Category Archives: Conference Call

Final Reminder CfP TaPRA Performer Training WG

Conference Call, Performance, Training

The 12th Annual TaPRA Conference will be co-hosted by University of Bristol, UK from 5th to 7th September 2016 (see:  )

The Performer Training Working Group has been meeting for eleven years and has produced several collaborative outputs, including a variety of contributions to the thrice-yearly journal, Theatre, Dance and Performance Training, dedicated to training in all its manifestations, and the associated blog.

Konstantinos, Maria, and Tom, the working group co-convenors, are delighted to issue a call for contributions for the forthcoming 2016 TaPRA conference.

We are interested in a range of presentation formats including the following:

  • formal papers (max 20 minutes)
  • provocations or position statements (max 10 minutes)
  • instances of practice as research or short workshops/demonstrations (1 hour)

 

2016 Theme: Speech and Text in Performer Training

This year’s focus acknowledges the role that text and speech play in performer training. In the context of the rich variety of training practices and research in the working group, ‘text’ is not meant to refer only to words in a printed play-text, but rather to the expansive range of sources in our work. In particular, we would like to consider the link between the different notions of text and speech in this year’s conference. What are the key interventions that are being made in these areas? How do we, from our different and overlapping disciplines, teach, train, and theoretically engage with text and speech in our work?

Within this broad area, there are particular themes which we invite contributions on:

The actor and the text

What are the current developments and new practices in actor training on text? What are the dominant trends in work on verse, and on early-modern texts? How does actortraining bridge vocal studies and textual studies, and how does ‘speech’ relate to these two areas? How have training practices evolved within professional theatre companies? What are the emerging practices for textual analysis within actor training? What have been the developments in speech training for radio drama, and voice-over? How do we train actors to work on found texts such as documentary or testimonial sources?

Dance and movement: the physical and verbal body

How do training pedagogies based on dance integrate text? How do performers/trainers work with notions of text as soundscape or score? How does the physical body relate to silence or to the verbal? How do we understand and frame speech and verbalisation as a physical act? Where are the intersections between somatic practices and speechtraining? To what extent is this distinct from physicalisation in dance? What are the current approaches to physiovocal training?

Text and Aurality

How do we train the sonic and aural aspects of speech? How do we work on text in opera and musical theatre training? How do we see speech and voice as distinct or overlapping? How do we tailor our training towards these different forms? What are the new interventions with regard to speech within vocal studies? How much of this work takes place in formalised training or rehearsal contexts, and how much in the performer’s own, private work? How does language function in relation to text and speech?

Intersections between text, speech, and technology

What are the functions of speech in our work with digital and emergent technologies? What constitutes the ‘text’ and are there additional or alternative understandings of speech and text that technology can offer within a training context? How do we understand speech and the post-human? How might we explore synthesised or mediated speech in performer training?

If you have proposals that do not fit into this list, please do contact the Performer TrainingWorking Group convenors for a conversation:

Tom Cantrell ()

Maria Kapsali ()

Konstantinos Thomaidis ()

 

Submitting a Proposal

Please send 250 word (max) proposals/abstracts with brief biography (100 words) and a list of resource needs to all of the three convenors by 18th April 2016 at the latest.  You will hear back from us within 2-3 weeks. We welcome questions and conversations prior to this date if any colleagues need advice and/or clarification on any aspect of the above.

Circulation of paper-based presentations in advance of the conference

Papers are circulated in advance of the conference, so paper contributors should be prepared to have a full paper by early/mid August.

Please note that our group also welcomes participation from colleagues who do not wish to submit papers or other presentations. However, if you do wish to participate in ourworking group, but are not delivering a paper, please email us your name and details so we can ensure you receive papers in advance.

Joint working group sessions at the TaPRA conference

Please also note that our working group is currently planning to schedule one joint session. More details will be announced on this in due course.

Theatre, Dance and Performance Training journal (TDPT)

TaPRA Papers may be considered for further development and publication in the Routledge Journal TDPT, 

Call for papers – Wright-ing the Somatic Summer Symposium at Middlesex University

Conference Call, Somatic practices

‘Wright-ing the somatic’:
Dancing & Writing Professional Practice Symposium
19th & 20th August 2016, Hendon Campus, London, UK

The call for contributions is now open for Middlesex University’s ‘Wright-ing the somatic:
Dancing & Writing Professional Practice Symposium. 19th & 20th August 2016. As scholars, artists and practitioners of dance we understand that the embodied experience underpins meaning making, but how is this somatic understanding captured and shared as knowledge with out disrupting its corporeal origins. Why is it important to share and communicate embodied knowing? How are the choreographic process and other explorations in movement a methodology for understanding? How do we articulate and give weight and importance to practice as research within the field of dance, when we are seeing funding for arts activity constantly being cut. The symposium will explore how we craft the somatic and document that inquiry from ‘in physicality’ to ‘in text’. The Symposium will bring together existing published academics, visual documentaries of movement (photography), and movers and choreographers practicing professionally in the field. Wright-ing the somatic offers an opportunity to articulate and elaborate artistic practices and contribute to the critical discourses of professional practice, refining understandings of forms, approaches and exploring terminologies.

