Dancers’ attention is focused on being present in the moving body as the raw material of choreographic creation and performance. Could the skills and knowledge that are the fruits of their inquiry and labour have a wider currency and relevance beyond Dance? What are the questions current within dance inquiry and what kinds of knowledge embedded in its practices might fuel fruitful connections with experts in other fields?
A 5-day residential Lab, held in Dorset, was the first part of this nine-month programme, prompting a wider academic and public debate about the embodied and sensory aspects of our human and social nature – in ways that have not been so central to wider cultural or scientific debates to date.
The Lab programme was conceived and led by dance artist and educator Gill Clarke MBE. In welcoming the participants, she wrote,
“Some of us may bring knowledge and experience of ‘dance’ in different forms, some of us do not. However, you have all been invited because your own interests and areas of expertise in themselves chime with interests very pertinent to how many dance artists are becoming fascinated by details of our embodied behaviour as their artistic medium, and becoming interested in the relevance of their concerns to our wider social understanding. So I would like to give us permission to range freely, unfettered by a sense of responsibility to any preconceptions about what dance knowledge might be.”
The second stage of the programme included two workshops and a symposium at the Siobhan Davies Studios, which facilitated exchanges between a larger group of young artists and practitioners from various disciplines.
As part of the dissemination to a wider audiences three distinguished speakers were invited to join Gill Clarke in broadening the conversation through public talks presented as part of Independent Dance’s Crossing Borders series at the Siobhan Davies Studios: 11 Oct - Guy Claxton (Learning Scientist); 25 Oct - Gill Clarke; 15 Nov, Tim Ingold (Social Anthropologist); and 22 Nov - Nigel Thrift (Human Geographer).
Two collaborative research grants are being offered to support the R&D of two experiments arising from the Lab, workshop and symposium. The results will be shared in an open-studio presentation at SDS in spring 2012.
You can read more about the thinking underpinning this work in an article by Gill Clarke.
Lab Director
Gill Clarke – dance artist and educator
Residential Lab Participants
Kirsty Alexander – movement artist/researcher
Susan Benn – PAL Founder Artistic Director
Catherine Bennett – dance artist
Nicky Clayton – Prof. Comparative Cognition, Cambridge University
Polly Dalton – Lecturer, Cognitive Psychology, RHUL
Paul Davies – Artistic Director, Volcano Theatre Company
Siobhan Davies – dance artist / choreographer
Roanne Dods – cultural activist
Joe Dunne - philosopher
Giovanni Felicioni – bodywork practitioner
Alexa de Ferranti – artist and farmer
Sarah Filmer - filmmaker
Sylvia Hallett – musician / composer
Morten Kringelbach –Neuroscientist, Oxford University
Iain McGilchrist - psychiatrist
Helene Neveu – Lecturer, African Anthropology, Oxford University
Sarah Saunders - chef
Visitors
Alexandra Baybutt – movement artist
Janine Harrington – dance and visual artist
Rosemary Lee – dance artist
Guido Orgs – cognitive neuroscientist, UCL
Matthias Sperling – dance artist / choreographer
Symposium and workshop participants
Jackie Adkins
Kirsty Alexander
Stella Azzurra
Ali Baybutt
Susan Benn
Cathy Bereznicki
Helena Blaker
Frank Bock
Mark Carberry
Iris Chan
Peter Clarke
Katye Coe
Anna Comino James
Jia-Yu Corti
Kathy Crick
Raghhild Dale
Polly Dalton
Paul Davies
Siobhan Davies
Carolyn Deby
Sarah Doublesin
Niamh Dowling
Sarah Ehrenberg
Simon Ellis
Sarah Filmer
Karin Fisher-Potisk
Angela Gasparetto
Caroline Gatt
Rachel Gildea
Ali Golding
Laura Gomez
Rachel Gomme
Kelina Gotman
Janine Harrington
Shira Hess
Rosanna Irvine
Jennifer Jackson
Karishma Jain
Deborah Jones
Helka Kaski
Sarah Kelly
Samantha Kettle
Azi Khatiri
Maria Kourkouta
Tim Lamford
Rosemary Lee
Lizzie Le Quesne
Catherine Long
Patricia Lyons
Helene Neveu
Betty Nigianni
Caroline Miller
Fiona Millward
Jennie Ogilvie
Katy Oswald
Vanio Papadelli
Adriana Pegorer
Kathy Pimlott
Caroline Pope
Carolyn Roy
Susan Ryland
Revanta Sarabhai
Lizzie Sells
Susan Sentler
Joe Smith
Maria Svensson
Renata Tuszczuk
Julius Verrel
Lucia Walker
David Waring
Sahryn West
Kate Willis
Angela Woodhouse
Margarita Zafrilla Olayo
Funded by
ACE Managed Funds
Esmée Fairbairn Foundation
Jerwood Charitable Foundation
