Dance
& Spectacle
Society
of Dance History Scholars Annual Conference, 2010 Dance
History Scholars Annual Conference, 2010nce,
Call
for Proposals
Submission
Deadline:
Dance
and spectacle exist in tension with each other. This
conference
invites
discussion of their related histories, aesthetics and politics.
From
movement
choirs in ancient
Olympic
ceremonies; from the Baroque ballets de cour to indigenous
corroboree;
from protest sit-ins to Yvonne Rainer’s ‘no to spectacle’,
the
moving
body exhibits meaning through choreographies of the
visual.
Temporally
situated between Beijing 2008 and the London 2012 Olympics, and located close to
the
metropolitan
centre of
and
practitioners. Our goal is to engage with dance practices, affect and theory,
history and the
present
in order to seek new and relevant understandings of the relationship between
dance
and
spectacle.
We
welcome conference papers, panels, roundtables, workshops, films and
performances from
artists
and scholars that address the following, or related,
questions:
•
What does the idea of spectacle have to say about dance and the act of
looking?
•
Is there a difference between the spectacle and the
spectacular?
•
Where exactly is the spectacular located in dance/performance? Is it in the
location of a performance,
the
technical virtuosity of the dancers, the moments of stillness, or the aural
environment? What
makes
something 'spectacular'?
•
What other senses are incorporated in our experience and understanding of the
'spectacular'? What
would
a blind person's construction of spectacle be?
•
What are the relationships between theories of the spectacle and the spectacular
and theories of dance?
•
How has the spectacular been defined in the past? In dance or
performance?
•
How do popular dance forms engage, reify, or subvert the powers of the
visual?
•
How does dance use the spectacular as a means to achieve communication between
performer and audience?
•
What can the term spectacle mean as an artistic and critical starting point when
we find ourselves in a
full-blown
'spectacle society' (photography, film, TV, digital media, global internet,
social networking sites
such
as You-Tube, MySpace, Facebook, Twitter, et al.)?
•
How has the refusal of spectacle been mobilised in art practices, either
productively or negatively?
•
How are dance and spectacle used to hide political tensions? In what ways is the
artistic spectacle used to
point
to the suppression of spectacles (of waste, war, and mass
displacement?)
Society
of Dance History Scholars Annual Conference,
2010
Dance
& Spectacle Events
The
conference marks a collaboration between the
The
Place is one of the leading training and performance centers for contemporary
dance in the United
Kingdom
and during 2010 it celebrates its 40th anniversary as an instrumental
institution in the
development
of British modern dance. The Place has also acted as a host institution for
University of
relationship,
the Saturday of the conference will be sited at the Place and papers and
performances will be
co-curated
by its Artistic Director Eddie Nixon. In addition, the University will host a
series of events by
leading
British artists engaged in explorations of vertical, aerial and site-specific
dance on campus and in
will
be taking place in and around the capital that conclude with a dance
extravaganza at
Dance
& Spectacle Committee
Members
The
conference committee members include: Dr. Melissa Blanco Borelli,
Prof.
Maaike A. Bleeker,
Prof.
Angela Kane,
Dr.
Richard Semmens, The
Graduate
Awards and Grants for 2010
In
recognition of Selma Jeanne Cohen's great contributions to dance history, the
Society of Dance
History
Scholars inaugurated an award in her name at its 1995 conference. The
Award
aims
to encourage graduate student members of SDHS by recognizing excellence in
dance
scholarship.
Up to three awards will be offered at each conference. Each award includes an
invitation
to
present a paper at the annual conference, waiver of the registration fee for
that conference, and a
grant
to help defray costs of attending the conference. Awards are based on the
originality of the
research,
the rigor of the argument, and the clarity of the writing.
Students
interested in applying for the Selma
Jeanne Cohen Award should
follow the regular guidelines
for
conference submission and check the appropriate box on the submission form. If
the program
committee
selects your proposal, a full-text version of the paper will be due by
SDHS
Office. The full-text version should be sent via email to [log in to unmask].
The
Society of Dance History Scholars offers Graduate
Student Travel Grants,
aimed at encouraging
broad
graduate student participation in its annual conference. Each year three grants
will be made to
graduate
students to help defray the costs of attending the annual conference.
Applications for the next
round
of Graduate Student Travel Grants are due at the SDHS office by
download
the application form from www.sdhs.org.
Although postal submissions may be sent to the
SDHS
office at
encouraged.
For
information on the submission of proposals, consult the SDHS website at
www.sdhs.org