Call for contributions:
Submissions could respond to:
–       Capturing embodied practices
–       Practice as research / Choreography as methodology
–       How text about somatic practices relates to the physicality of the practice
–       Professional Practices in Dance and their documentation
–       Initiatives or innovations communicating embodied experience within arts practices
–       Biography and Auto-biography as a mode of documentation for arts work

Session formats:
Presenters can give spoken presentations (papers) [30 minutes] and /or practical presentations (workshops) [60 minutes to allow for participants warm-up]
Review criteria:
Each proposal is subjected to peer review considering:
•       clarity of the proposal;
•       originality/innovation of the mode of presentation of the idea/approach;
•       anticipated interest

Those interested in making a contribution to the day should complete the following details and submit to by Tuesday 2nd May 2016. Successful applicants will be notified by Monday 9th May 2016. Proposals for successful applications will be put on a symposium web-page prior to the event. These will include the abstract, keywords, outline, plus any references deemed appropriate.

contact:  / 

Art as Research in Learning & Teaching International Conference 2016

Conference Call, Pedagogy

31 August–2 September

University of Wolverhampton, Telford Innovation Campus, United Kingdom

Keynote speakers include Professor Shaun McNiff (USA), Malcolm Ross (UK), Professor Carole Gray(UK) and Professor Julian Malins (UK). The conference will be led by Professor Ross Prior of the University of Wolverhampton and Principal Editor of the Journal of Applied Arts & Health.

Join us in beautiful Shropshire, for this lively three-day international conference aimed at researchers and lecturers in Higher Education and practitioner-facilitators, particularly in the Arts, Humanities and Well-being fields.

There are many ways in which we may use art as methodology and address evidence in research using the arts. Shaun McNiff (2009: 144) directs us to the potential of the artform itself in responding to issues of research:

[…] the arts and therapy communities have historically been so thoroughly tied to traditional social science methods of research and the more general notions of scientism that we have not appreciated our own unique potential to further human understanding.

 

This conference is designed to hear from leaders in the field who have challenged our thinking about using art as research within education.

 

There are also limited places to join a masterclass with the internationally renowned and inspirational Shaun McNiff.

 

Call for contributions (proposals):

The call for papers, narrative sessions, workshops and poster submissions is open (until 1 June) on the following themes:

  • Using art-based research: How are we adopting and implementing practice led principles in Arts and Humanities learning and teaching?
  • Assessment: How can we meet the assessment and feedback challenges using art-based research?
  • Involving students and others in art-based research: How can we include students in our research as co-participants?
  • Developing our practice: How do we drive our own research practice forwards; what are effective strategies for continuing professional development?
  • Technological developments: How can we use technology in our research?
  • Current issues in Learning and Teaching: How can we address current challenges in Higher Education?

Disciplines of interest: 

  • Arts
  • Art Education
  • Humanities
  • Learning and Teaching
  • Research methodology
  • Well-being
  • Art therapy
  • Applied Arts and Health

Please kindly share the conference web link with colleagues. We look forward to welcoming you to England’s West Midlands in August!

CFP: TaPRA Asian Performance and Diaspora Working Group

Conference Call, Culture and Politics
TAPRA – Asian Performance and Diaspora Group
University of Bristol, 5th – 7th September 2016

 

The aim of this working group is to research, promote and disseminate contemporary Asian performance and diaspora studies to highlight the historical and contemporary scholarship in the area. We also aim to encourage critical debates on the contemporary artistic practices of Asia and a thorough re-evaluation of the current understanding of its conceptual and practical paradigms of the Asian performance scene and its diaspora in Britain.

In short the aims of the group are:

  • To offer a dedicated platform for presenting Asian performance and diaspora research
  • To reflect, critique and debate Asian performance activities in Britain
  • To foster better dialogue between the academic work and performance practice in the field.

