with about 20% oxygen and 80% nitrogen molecules in every region of the room. Since there is an enormously large number of ways in which all of the air molecules can be distributed in this uniform way, such a configuration is very probable. It is also possible, though much less probable, that all the oxygen molecules would congregate in one corner of the room, with the nitrogens elsewhere.
Issues in Labananalysis Research: Seeking Notation Solutions
Authors: Van Zile Judy
Published: May 2006

As part of on-going research in ethnology and notation I have been documenting Japanese bon dancing in Hawaii. Notating the dances has proved to be a challenge, not so much because of the difficulty of movement patterns, but because of the problem of deciding what to notate. Perhaps because of the emphasis on the event itself and the stress on community participation, uniformity in movement style (of the type found in professional theatrical traditions) is not important. Dancers tend to emulate the style of a favorite dancer or move in a manner that looks good or feels good to themselves. Because of the age and cultural differences of participants – which today range from children of elementary school age to senior citizens, and include Americans of Japanese, non-Japanese, and mixed ancestry – what looks good or feels good is tremendously variable.
The Interface of Scholar and Subject: Change in South Slav/American Dance
Authors: Dunin Elsie Ivancich
Published: May 2006

As a South Slav/American and a dance ethnologist, my work focuses on change in dance/dancing as it relates to cultural change. The project herein refered to is best described as a comparative study of change over three generations (approximately 1900 to the present). The subjects are South Slav communities in California and communities in Yugoslavia which are regional sources of first generation immigrants in California. During this study I became aware of being both an insider and outsider, however, at the outset of this long term project (begun in 1974), I was neither aware nor concerned about the difference my cultural status would make to the group, to the research, or to myself.
Concealment vs. Display: The Modern Saudi Woman
Authors: Deaver Sherri
Published: May 2006

This essay set out to explore the paradox of the Middle Eastern woman. The dichotomy of concealment vs. display is a stereotype in western culture and a function of sexual division in modern Arabian society. From the Saudi point of view, seclusion is necessary in the public domain whereas in the private domain display is appropriate. Private space is usually female space. It logically follows that belly dancing, a display mechanism, is done in female space by females for other females when the audience includes nonkin.

In the college community, “proper” belly dancing (as defined by the Saudi subgroup of the community Dhahran) can take place only under certain cultural conditions. When constraints break down, both the style and the message change. There are two alternative explanations for the aberrant performance. It may be considered (1) a simple example of deviance, i.e., a violation of the rules, or (2) an example of culture change in mental notions and hence “airport art.” No attempt has been made to assign priority to either explanation or to say that one is more correct. Deviance compounded and perpetuated is culture change. Also, it is necessary to remember that in a multicultural community the same behavior may be categorized differently by different subgroups. Little is to be gained, except, perhaps, a false simplification of the data, by assigning priority to either of the analytical or folk interpretations.
Understanding Interpretation
Authors: Lavender Larry
Published: May 2006

In introducing and teaching art-critical skills—i.e., the skills of description, analysis, interpretation, and judgment—the greatest challenge for teachers of college and university dance students is to teach them confidently to formulate interpretations of the dances they see. With modest effort and practice students are able to gain proficiency in describing the visible features of a dance, as well as in marshaling descriptive/analytical evidence into defensible reasons for an aesthetic judgment. But the concept of interpretation is often difficult for students to grasp for two reasons. First, interpretation is tied to the philosophically slippery term “meaning.” Second, there is little consensus among theorists, artists, critics, and educators on what “interpretation” actually is, or how to go about doing it. This uncertainty in the professional ranks naturally filters down to students, causing some of them to grow nervously silent when faced with questions about meaning in dances and other works of art. Once silenced, of course, students are more likely to accept at face value the interpretive arguments of others rather than to develop their own aesthetic perspectives.

If students are to become critically literate, however, it is imperative for dance educators to explore with them various approaches to interpretation. Only then is it possible to present to students—as I will try to do here—an account of interpretation that they will find sensible, easy to articulate, and directly applicable in their own critical practice.
Nicholas Roerich and His Theatrical Designs: A Research Survey
Authors: Archer Kenneth
Published: May 2006

