Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects
Date of Degree
6-2026
Document Type
Doctoral Dissertation
Degree Name
Doctor of Philosophy
Program
Theatre and Performance
Advisor
Amber Musser
Committee Members
Claire Bishop
Hillary Miller
Subject Categories
Dance | Dramatic Literature, Criticism and Theory | History of Science, Technology, and Medicine | Indigenous Studies | Performance Studies | Queer Studies | Theory and Criticism
Keywords
British Atlantic, dance studies, choreography, ecocriticism, climate change
Abstract
The aims of this project are twofold: (a) to develop a method of theoretical analysis and (b) to put this method into pointed use. In service of (a), I propose a method of choreographic analysis. This method operates relationally, highlighting the production of movement and stillness among and between bodies, objects, and encounters. Choreographic analysis draws from methods typically sequestered to dance studies. Towards aim (b), this project demonstrates the relevance and breadth of choreographic analysis by connecting it to ecocriticism. Throughout this project, I apply choreographic analysis to a diverse set of case studies. I use choreographic analysis to examine attitudes to the natural world in the long nineteenth century British Atlantic, demonstrating longstanding reactions to wildness and foreignness, potential profitability, nationality and nationhood, and human culpability in the natural world’s manipulation.
By design, the project opens with the most direct application of choreographic analysis (onto a set of bodily gestures and movements) in Chapter 1. By Chapter 4, the project uses choreographic analysis to recognize movement and ecological relations in literacy pedagogy, educational law, and the circulation of books in an emergent literary marketplace. Rather than choreographically analyze the physical movement of individual buyers and lawmakers, the final chapter of this project suggests the relevance of choreographic analysis to literary studies.
Recommended Citation
Rego, Alexandra A., "Vestigial Choreographies: Climate Consciousness in the Long Nineteenth Century" (2026). CUNY Academic Works.
https://academicworks.cuny.edu/gc_etds/6766
Included in
Dance Commons, Dramatic Literature, Criticism and Theory Commons, History of Science, Technology, and Medicine Commons, Indigenous Studies Commons, Performance Studies Commons, Queer Studies Commons, Theory and Criticism Commons