 

We welcome proposals from academics, practitioners, postgraduate and research students that speak to the following themes relating to Asian Performance and Diaspora such as:

 

  • The mapping of performance praxis
  • Historiography
  • Towards a contemporary Asian performance theory
  • Intra / intercultural performance
  • Adaptation
  • Gender and sexuality
  • Digital media and contemporary theatre

 

The format for your engagement could be by means of conventional paper presentation, lecture demonstration, practice as research or workshop. The convenors will particularly welcome closer interactions between practitioners and academics with a deliberate intention to foster better correspondence between the both. 

 

The deadline for submission of proposals is 18 April. Please send 150 word proposal for your paper to the convenors at: 

 

Many thanks:

Convenors: Asian performance and Diaspora Group

Arya Madhavan, , 

Dominic Hingorani, 

Sreenath Nair, 

Revised call for papers – Dance, Diaspora and the Archive

Conference Call, Culture and Politics, Dance History, Documentation

Society for Dance Research

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

Call for Papers

Dance, Diaspora and the role of the Archive

Saturday September 17, 2016

Venue: University of Bedfordshire

Deadline for receipt of proposals May 30th 2016.

As the work of the Black Dance Archives Project is revealing, an understanding and awareness of a particular dance style, artist or institution depends in part on how it is situated historically, how it is documented and remembered. As the field of dance research has expanded, the significance of archives and archival practices extend beyond concerns of recovering memory, providing avenues through which to investigate questions of authenticity, tradition and ownership, among other issues. Archives are constantly in flux, open to interpretation, and can increase the visibility of the invisible. Significantly under-represented in the past, more material records of dancers and dancing from various diasporas are currently being collected and catalogued. The concept of archive also extends beyond the official documents, to encompass the memories that reveal perspectives of performers, creators, funders, administrators and viewers, captured through interviews, personal photos, journals, rehearsal notes and correspondence.

Papers are sought that explore the concept of the dance archive with particular reference to dancers and dancing of diaspora communities. Presenters are encouraged to engage with the Black Dance Archives Project, but papers that explore wider issues around archives are also welcome. Themes may thus include:

  • The significance of particular archive materials relating to one artist/company
  • The work of a particular artist/company whose work is documented  as part of the Black Dance Archives collections or other diasporic dance archives
  • Issues revealed by archive materials relevant to the career trajectories and management of emergent Black British or other diasporic artists
  • The relationship between memory and the archive
  • Archival issues and complexities that are specifically relevant to dance and /or diaspora.
  • The influence of the work of dance artists from the diaspora on current choreographic and performance practices

Abstracts/Proposals of no more than 300 words with an indicative bibliography and any technical requirementsshould be sent to . Any enquiries may be directed to  or.

Abstracts/proposals will be blind reviewed by a panel. Individual papers should be 20 minutes in length but we also encourage submissions of roundtable discussions, lecture-demonstrations, movement workshops, performative engagements and collaborative presentations, or posters.

Deadline: 30th May 2016 

Information about State of Trust Black Dance Archives Project

With funding from the Heritage Lottery Fund, State of Trust* is working with partners across the UK to collate, preserve, document and make accessible 25 collections from eminent individuals and organisations from the British Black dance sector who have made a significant impact on dance in Britain. The initial stage of the project has collected materials from the following companies and individuals: ACE Dance & Music, Avant Garde, Boy Blue, Breakin’ Convention, Bullies Ballerinas, Jeannette Brooks, Carl Campbell, Shaun Cope, Jonzi D, June Gamble, Robert Hylton, , Kompany Malakhi, Greta Mendez (inc Maas Movers), Nubian Steps, Henri Oguike, Phoenix Dance Company, RJC Dance Company, State of Emergency, Step Afrika!, Norman ‘Rubba’ Stephenson, Tavaziva Dance, Sheron Wray, and Union Dance.

To prepare abstracts researchers are invited to contact and visit the archives:

Birmingham Museums and Libraries: 

Materials regarding ACE Music and Dance and Shaun Cope

Black Cultural Archives, Brixton, London: 

Email 

 

Materials regarding June Gamble, Robert Hylton, Kompany Malakhi, Nubian Steps, State of Emergency, Norman ‘Rubba’ Stephenson (oral history), Tavaziva Dance.

Plus materials from the following are being processed. Please ask if they are of specific interest: Avant Garde, Boy Blue Entertainment, Carl Campbell Dance Company 7, Step Afrika!

NRCD Guildford Surrey: 

Email: 

Materials regarding Bullies Ballerinas, Greta Mendez (inc. Maas Movers), Sheron Wray, Union Dance  – these are still being processed so only some may be accessible.  Please note that NRCD also have core collection materials related to many artists, companies and developments including Adzido and Black Dance Development Trust plus other special collections relevant to the area such as Angika Dance Company, Kokuma Dance Theatre and Shobana Jeyasingh Dance Company.

