C-DaRE Newsletter

May 2022

News, events and outputs

Our monthly newsletters enable you to keep up-to-date with our activities in C-DaRE. We share news on new projects, events, publications and other activities from our research team and postgraduate research students.

For any queries about the items below contact cdare.fah@coventry.ac.uk.

Our fantastic REF 2021 results are in

We are delighted with the outcome from the recent Research Excellence Framework (REF) and particularly as C-DaRE led the University’s first submission to Unit of Assessment D33. 51% of our research overall was judged to be 4* (‘world leading’). We were thrilled with our outcome for Environment, which topped the rankings in D33 with 100% 4*, reflecting the excellence in the vitality and sustainability of our research. The outcome is a huge team effort and thanks go to everyone who supported and contributed to the submission. We look forward to building on this success and continuing to champion research in multiple forms and to our ongoing commitment to showing why ‘dance research matters’. The University as a whole was placed 58 out of 129 institutions in the Times Higher Education power ranking, up from 80 in 2014.

Upcoming Events

Birmingham International Dance Festival 19^th June

The VIBES project, funded by Creative Europe, will be presented at Birmingham International Dance Festival on 19^th June, at 1.30pm and 4pm, click here for the programme.

IADMS 32nd Annual Conference in Limerick, Ireland from October 28-31, 2022

Louisa Petts has had her abstract titled, "Meaningful dance experiences: exploring older adult wellbeing in different dance genre contexts" accepted into the IADMS 32nd Annual Conference in Limerick, Ireland from October 28-31, 2022. Her presentation will centre on her ongoing PhD research fieldwork exploring older adult dance experience in line dancing, improvisation, and ballet classes. Register here.

Recent events

CoDa Cultures of Dance - Research Network for Dance Studies

Members of C-DaRE attended the first in-person meeting of the network in Antwerp from May 18-21. The network brings together leading dance institutions across Europe with the aim to build a collective platform that contributes to the development of dance studies as an academic and practice-oriented discipline on both a local and international level. The final day was an open symposium at the Royal Conservatoire Antwerp at which C-DaRE's Professor Scott deLahunta opened the day with a keynote lecture: Doing Dance Research. For more info on CoDA here.

Image: The Shape of Sound

The Shape of Sound at the Anglican Church for Coventry Opens

The Shape of Sound project explores how movement affects the sounds that we hear by creatively interpreting the anatomy of the inner ear. On 7^th - 8^th May, the Anglican Chapel, built in 1847, both housed and curated our living installation and performance developed by The Shape of Sound Collective – Karen Wood, Lily Hayward-Smith, Louisa Petts, Petra Johnson and Vipavinee Artpradid. Supported by Coventry University City of Culture and Historic Coventry Trust, the event was included in the Coventry City of Culture Coventry Opens weekend and welcomed over 90 visitors over the two days. You can read or listen to the installation booklet which shares our research and explorations so far.

Gender and Theatre discussion group

Megan Shone, a first year C-DaRE PHD student ran a Gender and Theatre discussion group held on the 22nd of April, as part of a wider PhD study into the role of Gender within theatre. During the discussion the group utilised a number of creative methods to help participants get to grips with the topic, and inspire discussions. Participants drew quick pictures based on prompts, wrote short monologues from the perspective of someone of another gender, cast a play based on gender blind character descriptions, and responded to polls and questions. This design allowed for a lot of fun within the session but also prompted discussions of how their experiences had been shaped and changed because of their gender, and what they would change in an ideal world.

Working conditions for freelance dance artists Discussion Group

Image: Lara Ratnaraja

On the 27^th April 2002 C-DaRE’s Karen Wood and Helen Laws held a day of focus groups at Coventry University for Midlands-based freelance dance artists to discuss working conditions and their experience of earning a living as freelancers in dance.

The day was designed to provide an open space for freelancers to interrogate the barriers to a sustainable career and participate in blue sky thinking with peers, imagining what concrete steps might be taken towards a more inclusive and sustainable dance ecosystem.

The day was made possible through the University’s Research England funding, ensuring freelancers were paid for their time, and data from the focus groups is currently being analysed.

