DANSOX presents Indian classical dance: Alastair Macaulay and Shobana Jeyasingh in discussion. Jacqueline du Pré Building, St Hilda’s College, Oxford, 19th February 2024 – Maggie Watson reports

Indian dance is a vast topic: aside from the highly sophisticated technique and tradition manifest in the eight ‘classical’ forms, there are numerous ‘non-classical’ forms, and it exists within a complex web of social, temporal, religious and artistic spheres, which Western cultures have historically failed to understand. International dance critic Alastair Macaulay openly and unsurprisingly admitted that where Indian dance is concerned he is an ‘outsider’, but interestingly, Shobana Jeyasingh, who comes from India and trained in Bharatanatyam, said that although she is an ‘insider’, in some respects she too is an ‘outsider’.

Jeyasingh began by explaining the four means of means of communication through the body: tension, rhythm, emotion and decoration. Her demonstration of the rotation of the arm in a gesture that originates in back and makes it strong as steel had many of us in the audience trying it out as we sat. Jeyasingh continued by explaining more about the dance’s rhythmic patterns, its flavours or nuances, and the integral significance of costume and makeup. Macaulay generously shared images of dance and dancers drawn from his own travels, which showed the importance of the often lengthy and elaborate preparation, as well as the dance itself.

 

DANSOX Jane Pritchard lecture: Colour and Costume for Dance: the ‘Colour Revolution’, at the Jacqueline du Pré Music Building 13 February 2024 – Maggie Watson reports

The Ashmolean Museum’s exhibition ‘Colour Revolution: Victorian Art, Fashion and Design’ is a thrilling revelation of nineteenth-century Britain’s widely unrecognised visual vibrancy. Jane Pritchard’s DANSOX lecture, attended by the exhibition’s curators, took this one step further, demonstrating that a greater understanding of the use of colour on the Victorian stage also overturns many of our assumptions about contemporaneous English ballet. Taking the Ashmolean exhibition as her starting point, Pritchard argued that by thinking across boundaries and following the archival evidence on the use of colour in theatrical design, we can begin to recover the largely forgotten fifty years of dance in England that lie between the romantic ballet period and the arrival in London of the Ballets Russes.

 

DANSOX Events October-November 2023

Dance Scholarship Oxford (DANSOX) presents a season of exciting events for the Michaelmas term of 2023, spanning three major themes:

1. Revisiting 20C dance: Yolande Yorke-Edgell and Yorke Dance season 

2. Celebrating the centenary of Les Noces (Stravinsky/Nijinska).   

3. Symposium: New Research in Dance Studies and Practice 

See below for a list of dates:

10^th October 5.30pm, Jacqueline du Pré Building:  ‘Serial Stravinsky Dances: Choreomusical Discoveries with Balanchine’: Professor Stephanie Jordan (Roehampton) will deliver a talk prompted by her 2010 film project with artists from the New York City Ballet: Music Dances: Balanchine Choreographs Stravinsky, now showing this work as work in progress.  Come along and experience Stephanie’s unique approach, and there will be lots to see and hear from this outstanding artistic team of the 20^th century.

16^th October 5.30pm, Jacqueline du Pré Building: New Movement Collective with Gosia Dzierzon Presentation: A new Les Noces.

19^th October 5.30pm Jacqueline du Pré Building. Yolande Yorke-Edgell and Yorke Dance Screening of new film reconstruction of MacMillan’s Sea of Troubles with Q&A.

21^st October 6.45-7.15pm The Olivier Hall, St Edward’s School,  ‘Dancing Song’, German choreographer Andreas Heise in conversation with Meindert Peters about the genesis of his Winterreise concept, pre-performance talk for Oxford Lieder Festival

24^th October 5.30pm Jacqueline du Pré Building: Dame Monica Mason introduces Avatâra Ayuso, of AVA Dance Company on Nijinska (première in 2023 Santiago, Chile).

26^th October, JduP: Yolande Yorke and dancers of Yorke Dance with John Pennington (Pomona College, LA) on Bella Lewitsky, the American modern dance choreographer and dancer.

20th-21st November 2-day Symposium DANSOX at Jacqueline du Pré Building with Professor Philip Bullock, New Directions in Dance Research: Scholarship and Practice 

20^th November, 2pm: Yolande Yorke and Yorke Dance, work by and inspired by Graham, Cohan and others.    

