https://www.um.edu.mt/library/oar/handle/123456789/21919 Sun, 19 Apr 2026 04:31:44 GMT 2026-04-19T04:31:44Z https://www.um.edu.mt/library/oar/handle/123456789/145574 Title: Stage expressiveness in romantic ballet : investigating how a dancer’s gestural vocabulary can contribute to a more authentic and emotional performance Abstract: This dissertation analyses how introducing each dancer’s personal expressiveness and gestural vocabulary, making room for individuality and diversity in interpretation, influences romantic ballet performance by allowing dancers to showcase authenticity, which can lead to a more emotional performance. The paper also analyses the way nonverbal communication is perceived by the artists on stage, as well as audience, and how can that offer insights about the current pantomime used in ballet performances. Moreover, it is questioning whether dancers could express themselves more freely on stage if the choreographed gestures would be eliminated from ballet. The aim of this research is to discover whether ballet performances could become more meaningful by changing the approach on ballet pantomime and the dancers’ training. This study contains insights on the connection between gestures and the psychology behind them. It analyses the link between the details of nonverbal communication and how the brain perceives it and creates emotional responses to it. Another important aspect presented is the introduction of actor training techniques into the dancers’ training which, alongside to the analysis coming from psychology, would detect if that results into a more emotional response in terms of expression. Therefore, half of the practical research was concentrated on exposing ballet dancers to techniques that help the performer connect to their characters, access emotions easier and help them connect to and actively respond to a partner, inspired by the Rasaboxes exercises and the Orazio Costa Mimic Method. In order to collect data, I created and analysed the results of an online survey about original ballet pantomime in comparison to the reconstructed pantomime created during the practical research inspired by actor training. Furthermore, by reconstructing a scene from the ballet Giselle, as well as choreographing a short piece that followed the structure of a ballet performance, valuable data was registered about how gestural vocabulary affects performance, from both the performers point of view as well as the audience’s. This research is of great significance as it promotes the revision of ballet pantomime, as well as the introduction of acting for dancers as part of dance schools’ curriculum. Moreover, it underlines that important parts of a dancer’s training are neglected that should be more worked upon. Description: M.A.(Melit.) Wed, 01 Jan 2025 00:00:00 GMT https://www.um.edu.mt/library/oar/handle/123456789/145574 2025-01-01T00:00:00Z https://www.um.edu.mt/library/oar/handle/123456789/132106 Title: The Cecchetti legacy : a critical analysis of the Cecchetti method manuals Abstract: This research brings to light the contents of the manuals which were originally written with the purpose of propagating maestro Enrico Cecchetti’s Method of training. An essential part of this process led to investigate two manuals, A Manual of the Theory and Practice of Classical Theatrical Dancing Classical Ballet, Cecchetti Method (1922) written by Cyril Beaumont, and Classical Dance A Complete Manual Of The Cecchetti Method Volume 1 (1997), Volume 2 (1998) & Volume 3 (2022), written by Grazioso Cecchetti, and edited by Flavia Pappacena. Other books written about the method, the authors of the two manuals, and the circumstances that influenced their personal lives, were also researched to assess how this impacted their work. After evaluating the two manuals, it was important to establish whether they contained the foundations of the system of training E. Cecchetti so strongly believed in, and on which he based his method. The research, amidst the rich vocabulary contained in G. Cecchetti’s manual, hoped to retrieve some more of the maestro's work. E. Cecchetti established a template of a versatile weekly class plan and adapted it to the needs of his dancers, the evidence of further work created by E. Cecchetti and recorded by his son G. Cecchetti in his manual analysed throughout this research, suggests that if E. Cecchetti were still teaching today, he would probably still apply this systematic cycle in his work. This research endeavours to understand whether or not the founding principles necessary for the training of dancers discussed in the two manuals have remained unchanged, or perhaps continue to take on a different form. It also aims to determine if they are truly timeless and whether they are still relevant to training systems today. Description: M.A.(Melit.) Wed, 01 Jan 2025 00:00:00 GMT https://www.um.edu.mt/library/oar/handle/123456789/132106 2025-01-01T00:00:00Z https://www.um.edu.mt/library/oar/handle/123456789/127419 Title: El cuerpo partido (The broken body) Abstract: Dance scholar and researcher Dr Paula Guzzanti travels to Costa Rica to facilitate dance and meditation classes for Nicaraguans living in exile. Tue, 01 Jan 2019 00:00:00 GMT https://www.um.edu.mt/library/oar/handle/123456789/127419 2019-01-01T00:00:00Z https://www.um.edu.mt/library/oar/handle/123456789/127106 Title: The language of affect in choreographic practice : conversations on the making of embodied at the GPO Authors: Guzzanti Ferrer, Paula Abstract: The language that choreographers use to reflect on their practice is infused with metaphors and sensory images that refer to the experience of affect. The language and images they use activate, steer, and make sense of affect within their compositional processes. The words they choose suggest an affective encounter, a point of confluence and emergence between the embodied experience of dancing and the meaning-making process that is intrinsic to the artistry of dance-making. In this practice, the articulation of affect involves a process of awareness, recognition, integration and expression. Mon, 01 Jan 2018 00:00:00 GMT https://www.um.edu.mt/library/oar/handle/123456789/127106 2018-01-01T00:00:00Z