Dance theme for a thesis

AUT health science student Jennifer de Leon is the first student in New Zealand to have a dance performance accepted as part of a thesis for a masters degree.

Jennifer's field is psychotherapy, and for her Master of Health Science, the research component comprises a 45,000-word exegesis and a choreographed dance.

"The words and the dance together speak the theme of the thesis,'' says Jennifer. "The dance amplifies, embodies and reveals the words, and vice versa.''

Her thesis began with the question: "In a world going (gone)? mad, how do we find that place, that moment, of stillness, the stillness that keeps us sane and keeps us whole?''

Using dance and the written word, Jennifer wanted the choreography to express and epitomise the essence of her research question.

Three examiners will evaluate the project in four specific areas: academic, artistic, psychotherapeutic and spiritual.

Jennifer says experts in these four dimensions were not easy to find, but AUT eventually chose one overseas examiner, one from Wellington and the third from Auckland.