Author: admin

A message to our members – we will be holding elections for the Society for Dance Research Executive Committee this autumn. There are four vacancies for general membership of the Executive Committee, with an additional three vacancies for the offices of Treasurer, Membership Secretary, and Newsletter Editor. An email and nomination form will be sent to your inbox on 1 September, or by post if you have not subscribed by email. The deadline for nominations is 21 September 2017. If you have any questions or have not received a nomination form, please contact us at webmaster@sdr-uk.org.

Call for Conference Contributions:
Dance in the Age of Forgetfulness
18-20 April 2018
Royal Holloway, University of London

Please note: deadline now extended to Friday 15th September

What does dance bring to the current historical moment, rife with all its crises? Current political crises are characterised by a move to the right and include the resurgence of nationalism and fascism. War and conflict are causing humanitarian crises, including the mass displacement of people, which is met with a degree of indifference and inadequate response in the West. Crises also continue to exist on an environmental and economic level, with the two seemingly at odds with one another.

How does or might dance dismantle the notions underpinning these crises by engaging with memory, history and community in an embodied way?

Why might dance be one of the best ways to visualise the importance of history?

What do dancing bodies bring to the re-mapping of history?

What is the relationship between dance and the notion of the historical present, which necessitates movements backwards and forwards as a kind of vibration?

How does dance intersect with the opportunities and potential of the current historical moment (e.g. the digital revolution and semiotic democracy; alternative, autonomous communities; decoloniality and the refashioning of hybrid identities; postmodern transculturalism; queer futures; a plurality of artistic forms and aesthetics, fuelled by interdisciplinarity, etc.)?

Dance in the Age of Forgetfulness aims to explore the following topics:
• History / Historiography: How do we continue to practice dance history in an ahistorical moment? What might the strategies be to make history present and palpable in a time when the dance economy seems intent on innovation and spectacle at the expense of historical understanding?
• Arts Pedagogy: How do educators enable students to navigate the vast digital archive of knowledge and images? How do educators negotiate the need to learn the canon? How can dance help to question canon building? How can arts educators engender arts advocacy, civic engagement and political activism in students?
• Practice / Choreography: In a time when much conceptual dance disavows tradition and aesthetic histories of dance, what can temporality and engagement with history offer?
• Cultural memory: How might the notions of forgetting and amnesia influence conceptions of cultural memory? What is the importance of remembering and forgetting through dance and other physical acts and rituals in dealing with collective trauma?
• Digital context: How does dance provide ways in which to navigate the ever-present now, which is always there but at the same time inaccessible?
• Globality / Communities: How do dance and the wider arts address globality, the movement of bodies and the shifting of histories as a way to build and shape communities? How does dance help to mobilise the potential of collective agency? What role do corporeality and performance play in the gathering of people in protests?
We envisage these discussions and contributions to be embedded in scholarly and artistic frameworks concerning power, politics and economies.

We welcome proposals for papers, panels, roundtables and non-conventional forms of presentation (including performative papers, performances and workshops), related to the conference theme.

Deadline: Please send your proposal of 250-300 words to Iris Chan via webmaster@sdr-uk.org by 15 September 2017. Successful applicants will be notified by 1 November 2017.

Conference committee: Melissa Blanco Borelli (Royal Holloway, University of London) and Lise Uytterhoeven (London Studio Centre)

Publication: Contributions to the Dance in the Age of Forgetfulness conference will be considered for subsequent publication in a dedicated edited collection. More details will be announced in due course, but if you are interested, please consider how you might develop your conference contribution into a book chapter.

The Society for Dance Research will be present at Dance Fields 2017, from Thursday 20th – Saturday 22nd April. We will present a panel on Friday 21st to launch the Legacy 35 project in celebration of the society’s 35th anniversary this year, while a panel discussion on the resonance of Dance Research in the field of Dance Studies will take place on Thursday 20th. We will be actively collecting stories and memories about the society throughout the conference so please come and contribute or share your thoughts with us at our table!
Dance Fields is a conference convened by Centre for Dance Research (C-DaRE), Coventry University; Centre for Interdisciplinary Research in Dance (CIRID), De Montfort University and Centre for Dance Research (CDR), University of Roehampton. Full schedule available here.

A message to all SDR members:
We are now holding elections to the Executive Committee, with four vacancies for general membership of the Committee, and an additional two vacancies for the offices of Secretary and Treasurer. You should receive a nomination form from us by email or post, and the deadline for receipt of the nominations has been extended to Saturday 27 August. Please let us know if you haven’t received a nomination form so we can resend one to you. Thank you!

Tickets are now on sale for Dance, Diaspora and the role of the Archive on Eventbrite.

Saturday 17 September 2016, 10:00-17:30
University of Bedfordshire: Bedford Campus, Polhill Avenue Bedford MK41 9EA

in association with State of Trust and Rimap (University of Bedfordshire)

Visit the event page here for full details.