University of Leeds Library: 

Materials regarding Phoenix and RJC Dance Companies

* State of Trust is the registered charity sister company of State of Emergency Productions

Call for Proposals: Thinking Touch in Partnering and Contact Improvisation conference at University of Malta

Conference Call, Conferences, Improvisation

The Department of Dance Studies, School of Performing Arts, University of Malta, in collaboration with Contact Festival Dartington in Malta, invites contributions for its upcoming conference:

Thinking Touch in Partnering and Contact Improvisation

Artistic, Philosophical and Scientific Approaches

 

Thursday 30 June 2016

Dance Studies Studios, San Gwann,

School of Performing Arts, University of Malta 

 

Proposals deadline 4 May 2016.

Acceptance will be communicated by 6 May 2016.

 

The Dance Studies Department of the School of Performing Arts, University of Malta is pleased to host a one-day conference focusing on artistic, philosophical, and scientific approaches to touch, contact improvisation and partnering work. The conference is linked with Contact Festival Dartington in Malta 2016, an 8-day event offering a platform for sharing contemporary practices of contact improvisation through workshops, performance, jamming, and open space labs: 

 

For this first Dance Studies conference in Malta, we focus on the thought processes and knowledges of touch as enacted in partnering practices within martial arts, bodywork, therapies, medicine, and dancing.  Partnering, in its many forms, comprises a wealth of knowledges in social, physical and artistic practices. While the performing arts often tap into these forms as compositional resources, touch-based creative play within the areas of social dance, community work and contact improvisation are relatively under-explored areas for study. Organisers welcome contributions which speak to this gap and address the cognitive, philosophical, somatic, compositional and pedagogical processes which inform thinking/ knowing touch in partnering.

 

 

Conference keynotes are:

 

Dr Corinne Jola, cognitive scientist and choreographer, Abertay, Scotland

 

Ms Lucia Walker, Alexander Technique teacher, Oxford, UK and Durban, SA

 

 

The organisers welcome reflective and critical presentations, papers, performances framing practice-as-research, lecture demonstrations and posters addressing the following themes:

 

  • What thought processes and knowledges are particular to partnering practices, and how might these be understood in relation to performance philosophy?

 

  • What is embodied knowledge of anatomy, of physicality, and of working with the body in partnering work? How is this quantified and articulated in 21stCentury practices?

 

  • How are understandings of touch as developed in martial arts applied to partnering and contact improvisation, and vice versa?

 

  • How are emerging medical understandings of the body (such as mirror neurons and hormones) informing practices of touch in dance, and how might these partnering practices inform medical studies?

 

  • How can touch offer non-logocentric modes for critical engagement with artistic and philosophical work?

 

  • What qualities are particular to partnering and contact improvisation practices in the 21stCentury and how do they lend themselves toward research in cognitive studies? What are key methods of cognitive studies in the 21st Century and how do they lend themselves toward research in dance practices?

 

  • What are possible futures of dance partnering and contact improvisation for the 21stCentury? How might digital interfaces offer new directions for partnering?

 

  • How can partnering and touch-based partnering practices be recorded, documented and archived, and what are the implications for this within different fields of research?

 

  • What can students and researchers of medicine, architecture, engineering or psychology learn from partnering and contact improvisation? What are the applications to cross-disciplinary enquiry?

 

  • How can partnering dance forms impact participants’ health and well-being?

 

  • What kinds of scores for practical engagement elicit different responses in practitioners and audiences?

 

  • How do pedagogies of touch-based bodywork, contact improvisation and partnering dance challenge or affirm diverse theories of learning?

 

  • How do new technologies convey touch across digital media? How might posthumanist discourses inform how we are now feeling and being felt differently?

Please submit your proposal in the form of a 250-word abstract and 100-word biography to  by 4 May 2016. Please include any technical requirements in your proposal, noting that remote presentations can also be considered. Selections will be made and speakers confirmed by 6 May 2016. The organising committee aims to coordinate publication of conference proceedings into an online open-source format.

Conference co-organisers are Dr Malaika Sarco-Thomas and Dr Brandon Shaw, of the Dance Studies Department at University of Malta. Questions can be directed to Malaika at the above address, and to 

CfP Well-Being 2016 conference

Conference Call, Conferences, Dance and Wellbeing

Call for Papers NOW OPEN – Deadline Sunday 10th April 2016

WELL-BEING 2016: Co-Creating Pathways to Well-Being, The Third International
Conference Exploring the Multi-Dimensions of Well-Being

Hosted by Birmingham City University, Monday 5th September – Tuesday 6th
September, 2016

This year Well-Being 2016 explores the multi-dimensions of well-being focusing on the
achievements of well-being through collaboration – ‘to co-create experiences which are
positive and meaningful to the individual’.

