Julia Burch

Date of Defense


Date of Graduation




First Advisor

Whitney Moncrief

Second Advisor

Monique Haley


This thesis explores how to integrate Laban Movement Analysis (LMA) into a beginning pre-professional college jazz dance course. It is written for those that have a background in dance but may not be familiar with LMA. The basic elements of Laban Movement Analysis and Bartenieff Fundamentals are explained at the beginning to provide a base level of understanding for the readers. A video analysis of three different types of jazz dance- commercial, Broadway, and concert- serves as a research tool to understand how LMA principles function within different subsets of jazz. The analysis shows that there is a broad range of LMA elements between the three sources. Although each dance tends to adhere to certain qualities, they do not speak for the genres in their entireties. But, these findings help guide lesson plans that are rooted in LMA and Bartenieff Fundamentals exercises. A syllabus outlines the lesson plans, and those are the final product of this project. The syllabus states that Jazz I, Bartenieff Fundamentals, and an introductory course in LMA are prerequisites so that students can spend more time repatterning and clarifying their jazz technique rather than learning the principles for the first time. By the time students complete the course, they will be able to integrate the principles of body, effort, shape, and space into their jazz dancing and implement it into other classes.

Access Setting

Honors Thesis-Restricted