The Russian painter Nicholas Roerich, born in St. Petersburg in 1874, figured prominently in the Silver Age of Russian art at the turn of the century. By the time he left Russia, around 1917, he had painted several hundred canvases and had achieved an international reputation. He continued to paint prolifically in Western Europe, America, Central Asia, and India until his death at Naggar in the Himalayas in 1947. Roerich's paintings continue to be well known in the Soviet Union and India, as do his writings and his activities in the fields of archaeology, education in the arts, Eastern philosophy and world peace. In the West, though, he is best known as a theatrical designer, a reputation due especially to his sets and costumes for Serge Diaghilev's productions of the Polovtsian Dances from Prince Igor in 1909 and Le Sacre du printemps in 1913. Both ballets were acclaimed at the time of their Parisian premières and became classics of stage décor. In addition to being one of Diaghilev's leading designers during the early years of the Ballets Russes, Roerich carried out commissions for Konstantin Stanislavsky at the Moscow Art Theater (1912), Sir Thomas Beecham at the Royal Opera, Covent Garden in London (1919), Leopold Stokowski at the Metropolitan Opera in New York (1930), as well as for the choreographer Leonide Massine (1944), and others.
Nikita Baliev's Le Théâtre de la Chauve-Souris: An Avant-Garde Theater
Authors: Sullivan Lawrence
Published: May 2006

Though scarcely remembered today, the Théâtre de la Chauve-Souris (The Bat Theater) in its heyday (1908–1943) was an internationally known musical theater under the direction of Nikita Baliev. Founded in Moscow in early 1908, it eventually became, because of the exigencies of history, a touring theater, a company equally at home in Paris, London, New York, and elsewhere. Despite its enormous popularity among general audiences, the Chauve-Souris was the first theater of its kind to enlist in its ranks artists from the Russian Imperial theaters, the public dramatic and light-opera theaters, and the experimental or avant-garde theaters as regular or frequent visiting performers, musicians, or designers. It was also one of the first, if not the first, theaters of its kind (at least in Western Europe) to engage a woman as its choreographer, Mme Elizabeth Anderson. On its first appearance in the West, Parisian critics variously identified the theatrical character of the Chauve-Souris as that of a cabaret, a night club, or a music-hall theater, none of which, as we shall see, adequately defines its nature. To understand the aesthetic premises of Baliev's theater, we need to review briefly the origins of the Chauve-Souris and the early careers of Nikita Baliev, Elizabeth Anderson, and Sergei Sudeikin, the principal designer for the Paris opening. The artistic mastery each brought to the group's first “saison russe” in 1920–21 produced a collaboration that led the critics to call the Chauve-Souris “une école d'avantgarde.”
Keynote Remarks on Marriage
Authors: Prell Riv-Ellen
Published: May 2006

Why do we dance at weddings? What are we marking and celebrating? Scholars of the family and society have abandoned their efforts to discover for marriage a universal definition which was once thought of as helpful for answering these questions. The search for the lowest common denominator of marriage in all cultures that would reveal the universally shared features of the institution offers little insight into this ubiquitous and complex human relationship (Gough, 1959). Love, economy, alliance, and even oppression have all been abandoned as possible common threads weaving together two people in a socially sanctioned union. We must discover alternative questions to ask in order to understand what marriage reveals about a society and how it functions for the group and the individuals.
Modernization and Dancing in Rural France: From la Bourrée to le Fox-Trot
Authors: Marrus Michael R.
Published: May 2006

Social history picks up the drumbeat of dancing in both the condemnation and the celebration of popular culture. Listen to the curé of Savigny (Rhône) in 1821, worrying about the peasants' overindulgence: “since they are full of passions, and dancing only enflames these passions, since these meetings never finish without crime, since a single debauched person can infect those who watch him, and since things are said [at dances] which should not be heard, and things are done which should not be seen, it is prudent for priests to oppose dances altogether.” A century later this was the mot d'ordre of his eminence the Cardinal-Archbishop of Paris, who proscribed modern dancing, and also that of the moral pundit of Le Peuple, who called the tango, the fox trot and the shimmy “une sorte de précoce et dangereuse défloration virginale.”
Videodance — Technology — Attitude Shift
Authors: Maletic Vera
Published: May 2006

In the late Sixties, Nam June Paik, one of the creators of videoart, expressed his concern that “it is about time we make the distinction between video art and video taped art.” Looking at TV and video dance of the Seventies and early Eighties one feels compelled to agree with Paik, realizing that a distinction must finally be made between video dance and video taped dance. Even when given the opportunity to create a work for video, rather than adapt a proscenium piece, choreographers frequently continue composing dances from a theatrical point of view which are then more or less successfully captured by the media. In other words, instead of creating videodance — a blending of structural and perceptual elements intrinsic to dance and the media — makers unintentionally slip into the genre of video translations of existing works or of videodocumentation. It appears that this state of affairs is chiefly due to two factors. Dancers and choreographers, on the one hand, do not always seek opportunities for hands-on experiences in a television studio or even with portable video equipment (other than shooting a record tape in place of a dance score). Such a practice does not allow for an understanding of the nature of the medium and excludes a creative integration of its expressive potentials. The number of media artists, on the other hand, who are familiar with the nature of dance is small. Independent artists, such as Charles Atlas, Doris Chase, and Jeff Bush or TV directors Fred Barzyk and Rick Hauser, are a minority, and individual dance/performance/media artists, such as Birgit Cullberg, Amy Greenfield, and Elaine Summers are still exceptions.
A New Model for Teaching Saut de Basque
Authors: Wiley Hannah C.
Published: May 2006

