Dance and Academia: Moving the Boundaries

– Dancin’ Oxford 2011 Programme –

CALL FOR PAPERS

The Dancin’ Oxford Festival 2011 will run from 19th February to 19th March, including a variety of events in its programme, ranging from performances by national and international dance companies and local professional artists, to participatory activities such as the Dance-a-Thon taster sessions.

Dance and Academia: Moving the Boundaries will be hosting a programme of events across the whole of the festival period. As with all Moving the Boundaries programmes, the events will be open to anyone, particularly academics and students from Oxford’s universities or beyond, and professional artists based in Oxford and beyond. The Moving the Boundaries project aims to facilitate dialogue between practitioners and academics in any field who have an interest in any aspect of dance or movement. Oxford is a city with a rich academic heritage and is also host to a strong community of professional dance practitioners. Moving the Boundaries aims to be a genuinely interdisciplinary platform where intersections between research and practice in dance can be explored.

This year’s Dancin’ Oxford programme is entitled ‘Dance in Body, Dance in Mind’. There will be three evening seminars leading up to a half-day plenary event. Each of these will stand alone or work as part of a series. As in the past, each seminar will have two talks on a related theme, one from an academic, the other from a practitioner’s perspective. Presentations can be given in any format; inclusion of practical elements, or an exploration of the intersection between practice and research, is particularly welcome. The events will take place in a range of venues in Oxford city centre, both University and non-University spaces, to reflect the interdisciplinary ethos.

This is a call for contributions to either the seminar series or the plenary event. Papers/talks/presentations/lecture-demonstrations/workshops are invited that explore any aspect of the theme ‘Dance in Body, Dance in Mind’, and might address any of the following areas:

Relationships: between mind and body, movement and thought, language and choreography, etc

Emotion/Empathy/Emotiveness

Health/Wellbeing/Psychology/ Dance and Movement Therapy

Integrated dance/Ability and Disability

Neuroscience/Sports and Dance Science

Ageing / the Older Body

Spatial awareness/Embodiment

Interpretation/Appreciation/Representation

Learning/Education

Philosophy/Aesthetics/Critical thought and theory

Gender/Sexuality

Politics/Culture/Dance History

Digital Media/Film/Music/Visual Arts

…

Proposals from any academic field and any practice of dance/movement arts are welcome.

Presentations (of whatever form) should be 20-30 minutes long. An important feature of the programme is to make ample space for in-depth discussion. Presentations that include participatory workshop elements are welcome, although please bear in mind that there will be participants with a diverse range of backgrounds and experience.

Please submit a provisional title together with a brief description of initial ideas (around 100 words), or a full abstract (up to 500 words) if the idea is more developed, to Miranda Laurence, curator of Moving the Boundaries, by 30th November 2010

If you would like to see an issue or question raised but would rather not give a full presentation, please also respond as there may be room to bring more general questions for open discussion at the final plenary event.

DATES

Seminars will take place on Monday evenings: 21st and 28th February, and 7th March 2011, with a culminating conference-workshop on Saturday 19th March during the afternoon and early evening. Please specify which dates you can make along with your submission.

Please do not hesitate to contact Miranda for any further information or to discuss any initial ideas, or indeed to provide comments or suggestions about the programme.

Project History:

Dance and Academia: Moving the Boundaries is an Oxford-based project set up and run by Miranda Laurence.  The project aims to facilitate dialogue between practitioners and academics in any field who have an interest in any aspect of dance or movement. Oxford is a city with a rich academic heritage and is also host to a strong community of professional dance practitioners. Moving the Boundaries aims to be a genuinely interdisciplinary platform where intersections between research and practice in dance can be explored.

Moving the Boundaries has hosted a day-long conference and a seminar series as part of Dancin’ Oxford festivals 2008 and 2009 and individual seminars in Oxford in 2010.  Academics and practitioners taking part have come from a wide variety of fields and artistic influences. Most are based in or near Oxford, and have represented institutions in Oxford and also further afield. Speakers have come from a variety of academic backgrounds including anthropology, literature, classics and music, and with influences from practices including physical theatre, intergenerational practice, ballet, and the visual arts.