5.30pm: Professor Mark Franko (Temple University) guest lecture ‘“A Subtle System of Feints”: Phenomenological Description and Theatricality in Foucault’s “Las Meninas.“‘

21^st November. Full day includes:

Keynote Lecture: Sir Alistair Spalding (Director Sadler’s Wells) 

Choreographic Practice and Innovation: Liam Francis and dancers 

Guest lectures by Lucia Ruprecht (Berlin); Alexandra Kolb (Roehampton), and Professor Felicia McCarren (Tulane; Leverhulme Visiting Fellow, Oxford). 

27th November, Jacqueline du Pré Building, 5.30pm. New Movement Collective with Gosia Dzierzon present a new Les Noces.

To book, visit the new DANSOX website here for further details, and Eventbrite links for each event, or the DANSOX Eventbrite page here.

You can also contact Ruth Thrush at ruththrush1@gmail.com with booking queries or Professor Susan Jones at susan.jones@ell.ox.ac.uk

 

DANSOX hosts New Movement Collective open rehearsal, Jacqueline du Pré Music Building, St Hilda’s College, Oxford. 18th July 2023 – Maggie Watson reports

On Tuesday evening, DANSOX hosted an open rehearsal of extracts from the choreographic research developed by the New Movement Collective (NMC) during a three-day residency at St Hilda’s College, Oxford. Introduced by Professor Sue Jones, producer Malgorzata (Gosia) Dzierzon explained that she and the other four dancers (Patricia Okenwa, Gemma Nixon, Juliana Javier and Eryck Brahmania) had been working collectively on a rewriting of Bronislava Nijinska’s ballet Les Noces (1923). This is a completely new dance work, but like Nijinska’s ballet, NMC’s work conveyed a strong sense that it was set in a deeply traditional society in which the wishes and desires of the individual are sublimated to the interests of the group.

 

DANSOX presents Malgorzata Dzierzon and New Movement Collective, Jacqueline du Pré Music Building, 18th July 2023

Dance Scholarship Oxford (DANSOX) hosts another fascinating opportunity to get a glimpse into choreographic work in progress. Choreographer Malgorzata Dzierzon and contemporary company New Movement Collective will present an open rehearsal and discussion of innovative work celebrating the centenary of Bronislava Nijinska’s Les Noces (1923). All are welcome to watch the process of research and choreographic development of this re-writing of an iconic dance piece from The Ballets Russes (to premiere this autumn). Followed by Q&A and a reception.

Date: 6pm Tuesday 18th July 2023
Venue: Jacqueline du Pré Music Building, St Hilda’s College, followed by reception.

Free entry but booking required: please contact susan.jones@ell.ox.ac.uk to book a seat.

https://www.st-hildas.ox.ac.uk/content/dansox-presents-malgorzata-dzierzon-and-new-movement-collective

 

DANSOX: Transparent film screening, Siobhan Davies and Meindert Peters in conversation. Jacqueline du Pré Music Building, St Hilda’s College Oxford, 15th May 2023 – Maggie Watson reports

Siobhan Davies’ film Transparent, screened by DANSOX at St Hilda’s College Oxford on Monday 15 May, is a personal retrospective that forms part of her on-going enquiry into the nature of dance and its position among the arts. The thirty-five minute film offers a vast array of images in the form of transparencies laid upon a back-lit panel, which her hands delicately manoeuvre and adjust, concealing, revealing, overlaying or juxtaposing pictures in a glorious palimpsest of ideas and associations. Her moving collage seems to gather together every kind of influence on her work. It is as if by literally looking through the acetates, which include representations of the human form and the natural world in photographs, paintings, drawings, and sculptures, Davies endeavours to look through herself and understand what it is that makes her dance.

 

DANSOX presents Transparent, film screening & discussion with Siobhan Davies & Meindert Peters, Jacqueline du Pré Music Building 15th May 2023

At the heart of the film Transparent (35 minutes) are the reflections of dancer and renowned choreographer Siobhan Davies as she unravels the complex processes that underpin a life’s work in dance. DANSOX is delighted to present a screening of Transparent followed by a discussion between Siobhan Davies and Dr Meindert Peters, whose research interests include twentieth century dance, literature, and contemporary theories of embodied cognition.