In the last decade a new body of dance-oriented biomechanical literature has begun to develop. Much of this biomechanical research indicates that in some ways traditional dance pedagogical methods are in conflict with the physical realities of moving bodies in space and the scientific laws that govern the behavior of moving bodies in space, i.e., the laws of physics. A number of traditionally accepted instructional dance precepts are being revealed as inaccurate or impossible. For example, according to traditional dance pedagogical methods, the supinated or “sickled” foot is a strictly forbidden action. However, in her study of grand allegro steps, Ryman found that in turning leaps, the push-off foot “sickled” during the take-off phase. Indeed the laws of science dictate that such twisting is essential for providing the torque necessary in any turning motion. Ryman's documentation of the “sickled” foot is an example of the limitations in the traditional dance teaching methods that currently are being exposed by dance-oriented biomechanical research.
Piaget for Dance Educators: A Theoretical Study
Authors: Stinson Susan W.
Published: May 2006

Most individuals who spend serious time with children recognize that children are not simply small versions of adults. Not only are their bodies different, but they also think differently. The dance educator, just like other educators, must attempt to see the world from the child's point of view if the teaching-learning process is to be successful.

One framework for conceiving the world from the child's point of view comes from Jean Piaget, a scientist who was interested in the development of cognitive skills used in science—ordering, classifying, inferring, thinking in propositions, and hypothesizing. Such skills are important not only in science, but in any logical use of the intellect. Inasmuch as dance educators claim interest in the child's intellectual as well as emotional and physical self, an understanding of Piaget's theories may generate valuable insight. Yet neither Piaget nor his many followers who have applied his theories to specific areas of education have examined dance education through this lens.
Kapila Vatsyayan and Dance Scholarship: India and Beyond
Authors: Md Nor Mohd Anis
Published: May 2006

Beyond the Indian subcontinent Kapila Vatsyayan has become a legend. Although far from the center of the great Indian tradition, Southeast Asian dance scholars emulate Vatsyayan's work and have attempted similar studies of the classical dances within the Indie tradition in Thailand, Myanmar, Laos, Cambodia, Malaysia, and Indonesia. Many of us in Southeast Asia only hope that we can measure up to the strength of her scholarship. For us, the notion of the “great” and “small” traditions is both real and overwhelming.

Thirty years ago scholarship in Asian dance attained new heights with the publication of Vatsyayan's celebrated Classical Indian Dance in Literature and the Arts, the first exploration by an indigenous scholar of the relationship between classical Indian dance, literature, and sculpture. In particular, Vatsyayan opened new frontiers in the understanding of rasa theory beyond its convention as mood and evocation. She explicated the notion of rasa as a state of being and aesthetic theories of dance along with the study of literature, sculpture, painting, music and theater. Her work demonstrated an implicit understanding of performance theory and of deconstruction and reconstruction processes, by which I essentially mean emic attempts to construe or interpret dance. Deconstruction involves the dismantling of a dance form, genre, or repertory into the smallest units of contrasted movements recognized by people of a given dance tradition, while reconstruction refers to the ways these movements are structured within a larger movement system (1).
A Warm-up
Authors: Berkman Jonathan
Published: May 2006

What kind of “symbol making behavior” is “dance”? At this point in history, are most scholars inclined to believe that “dance” is actually many symbol-making behaviors within time? “Dancing,” a human activity, occurs in myriad forms, both now and in the past. This warm-up accents the ramifications of adopting an historical perspective to describe “dance.” As might the Annalist Fernand Braudel, let me propose that dance media “should fit into time which carries life ceaselessly along” (Braudel 1980, 69). By “dance media,” I recognize every “dance” form which is tacitly legitimated within a social group. Every dance medium is a socially particular manner of constructing movement within a social group. There may be a scholar who argues that there is a dance medium which is not socially legitimated, but in turn, what data shows that such a medium exists? “Dance” should give way to dance media, a plural term.
The Vienna Years 1927–1939: Excerpts from a biography of Fred Berk (Fritz Berger of Vienna)
Authors: Ingber Judith Brin
Published: May 2006

“My school work became more and more difficult for me. Nobody listened to me at school or at home. I gave up trying to do my homework and closed out everything but stolen outings to join my friends at the stage door. I got terrible grades, but still I found no way to study. I could not seem to learn anything from a book. I was expelled from school.