Strong themes emerging from the day include:

· The need for a stronger collective and representative body for dancers that can enforce better pay and working conditions

· A move away from ‘minimum’ rates of pay towards ‘recommended’ pay rates that factor in holiday pay and pension etc

· Further investigation into the potential of Universal Basic Income (UBI)

· More freelance representation at programming, board and policy-making level

· Better preparation for the realities of freelancing embedded in education

Project News

DAZZLE – A Reassembly of Bodies

Image: Dancers Hannah Burfield & Harry Alexander photographed by Oliver Wrobel, Poly by Bruno Martelli & Open Rehearsal photographed by Oliver Wrobel

Ruth Gibson has begun working on a large-scale project, DAZZLE – A Reassembly of Bodies, supported by Creative XR and Innovate UK, with partners Target 3D, designers Peut-Porter and long-term collaborator Bruno Martelli.

On April 14, she invited audiences and guests to explore and experience embodiment in mixed realities at the Virtual Production Test Stage in Guildford. Sixteen dancers in bespoke costumes created a pageant for virtual reality and live motion capture. The international Dazzle Collective of fifteen nationalities designed unique outfits for the public to wear.

From the futurist Thayaht's Tuta suit and interest in dazzle camouflage, the project builds on ideas in her award-winning MAN A project, researching the potential to open new spaces, places and stages for immersive dance performance.

DAZZLE uncovers ways of encountering and perceiving the human body in motion through virtual and physical artefacts and follows a successful 5G demonstrator in December 2021. For further information about the project contact harry.lovstrom@dazzle1919.com

Post Grad Researcher YouTube channel

One of our fantastic post grad students Hank Bamberger has set up his own channel showcasing his art work on YouTube, advised for mature audiences only.

Publications

Article ‘And then again, I draw myself to the detail’ Capturing experiential states in contemporary dance making through ‘Expanded Fields’.

Image: Photo: Maurice Gunning

Gibson, R., & Roche, J., (2022) ‘‘And then again, I draw myself to the detail’ Capturing experiential states in contemporary dance making through Expanded Fields’ in Performance Research, Volume 26 Issue 4

The Micro-Phenomenological Interview (MPI) method originally developed by Pierre Vermersch and further expanded and taught by Claire Petitmengin is an interview process that explores the possibilities of evoking and describing lived experience in detail.

This article illustrates the creative process and conceptual impetus for the development of the piece Expanded Fields; a moving image installation with live performance, sound and virtual reality which was first presented in the Limerick City Gallery of Art in November 2019. The work highlights multiple filters through which the audience can encounter a piece of choreography, using a range of different media to invite the viewer into various degrees of proximity with the dancers in movement. Co-authors Ruth Gibson and Jenny Roche contextualise this collaboration undertaken with artist Bruno Martelli, composer Mel Mercier and the dancers, Kévin Coquelard, Henry Montes and Ursula Robb and articulate the application of process tools utilised to create the work.

Staff News

Alfried Krupp Senior-Fellowship awarded to Prof Susanne Foellmer

Prof Susanne Foellmer has been awarded a prestigious Senior Fellowship at the Alfried Krupp Wissenschaftskolleg Greifswald, Germany, for the academic year 2022-23 (Oct 2022-Sept 2023). 10 out of 175 applicants have been chosen to conduct research for 12 months, also having the opportunity to collaborate with colleagues from University Greifswald on an interdisciplinary level. Susanne will work on her most recent research on “Protest Movements. Choreography As a Tool to Create and Analyse Dynamics in Topical Situations of Resistance“ (Protest-Bewegungen: Choreografie als Instrument zur Gestaltung und Analyse von Dynamiken in aktuellen Situationen von Widerstand). Congratulations Professor we look forward to hearing about your fellowship.

Rosa Cisneros shortlisted for the Braveheart Award in the University Alliance Awards 2022.

Dr Rosa Cisneros is nominated for her consistent commitment to inclusion and excellent ethical practices in her work. She has worked tirelessly to make education accessible to vulnerable groups, and in particular the Roma community. She mobilised her skills as Flamenco dance artist, as film maker and writer to make spaces for those often excluded from the academic community, embracing thinkers and practitioners across many fields, including those working in Hip-Hop, African dance, and in the broad area of cultural heritage.

