The awakening of critical thinking in the audience : Brecht’s concept of alienation in contemporary dance choreography / Hao Guo (2024)

This research explores the application of Bertolt Brecht’s concept of alienation within contemporary dance. Central to Brecht’s theatre, alienation aims to disrupt audience empathy, encouraging critical reflection on political and social issues. Thisresearch seeks to examine how the principles of alienation can be translated intothemedium of contemporary dance, with a focus on stimulating critical thinking in theaudience. Employing a practice-based research methodology, the study investigatesthe feasibility of incorporating alienation techniques into choreography. The researchis contextualized within the creative process of developing the my graduation piece, The Tension, which serves as a practical case study for testing and realizing theseideas in contemporary dance practice.