“ The film is called Transparent because for several years I used both tracing paper and acetate to write down notes and collect imagery. Dance involves movement and constant change and the see-through nature of my note taking helped me to experience ideas and images as less fixed in time or place but rather on the way to becoming something else or emerging out of what came before.” Siobhan Davies

Date: Monday 15th May 5.30pm

Venue: Jacqueline du Pré Music Building, St. Hilda’s College, Cowley Place, Oxford OX4 1DY

Tickets: Free and open to all; to book a place please contact susan.jones@ell.ox.ac.uk

Find out more about Siobhan Davies’ film Transparent here

 

DANSOX and TORCH Humanities and Cultural Programme present Day of Dance: Transnational Conversations, Jacqueline du Pré Music Building, St Hilda’s College, Friday 10th June 2022

Dance Scholarship Oxford (DANSOX) and TORCH (The Oxford Research Centre for the Humanities) collaborate to present Day of Dance: Transnational Conversations, a rich mix of dance practice, research and discussion involving leading dance artists and distinguished scholars, and centring on Bronislava Nijinska‘s seminal work Les Noces.

Programme:

10.00am-12.00pm Welcome and Liam Francis choreography session – making new work.

1.15-2.00pm Keynote: Jane Pritchard on Nijinska’s Les Noces

Throughout the day from 1.00pm- 6.00pm, those attending can drop in on a showing of Future Rites by Alexander Whitley Dance Company in the Rooftop Suite

2.05-2.50pm Deirdre Chapman leads dancers in a demonstration and workshop of choreography from Les Noces

3.00-3.30pm Marcus Bell presentation Rites of Spring

3.30-4.00pm Meindert Peters presentation Kafka and Arthur Pita

4.00-4.30pm Hélène Neveu Kringelbach presentation Avant-garde dance in Senegal

5.00-6.00pm Book launch of Lynn Garafola‘s biography La Nijinska: Choreographer of the Modern with Judith Mackrell

6.10-7.15pm Keynote: Alexander Whitley on Future Rites? with dancers, followed by discussion

7.15pm Reception

Date: Friday 10th June 10.00am-7.45pm

Venue: Jacqueline du Pré Music Building, St Hilda’s College, Cowley Place, OX4 1DY

Tickets: Free of charge; to register for the event please use this link.

If you would like to watch the livestream of the day please use this link.

For further info please contact susan.jones@ell.ox.ac.uk & marcus.bell@st-hildas.ox.ac.uk

Finally, if you would like to attend the inaugural meeting of TORCH Network
Britain and the Soviet Union: Cultural Encounters you can sign up for a group discussion led by Gabriela Minden – on the London performances of Les Noces by Ballets Russes in June 1926, a month after the General Strike – by following this link.

 

Unfolding Gesture: Movement, Inscription, Music: DANSOX Summer School 2021. 10, 11 &12 July 2021 at St Hilda’s College, Oxford – Maggie Watson reports

The third annual DANSOX summer school was a scholarly investigation into the relationship between dance and inscription.  It treated both concepts in the broadest sense: ‘dance’ encompassed Western movement styles ranging from the Baroque to the contemporary; ‘inscription’ embraced not only the written word and notation, but also the traces preserved in art, photography, film and the dancing body itself.  The format was hybrid, with a small socially distanced audience present in the Jacqueline du Pré Music Building, and a recorded live stream for external participants.

Alastair Macaulay’s opening lecture looked at literary sources of inspiration for dance and the role of notation in protecting, preserving, and challenging our perceptions of works.  Macaulay’s wide ranging discussion, liberally illustrated with film clips and photographs, raised themes developed in the subsequent lectures and dance workshops.  He noted the subtle ways in which choreographers such as Merce Cunningham have drawn on a literary sources, and cited Pam Tanowitz’ interweaving of dance, music and poetry in her Four Quartets.  Macaulay also discussed the ways in which dances change over time; the problems and inadequacies of recordings; the significance of context, and the readability or otherwise of notation, whether that of Vladimir Stepanov or Vaslav Nijinsky.

 

DANSOX Choreographic Residency with Liam Francis & Simone Damberg Würtz 17-22nd August 2021

DANSOX Summer Programme 2021 continues…

DANSOX invites you to a sharing of new choreography Sum Dance – A Collaborative Response by renowned Rambert dancers, Liam Francis and Simone Damberg Würtz.

Date: Sunday 22nd August 2pm.

Venue: Jacqueline du Pre Music Building, St Hilda’s College, Cowley Pl, Oxford OX4 1DY

No charge, but limited seating, so please rsvp susan.jones@ell.ox.ac.uk and
cc marcus.bell@st-hildas.ox.ac.uk to confirm a place.

You are welcome to drop in to watch the making of the work any day/time between 17th and 22nd August but please email us first (Covid rules).

DANSOX looks forward to welcoming you during the week or for an after-lunch Sunday treat.

Find out more about DANSOX here

Watch previous DANSOX events on the DANSOX YouTube channel here