Ethical Agility in Dance: Rethinking Technique in British Contemporary

Description

This edited collection examines the potential of dance training for developing socially engaged individuals capable of forging ethical human relations for an ever-changing world and in turn frames dance as a fundamental part of human experience. This volume draws together a range of critical voices to reflect the inclusive potential of dance. The contributions offer perspectives on contemporary... Read more

Dr Noyale Colin (MA/PhD) is a senior Lecturer in Choreography at the University of Winchester. Her academic writing and practical works relate to her research around issues of embodied practices and the notion of the collaborative self in performance. Noyale leads the Research Unit of Assessment 33 and the University's Centre for Performance Practice and Research. She is one of the executive board members (Secretary) of Dance HE.

Catherine Seago

https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8735-7787

Dr Cathy Seago (MFA/ PhD) is a senior lecturer in dance at the University of Winchester and is the programme leader for its BA(Hons) Dance degree. Cathy’s practical and written work is focused by an interest in notions of flow and flux. Her research in this vein explores aspects of dance technique training and of working as a performer-creator and as a collaborator. Cathy has, as director of Evolving Motion, developed a series of somatically focused interdisciplinary performance projects which have been presented in Europe and SE Asia.

Kathryn Stamp

https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8924-7231

Dr Kathryn Stamp (PGCE/MA/PhD) is a dance researcher and educator, specialising in inclusive dance practice, the value of dance and dance in education. Kathryn works as an Assistant Professor in Dance Studies at the Centre for Dance Research (C-DaRE) at Coventry University. She is a member of the executive committee for the Society for Dance Research, an executive board member for Dance HE and Editorial Manager for the Journal of Dance and Somatic Practices. Kathryn is an Ambassador for AWA DANCE charity and an Advisory Board member for We Are Epic.

Contributor Biographies

Adesola Akinleye

https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7342-8292

Adesola Akinleye, PhD, is an artist-scholar and Assistant Professor at Texas Woman’s University. She has been an Affiliate Researcher and Visiting Artists, MIT, and a Theatrum Mundi Fellow. She began her career with Dance Theatre of Harlem Workshop Ensemble (USA) later working in UK Companies such as Green Candle and Carol Straker Dance Company. She creates dance works ranging from live performance to films, installations, and texts (include monographs and edited anthologies).

Tamara Ashley

https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2244-1494

Tamara Ashley is senior lecturer in dance at the University of Bedfordshire, where she leads PG taught and research programmes in dance. She has recently been part of the AHRC Somatic Practice and Chronic Pain Network and created a video offering practice for chronic pain relief. In the pandemic she organised ECITE online in the UK and recently co-led the organisation of Contact Improvisation's 50th Anniversary in London. Recent publications include Developing a Sense Place: The Role of the Arts in Regenerating Community and Mapping Lineage: Lineage Maps by Dance Improvisation Artists.

Fiona Bannon

https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6141-7334

Dr Fiona Bannon is an Associate Professor in the School of Performance and Cultural Industries, University of Leeds. Research interests include aesthetic education, ethics and practice, site performance and social choreography. Career experiences include, Head of Department, Scarborough School of Arts; Co-Convenor of Centre for Practice Research, (Leeds); Education Officer for Ausdance, NSW. Having recently completed her term as Chair of DanceHE in the UK Fiona is currently working as, Chair of World Dance Alliance-Europe. As an experienced academic Fiona promotes an ethos of practice in dance that seeks to ensure equality, diversity, and inclusion.

Jane Carr

https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1886-8815

Jane initially trained and worked as a ballet dancer before studying at Laban and later completing study for PhD (University of Surrey at Roehampton). She was a founder member of quiet, an artists’ group that worked collaboratively towards performance and installation and organised dance and drama activities for many years at Morley College in south east London. She has lectured at Central School of Ballet, Trinity Laban, the University of Lincoln and at the University of Bedfordshire where she was Head of the School of Media and Performance. Currently Head of Academic Studies at Bird College, Jane is continuing to develop her interdisciplinary approach to exploring the significance of performance with recent publications including in Farinas, R. and Van Camp, J.(eds.) (2021) The Bloomsbury Handbook of Dance and Philosophy and Midgelow, V. (ed.) (2019) The Oxford Handbook of Improvisation in Dance.

Rosemary (Rosa) Cisneros

https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8169-0642

Dr Rosa Cisneros is an artist-researcher at C-DaRE (Coventry University) with a background in dance, sociology and films. She works closely with several charities and NGOs in the UK and Europe and leads several small and large-scale projects. Her work aims to make dance and education accessible to vulnerable groups and ethnic minorities, and she also works closely with freelance artists developing ethical and equitable standards.

Marie-Louise Crawley

https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4788-327X

Marie-Louise is a choreographer, artist researcher and Assistant Professor in Dance and Cultural Engagement at the Centre for Dance Research (C-DaRE), Coventry University. Her research interests include dance, museums and cultural heritage, and areas of intersection between Classics and Dance Studies such as ancient dance and the performance of epic.