We aim to provide a platform for dialogue between academics and practitioners,
knowledge exchange and methodological exploration through a combination of keynote
speakers, breakout sessions and workshops.

*Key Themes*
•       Children’s well-being
•       Nature based solutions towards well-being
•       The context of the medical humanities
•       Recording, representing and evaluating the positive experience
•       Mentoring for well-being
•       Visioning and future thinking of well-being scenarios

*Abstracts invited for*
•       Posters
•       Papers (between 1500 and 3000 words)
•       Interactive Workshops (45 – 60 mins)

Abstracts for all presentation types may be exploratory in nature or consider the findings
of existing studies drawn from academia or practice. They need to address issues
relating to well-being, where we are particularly interested to consider new and
innovative work, and presented in relation to the type of presentation, the results and
their significance.

Authors should provide a clear and brief outline of the paper, including identifying
Objectives, Methodology, Results, and Conclusion. For interactive workshops, authors
should also explain the activity and the necessary logistics and resources to do so.

*Abstracts submission*
Abstracts for all presentation types (250 words) should be submitted through

Abstracts and papers will be blind peer reviewed. All papers, posters and workshops will
be included in the conference proceedings with an assigned ISBN.

*Conference highlights*
•       Keynote speakers
•       Papers (for electronic publishing as proceedings)
•       Conference presentations
•       Posters
•       Interactive workshops
•       Delegate pack
•       Lunch
•       Delegate dinner
•       Opportunities for networking
•       Pre-conference tours

For more information visit:

For all queries contact: 

CfP – DRHA Conference 2016 Place, Ecology and the Digital

Conference Call, Dance and Technology

Call for Submissions for the Forthcoming
Digital Research in the Humanities and Arts
Conference
University of Brighton, September 4th – 7th 2016.

Website: 

DRHA 2016 will take place in Brighton for the 20th anniversary of the network and conference. The annual conference has become one of the foremost in the world in facilitating dialogue between academics and practitioners from:

•       Digital Arts and Humanities,
•       Creative Industries,
•       Digital Libraries and Archives

Submission system opens:  1st April 2016
Deadline for submissions:  15th May 2016. Abstracts should be between 600-1000 words.
Notification of accepted papers:  30th June 2016.
Conference Dates: 4th–7th September 2016

CENTRAL THEME

Place, Ecology and the Digital

The ‘digital’ can imply a sense of everywhere and at the same time nowhere in particular. The combination with place and ecology invites reflection on what it is to be: situated; embedded in complex nested systems; to be in relationship to place and, further, how the digital may challenge or facilitate this. Place could refer to ideas of localism; to community and to geographical base, or equally it may refer to more abstract, distributed or virtual realms or networks.

DRHA 2016 continues where the conference in 2015 (Dublin) left off in asking how we can engage with some of the ‘wicked problems’ and grand challenges of our time. The conference will offer a platform to ‘labs’ that offer insights into approaches and methods for facilitating interdisciplinarity.
Complex contemporary issues resist single-disciplinary enquiry and require hybrid or emergent methods. The conference will also bring together lab curators and facilitators so that the network can collaboratively reflect upon, evaluate and refine methods for resolving grand challenges. You are invited to submit a proposal – as a paper, workshop, roundtable or panel – that showcases work that offers insights into pedagogical and methodological approaches to facilitating interdisciplinary labs, or the resulting research outputs and case studies

The University of Brighton is proud to be hosting the conference and invites new and challenging papers, panels, installations, performances, workshop sessions and other events from the arts and humanities. We are particularly interested in research that crosses, or works between disciplines, and in work that specifically responds to the conference theme.

