Thesis Published!

Arianne MacBean published her graduate thesis entitled, “Ariadne’s Thread: a depth psychology exploration of liminal immanence in dance/movement.” Available at ProQuest.

This thesis shows how applying a depth psychology perspective to the analysis of dance and movement can offer understanding of liminal immanence. The hermeneutic approach is used to interpret and compare Martha Graham’s 1947 dance, Errand Into the Maze, Jeanine Durning’s 2015 dance, inging, and the author’s 2022 dance-theater work, She/Her: Memory Trace. A heuristic approach links these findings to the ancient Greek myth of Ariadne, a thematic thread in all three dances, and to the author’s personal history. An alchemical hermeneutic approach engages the unconscious influences of the thesis itself. Depth psychology concepts such individuation, anima/animus, complex, and active imagination anchor the research in C. G. Jung’s analytical psychology. The Minotaur as representation of embodied androgyny and the labyrinth as dancing place are symbols from the myth of Ariadne given new interpretation. The use of movement/dance within the therapeutic process to engage liminal immanence is offered for clinical application