Thesis Proposal Presentation

Here you will find both a video of and the slides for my Thesis Proposal Presentation, conducted in April of 2025.

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Drawing on Gloria Anzaldúa's theorization of Nepantla, Judith Butler's assertion of gender as a performative act, and Omi Salas-SantaCruz's decolonial trans* feminism, I examine how theories of the self can deconstruct colonial constructions of identity, particularly within processes of movement generation. These scholars have profoundly shaped my understanding of how we navigate liminality through the physical body to access and articulate selfhood. Yet, despite the body’s centrality in these frameworks, I’ve observed a gap in scholarship that engages dance and dance-making as distinct mediums for centering the self through embodied practice. This gap has led me to question...

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What is the role of the body in understanding the self? How does prioritizing process, over product, in movement generation create spaces of belonging? And how can choreographic inquiry serve as a site of exploring identity through the body?
 

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