Oxford Dance Writers

Call for Papers: deadline Friday 11th September 2015

The surge of interest in the musical in the landscape of British higher education has highlighted the significant gap in research in this area. To explore new avenues of understanding, the Society for Dance Research (SDR), in conjunction with Dance Scholarship Oxford (DANSOX), is holding a one day event on Saturday 28^th November 2015 at the Jacqueline du Pré Music Building, St Hilda’s College, Oxford. The Role of the Choreographer in the Stage and Screen Musical will bring both academics and practitioners together to consider how the choreographer has played a vital role in the development of this form of creative performance. Contributions to the day should focus on exploring the genre of the musical specifically but we welcome and encourage papers that explore wider facets of choreography and dancing therein. (more…)

4×4 starts on a bare and darkened stage; no backdrop, green Exit lights visible upstage left and right. Then a slow suffusion of light reveals eight performers silhouetted against an illuminated triangle that seems filled with clouds of billowing smoke. One by one the jugglers begin to throw and catch. A dancer matches the rhythmic rise and fall of the balls with pulsing ports de bras as she circles her arms up above her head and round, rhythmically slapping her thigh each time her hand passes her leg. (more…)