The conference and wider programme is likely to be of particular interest to those involved with:

•       Big data
•       Interdisciplinary labs
•       The Digital economy
•       Open access and open source
•       Playable cities
•       Climate change mitigation
•       Smart cities
•       Digital museums, archives and engagement programmes
•       Community-led planning processes
•       Social media and active citizenship
•       Sustainable cities, communities and urban agriculture
•       Placemaking
•       Performance and embodied experience of place
•       Rapid urbanisation and mass migration
•       Conflict and climate change
•       Leadership in the arts and cultural sector
•       The intersection between the arts, business and the digital economy

Keynote speakers will include:
– Roger Malina: Physicist, Astronomer, Executive Editor of Leonardo Publications at M.I.T Press and Distinguished Professor of Arts and Technology, and Professor of Physics at the University of Texas at Dallas. He is also a Directeur de Recherche of the C.N.R.S. at the Laboratoire d’Astrophysique de Marseille. His current work focusses on connections between science and art.
– Gillian Youngs: Professor of Digital Economy at the University of Westminster. She is an applied theorist, actively engaged in knowledge exchange, business and policy-related processes, and adopts an interdisciplinary approach to digital economy.

COMMISSIONS and CURATED PROGRAMME
DRHA comprises an academic conference and a curated programme. Along with the call for papers proposals for creative work that responds to the theme are particularly welcomed and may also be eligible for inclusion in the co-curated Brighton Digital Festival that will take place at the same time as DRHA2016. The curatorial panel will be comprised of representatives of DRHA and cultural partners in the city of Brighton. There will be opportunities to create/install work thought the city in partnership with Brighton Digital Festival, Fabrica Gallery, ONCA Gallery and the University of Brighton Gallery.

CONFERENCE PUBLICATIONS
There will be opportunities to have work published in conference proceedings.

CONTACT
Any queries about the conference should be directed to: 
For regular updates follow us on Twitter: @DRHA2016

CONFERENCE PARTNERS
DRHA2016 has established partnerships with:
•       Brighton Digital Festival (BDF)
•       Fabrica Gallery
•       ONCA Gallery
•       Brighton Photo Biennial
•       Leonardo Education and Art Forum (LEAF)

Call for papers: Re:generations 4 ­ Diasporic dance: Legacies of Imagination

Conference Call, Conferences, Culture and Politics, Dance History
3-5 November 2016

MAC, Cannon Hill Park, Birmingham B12 9QH.

Following the highly successful 2014 conference Re:generations – Rethinking the past to reimagine the future, the steering group is pleased to announce Re:generations 4 – Diasporic dance: Legacies of Imagination.

Re:generations 4 builds on the success of the last three conferences in 2010, 2012 and 2014 which have established a distinctive combination of keynote addresses, panel discussions, papers, performances, and workshops focusing on dance and the African diaspora. The central theme of the fourth conference is Diasporic dance: Legacies of Imagination. Legacy here is understood as the impact that the Association of Dance of the African Diaspora created and is now passing on as it merges with other national dance associations to form the new organisation One Dance UK. Beyond that there is also the rich cultural heritage from the Diaspora, as well as heritages and legacies passing between countries – in Africa, the Caribbean, North America, and the UK – as well as between different generations or between practitioners who pass on the potential of different art forms as these develop. Artists continually investigate new aesthetic territories, when fusions emerge, or when they explore their roots. What legacies are we inheriting and how can we make the most of these? What are the different ways in which people from different generations make connections with cultural heritage? The 2016 conference will facilitate discussion and debate about these questions in order to build a positive future for the development of new dance talent in the UK.

Hosted in Birmingham at the MAC (Midlands Art Centre), this conference will be delivered by One Dance UK, IRIE! dance theatre, ACE dance and music, dance Immersion and De Montfort University.One of the conference keynote addresses will be delivered by Hilary Carty, who works internationally as a consultant (NTL UK), facilitator, coach (CIPD), Visiting Professor (Kufstein University of Applied Sciences) and speaker, embracing significant experience in leadership, strategic management and organisational development. There will be high level delegations from the US-based International Association of Blacks in Dance (IABD) and from Canada, Dance Immersion, who will be able to share diverse, international perspectives on the conference’s key concerns.

The conference partners invite proposals for papers, lecture demonstrations and workshops that address the theme of Diasporic dance: legacies of imagination. By offering opportunities to reflect on the heritage, legacies, histories, geographies, places and spaces of dance of the African Diaspora, the conference aims both to celebrate the achievements of elders and foster the talent of a new generation of dance practitioners and of new dance scholars.

We welcome proposals on the following subthemes:

  •   1. Youth dance work, training, and intergenerational dialogues.
  •   2. Heritage and Digital Arts
  •   3. Women and the dance profession, i.e. diasporic or street dance forms
  •   4: Health and Wellbeing.
  •   5. New approaches to creating histories of Breaking, street, old school and other popular and social forms, the development of African Peoples Dance, histories of interactions between African, Caribbean, and Western contemporary dance.
  •   6. International dialogues – with the African Continent, with the Caribbean, with other European countries, with USA and Canada.