“To make matters worse, my father constantly yelled at me and then he would end up beating me. Finally, I remember my father screamed, ‘You cannot spend your days at home anymore. You are fourteen and a half years old and it is time you start working. I will find you work as a furrier or a goldsmith apprentice, whichever allows you time off for the Sabbath.’ When he could get no response from me, he took his cane and beat me until it broke.”
Dance and the Politics of Orality: A Study of the Irish Scoil Rince
Authors: Meyer Moe
Published: May 2006

I recently had the opportunity to reread Allegra Fuller Snyder's “The Dance Symbol” (1974), in which she claimed a central role for dance in non-literate cultures:

It is my observation that dance is most significant in societies that are least literate, i.e. non-literate… and it is least significant in societies, such as our own, which are highly literate.… I feel that there is something about this pairing or counterbalance of dance and literacy which may offer us some insights. I am implying that dance functions in some cultures, the non-literate cultures, with as broad a spectrum of functions as the written word includes for others.

Snyder explained that dance is able to occupy this all-inclusive, central role in maintaining and transmitting knowledge within such cultures because it communicates through what she calls the “dance symbol”. The dance symbol is the outer and observable aspects of the dancer (movement, costume, and paraphernalia) which are, in turn, both derived from and stand in relation to and for a culturally-specific environment, subsistence pattern, and mythic complex.
Agon: A Musical/Choreographic Analysis
Authors: Jordan Stephanie
Published: May 2006

Agon has often been cited as a key composer/choreographer collaboration, and its choreographer, George Balanchine, himself considered it “the most perfect work” to come out of his creative relationship with composer Igor Stravinsky (I). It is surprising, therefore, that so little has been written regarding the details of the interaction of music and dance. Most writers have concentrated on the dance or on the musical aspects of Agon, or have made only broad generalizations about its musical/choreographic structure.

In this article, I begin the analysis of structural relationships between music and dance with the main focus on rhythm. This is perhaps an obvious starting point for analysis, but it seems an especially important one, given the rhythmic complexity of the musical score and Balanchine's acknowledgement of the rhythmic lead that music provided forhim (2). It was Stravinsky's rhythmic style that Balanchine so often referred to when admiring the composer's work (3). In Agon, Balanchine seems to have been far less concerned with responding to pitch structure than to the rhythmic content of the music.
Hasta as Discourse on Music: T. Balasaraswati and Her Art
Authors: Poursine Kay
Published: May 2006

The late T. Balasaraswati (1918–1984) is considered one of the foremost exponents of the south Indian dance form known today as Bharata Nātyam. Her mother (Jayammal) was a well-known singer and her grandmother (Vina Dhanammal) was a great vina artist who was a descendant of a dancer and musician (Papammal) in the Tanjore Court in the eighteenth century. Balasaraswati was trained by Kandappa Pillai, the brilliant dance master of the highly codified Tanjore Court style of Bharata Nāṭyam. A supreme artist who dominated the field for a generation and enriched the tradition, Balasaraswati was particularly noted for her interpretations of themes dealing with human striving for union with the Divine.

In the Bharata Nāṭyam concert repertoire the padam has been considered by connoisseurs to be the litmus test for a dancer's artistic range, especially in the Tanjore Court style. This performance item is a rhapsodic song with a poetic text that is used as a medium for the creation of mood through drama, with the dancer using primarily hand gestures, facial expressions, and stylized walking. Critical to this “drama” is the use of hand gestures, known as hastas. Dance gestures are most often referred to as hastas, but are occasionally called mudrās, which is the Sanskrit word used for temple ritual gestures. To eliminate confusion regarding these two words, the hand gestures described here are called hastas. In padams each text line is repeated any number of times with different vocal and dramatic interpretations. The expectation is for the dancer to transcend the given poetic text (sāhitya) and sophisticated music conception of the padam in order to bring life to the hidden meanings and moods.
Court, Church, and Province: Dancing in the Netherlands, Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries
Authors: Brooks Lynn Matluck
Published: May 2006

While considerable scholarly attention has begun to turn to Baroque dance, researchers have most frequently investigated French or English sources. The Netherlands, strongly influenced by both of these nations, has perhaps been overlooked because of its small size, its seemingly minor role relative to larger powers in world affairs in this period, and the difficulty of non-Dutch scholars with the language. Nevertheless, the flourishing Dutch court, the nation's extensive commercial activity, and the cultural wealth of the Netherlands make research into the theatre and dance of this period rewarding and enlightening. Further, the excellent research facilities available in the Netherlands make research in that country a scholar's delight. The intention of this study is to document the dancing activities of the Dutch court, to contrast these with dancing in a distant province of the land, and to explore the effects of religious attitudes on both of these situations.