New Visiting Professor, Bojana Cvejić

Image: Bea Borgers

Bojana Cvejić is a Yugoslav performance theorist and dramaturg, whose work is highly respected and invited internationally. She has been for many years a member of the influential Belgrade-initiated collective Walking Theory, and her most recent book Towards a Transindividual Self: A Study in Social Dramaturgy (KHIO 2022), is a collaboration with fellow member of the collective Ana Vujanović. Bojana has worked as a dramaturg with choreographers Xavier Le Roy, Anne Teresa de Keersmaeker and Mette Ingvartsen, and she is the co-author with Anne de Keersmaeker of the seminal book on her work A Choreographer's Score. Bojana wrote her MA dissertation at the University of the Arts Belgrade, on the music of John Cage and Karlheinz Stockhausen, and followed that with a PhD at the Centre for Research in Modern European Philosophy Kingston University, which became the foundation for her widely referenced book Choreographing Problems (Palgrave 2015). She is currently Professor of Dance and Dance Theory at KHIO Oslo National Academy of Arts, and a faculty member at P.A.R.T.S Brussels, where she oversees the theory courses in BA and MA programmes. Other lecturing posts have included DOCH University of Dance and Circus Stockholm, Justus-Liebig-University Giessen, SNDO Amsterdam University of the Arts, and Utrecht University Department of Media and Culture Studies where she was lecturer in MA Dance Studies (2009-2012). Bojana is currently working with C-DaRE faculty member Jonathan Burrows on a large research, which seeks to reposition choreography through the lens of new findings on the relationship between movement sequencing and perception, drawing upon neuroscience, cognitive philosophy and anthropology. Bojana lives in Brussels and has a 3 year old daughter called Ajle.

Meet C-DaRE

With life opening up again and returning to normal we are starting a new feature to introduce you to our staff and students starting with our Director for the Centre for Dance Research Professor Sarah Whatley .

Professor Sarah Whatley

Name

Professor Sarah Whatley

What is your area of research?

My research spans a wide range of dance and performing arts theory and practice. My projects and publications focus on the creative reuse of digital cultural content, how live performance can be mediated through digital technologies, reimagining dance archives and dance documentation, intangible cultural heritage, somatic dance practice and pedagogy, and inclusive dance practice with a particular focus on disability.

Please tell us about your professional areas of interest?

I began my career as a dance practitioner, performing with different companies and choreographing my own work. I have taught in higher education for many years, focusing more on research over the last decade.

Who are you currently collaborating with and on what?

I am currently collaborating with Roger Kneebone, Professor of Surgical Education at Imperial College, London, on an AHRC-funded project exploring 'what it means to perform'. We are bringing together experts from a wide range of disciplinary fields, as diverse as hairdressing, puppetry, gastronomy, magic, medicine, dance and music to discuss their experiences and to find out more about what expertise means, within and across different fields.

Tell us an unusual fact about yourself or an achievement you are proud of?

Although a long time ago, I think achieving my PhD was special for me as I managed it whilst working full-time as Head of Department and navigating a number of personal challenges.

What inspires you?

The resilience and determination of young people who find ways to follow their dreams and ambitions, whatever challenges, obstacles or disappointments might be placed in front of them.

What’s your favourite drink or meal?

A glass of fizz and some olives is always a favourite.

Where is your dream holiday?

I prefer active holidays where I can cycle, play tennis and spend time soaking up the local culture. Favourite spots include parts of Croatia, Portugal and almost anywhere in Italy.

Find out more about Sarah's extensive work and projects here.

Alumni

Keeping in touch with our alumni Ilya Vidrin...

This summer, C-DaRE alum Ilya Vidrin will continue his research on partnering at the New Museum in New York City. This project emerges from Ilya's doctoral work, in which he investigated normative dimensions of dancing together through a moral-epistemological lens. Creating scores for iterative, intimate movement, Ilya’s work nurtures conditions for partners to search within themselves, one another, and in their shared connections to interrogate how meaningful relations are experienced. Drawing on philosophies of joint agency, care ethics, and somatic approaches to movement, Ilya’s residency will explore the possibility of communicating aspects of embodied trust, empathy, consent, and care through improvisational partnering studies.