We invite submissions of abstracts of no more than 500 words for proposals which address any of the above themes as well as other topics related to its central focus on Diasporic dance: Legacies of Imagination. The programme will include 20 minute papers, panel discussions, lecture demonstrations, performances, films, workshops, or other modes of presentation. Lecture demonstrations and workshops should be 25 and 45 minutes long including time for brief Q&A. As in previous years there will also be opportunities for MA students and PhD students at the start of their research to give five minute presentations about their research topics. Please clearly indicate the nature and length of your presentation together with any technical requirements.

The deadline for submissions is Friday 1st of July 2016. Submissions will be accepted by email only. Please direct emails to , including ‘Re:generations 4’ in the subject line.

About the Re:generations partners

One Dance UK

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On 1st April 2016, The Association of Dance of the African Diaspora (ADAD), Dance UK, National Dance Teachers Association and Youth Dance England merged to form a new unified national ‘go-to’ industry body for dance in the UK called One Dance UK. The new organisation represents dancers at all levels of the dance industry, and champions excellence in education and research, youth dance, dance of the African diaspora, performance and art form development, health and well-being, management, leadership and career development. One Dance UK aims to build on past achievements of the four merged organisations and enhance current programmes.

For dance of the African Diaspora (DAD), the programmes include;

The annual Trailblazers Fellowships for professional development and profile raising which has two strands to supports emerging and mid-career artists through a tailored mentorship programme, a bursary and a public showcase. The 36 trailblazers supported to date have had an exponential impact on the development of Dance of the African Diaspora in the UK,demonstrating leadership, creating new initiatives in performance, education, research and professional development.

The Heritage project, ‘Moments’ which was created with the support of the Heritage Lottery Fund has made a distinctive contribution to collecting, conserving, interpreting and narrating the history and heritage from 1930s – 1990s that informs the work of Black dancers in contemporary Britain. Launched in October 2006, the exhibition which is currently a photographic exhibition with a complimentary reader Voicing Black Dance, has toured to London, Leicester, Birmingham, Bristol, Leeds and Manchester and continues to tour nationally and internationally. One Dance UK aims to digitise ‘Moments’ and incorporate it in a new sector wide initiative to reflect the contribution of dance across the sectors in the UK and beyond.

The biennial Bloom National Festival will continue to enhance the regional reach for Dance of the African Diaspora alongside a concentrated programme of work across the UK, celebrating and showcasing local artists working with the dance styles rooted in the African Diaspora.

The international conference Re:generations, an academic and artistic event is delivered with national and international partners biennially, to make a significant contribution to the discourse, development and perspectives for dance.

IRIE! dance theatre

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Established in 1985, IRIE! dance theatre is Britain’s leading dance company working in the field of African and Caribbean dance fusion and education. The company delivers and sustains a range of creative, educational and artistic activities, based on the stimuli derived from Africa and the Caribbean. Located in the heart of South East London IRIE! occupies the Moonshot Centre, which houses dance studios, teaching rooms & archive and library facilities; where it continues to run and develop accredited qualifications, research programmes, community engagement and professional development for the dance sector.

The company provides employment, training, support and mentoring for a significant number of young people and professionals working in dance as well as related cultural industries. IRIE!’s collaborations have spanned across the UK and internationally. Established in 2009, IRIE!’s partnership with City & Islington College (Further Education) and London Metropolitan University (Higher Education) continue to deliver a Foundation Degree in Dance, where African, Caribbean and Street dance practice and theory are taught equally alongside contemporary dance.

De Montfort University

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De Montfort University has an international reputation for the quality of its research in dance history and theory, pedagogy, and performance-based research. It is has been offering degrees in dance since the late 1970s when it was Leicester Polytechnic. During the 1980s, the Black Dance Development Trust held its first Black Dance Summer School at Leicester Polytechnic. In 2007, it held the Black Britons and Dance conference with Professor Brenda Dixon Gottschild as keynote speaker on her first visit to a British university. From 2012 and 2014 the AHRC-funded research project British Dance and the African Diaspora run by Christy Adair and Ramsay Burt was based at De Montfort with ADAD as a project partner. Highlights of this project include the exhibition British dance: Black routescurated at the International Slavery Museum in Liverpool as well as public events in Birmingham, Leeds, Liverpool and the Royal Festival Hall in London. An edited collection of essays that have come out of this project, titled British dance: Black routes, is being published by Routledge in Autumn 2016.

ACE dance and music

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ACE dance and music winner of the ‘Diverse Company of The Year’ in the BEXLIVE 2015 Enterprise Awards, is a national touring dance company founded in 1996 and based in Birmingham UK. We are an internationally recognised leader in the field of Contemporary African and Caribbean Dance. Our signature style is Afro-fusion – dance which is rooted in traditional forms yet expressed through a purely contemporary lens. By combining African & Caribbean movement aesthetics with contemporary techniques we create high quality innovative performance – always combining dance with original music and often using new digital media and techniques from other disciplines including theatre. The company’s reputation has developed through 9 biennial productions touring to small and mid-scale theatres and festivals both across the UK and internationally. Led by Artistic Directors Gail and Ian Parmel, the company works regularly in collaboration with a family of international Artistic Associates. We offer a full range of bespoke education and outreach programmes, deliver in- house studio based dance classes, and play host to ACE Youth – our youth dance company, with its own independent reputation for excellence.

dance Immersion

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dance Immersion is a not-for-profit organization that produces, promotes and supports dancers and dances of the African Diaspora. The organization was founded in 1994 by Vivine Scarlett and was established to address the need for additional presentation, skill development, and networking opportunities for dance artists of African descent. During its 22 year history, dance Immersion has experienced considerable success in connecting with dance artists of African Decent throughout Canada and around the world with the services we provide. Our programs offer audiences and participants a variety of activities that evoke diverse artistic expressions.

The Conference Steering Group consists of the Partners together with Judith Palmer, ADAD Chair and Christy Adair, Professor Emerita York St Johns University.

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CfP: Asian Performance Conference UK, University of Lincoln

Conference Call, Conferences, Culture and Politics

Embodied Knowledge:
Training & Performance Practice
10, 11 June 2016
Lincoln School of Fine and Performing Arts

Keynote
Prof Erika Fischer-Lichte, Free University of Berlin, Germany
Topic: The Body as Site of Interweaving Performance Cultures: Between Being a Body and Having a Body

Call for Papers:
The aim of the conference is to explore the terrain of embodied knowledge of Asian performance, specifically the ways in which distinctively different concepts and methods of practice inform and shape the idea of ‘performance’ as a critical paradigm. It is also the focus of the conference to reexamine and reevaluate the ways in which the embodied knowledge of Asian performance informs the development of intercultural theory, training methods and production practices for the last many decades.

Asian performance offers a rich vocabulary of concepts and methodologies of practices enabling a complex and multilayered psychophysical ‘process’ in which the ‘technique’ becomes the ‘knowledge’ of the body. ‘Technique’ gains the status of ‘knowledge’ in Asian performance. The body becomes an instrument in the hand of its user and the performance knowledge is transmitted through the practical mastery of the practice of the body. The technique shapes and defines the form of practice and this practice, in turn, is embedded in the techniques of the body. The knowledge of the body is evoked and delivered in performance through a series of gestures, movements, utterances, physical modulations and voice. The performer uses a series of motion trajectories and mental manoeuvres in this process. What is this ‘process’ of technique becoming the knowledge of the flesh and what are the psychophysical dynamics involved in this ‘process’? What do we learn from Asian performance about this embodied knowledge in performance practice and how do we understand and theorise this ‘process’ of the sensuous scholarship of the body across different spatialities and temporalities? Training methods in Asian theatre insist upon relentless repetitions to stabilise the learning of specific bodily techniques. The body remembers and repeats all the limb movements and their numbers mechanically while taking the body out of its restrictive principles of practice. Similarly, Asian performance traditions offer a dynamic body relationship and alternative performance modes that are syncretic and multi-generic, integrating dance, music, text, decorative and symbolic colour coding and much more. This is the wider context in which the convenors of this conference invite proposals for papers, workshops, lecture demonstrations or poster presentations on the topics including, but not limited to, these:
•       Choreography and movement;
•       Training: Concepts, methods, pedagogy and artistic practices;
•       Psychophysical processes: technique, repetition and physical transformation;
•       Eclecticism, fusion and the problems of Intercultural paradigm;
•       The future of intercultural exchange in the contemporary Asian/Western/ cyber cultural settings;
•       Politics of colour, race and ethnicity;
•       Knowing through the body/thinking through the body;
•       Women in Asian theatre: Gender, sexual and trance-gender identities;
•       The body: techniques, terminologies and practices;
•       Ritual and play.
Please submit an abstract proposal (not more than 350 words) and a 200 word biographical note to the co-directors of the conference: Dr Sreenath Nair: [email protected] and Dr Arya Madhavan: [email protected]
Selected papers will be published in a special edited volume. Details to be announced soon.

DEADLINE FOR PROPOSALS: 15 March 2016
CONFIRMATIONS: 1 April 2016