Jamie Dryburgh

https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7033-8398

Dr Jamieson Dryburgh is the director of Higher Education at Central School of Ballet. He previously taught contemporary dance technique in conservatoire settings for over twenty-five years. This led to his dance pedagogy PhD which explored critical feminist and queer perspectives of learning from within the dance studio. He is principal fellow of the Higher Education Academy (PFHEA), director of the Participatory Arts Qualifications (PAQ), Board member of Dance HE and External Examiner at Leeds Beckett University.

Betina Panagiotara

Betina Panagiotara is a dance theorist and dramaturg. Her latest research focuses on cultural policies for dance and disability in Europe, while her PhD explores collaborative artistic practices in Greece. She teaches Dance History, collaborates with performing arts artists in dramaturgy and research, and curates educational workshops. She is interested in dance history and dramaturgy, politics, and inclusive dance. She is a member of the Dance Studies Association, Springback Academy and the European Arts & Disability Cluster.

Jo Read

https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9122-2826

Jo Read, PhD, is a dancer, maker and trainee Integrative Counsellor and Psychotherapist. She works as a Senior Lecturer in Dance at the University of East London, and also as a trainee therapist at Cherry Tree Therapy Centre. As a performer, Jo was previously a company member of Boy Blue, and Etta Ermini Dance Theatre. Her current practice-led research project 'Dancing with Endo' focuses on relationships between dance, health and wellbeing, collaborating with artists who also have Endometriosis.

Rachel Rimmer-Piekarczyk

https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1581-1805

Rachel Rimmer-Piekarczyk is a contemporary dance practitioner, performer and scholar who is a Senior Lecturer in Performance at The Manchester School of Theatre and an artist with the contemporary performance group, Reckless Sleepers. She completed her PhD at Manchester Metropolitan University in 2021, which was a practice-led ethnographic-action research study that utilised the work of Pierre Bourdieu to examine undergraduate dance students’ experiences of engaging with reflection in dance technique training.

Erica Stanton

https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5402-2569

Erica is a dance teacher and choreographer. She co-founded the collaborative dance company Mothers of Invention with Marion Gough and following Marion’s legacy, has supported the professional development of dance teachers for over three decades. Erica specialises in Limón technique which she has taught in the UK, the USA, and New Zealand. Her work in curriculum development includes the first MFA Choreography programme in the UK which is based at the University of Roehampton.

Carla Trim-Vamben

https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7292-5120

Carla Trim-Vamben is the Arts and Creative Industries Director of Education and Experience, and the programme leader for the BA (Hons) Dance: Urban Practice degree at the University of East London. As a practice led researcher, her interests centre around club culture and has authored, From Club to Stage: The Integration of House Dance within Performance Practice (2013). She is currently evaluating an ACE Transforming Leadership Project called We Move: Transforming Leadership in Hip Hop.

Karen Wood

https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6120-9866

Karen is a dance artist, researcher, educator, maker, and producer. She works as Assistant Professor at the Centre for Dance Research, Coventry University, and as Co-Director for Birmingham Dance Network. Her practice and research focusses on dance as a cultural practice and what it offers society. Her latest research investigates the working conditions of freelance dance artists.

Jonathan Burrows

Jonathan Burrows is a choreographer whose main focus is an ongoing body of pieces with the composer Matteo Fargion. He is the author of A Choreographer's Handbook (Routledge, 2010), and is currently Associate Professor at the Centre for Dance Research, Coventry University.

Alesandra Seutin

Alesandra Seutin is an international performer, choreographer and teacher. She holds a Diploma in dance theatre from Laban and a degree in choreography and performance from Middlesex University in London. Since founding her company Vocab Dance in 2007, Alesandra has progressively built an international reputation for creating thought provoking and visually striking performances for small to large-scale theatres as well as non-theatre settings.

Henrietta Hale

Heni Hale is co-director of Independent Dance, an artist-led organisation supporting the development of dance through radical enquiry. Their international programme of classes, workshops, projects, and festivals invites artists to co-create learning and exchange ideas. She has worked extensively as a performer and choreographer, co-founding a performance/research collective, Dog Kennel Hill Project, in 2004. She is currently embarked on a PhD with Coventry University and Tavistock Institute of Human Relations.

Ivan Michael Blackstock

Born and raised in London, dance innovator and cultural observer Ivan Michael Blackstock first established himself in the UK underground dance scene then as a professional dancer and choreographer, working on music videos, advertising and television. After establishing a successful commercial career, Ivan went on to create his own work as an independent artist creating intense, thought-provoking and political theatre, leading up to his critically acclaimed production TRAPLORD. Ivan is founder of festival and talent incubator CRXSS PLATFXRM and media company ALTRUVIOLET.

Shobana Jeyasingh

Shobana Jeyasingh has created over 60 critically acclaimed works for stage, screen and unconventional public spaces. Her work has toured extensively to Europe, USA, India and the Far East and is now part of the national curriculum in the UK. Shobana is the recipient of numerous awards for choreography as well for her contributions to dance discourse. She holds an honorary MA from the University of Surrey and honorary doctorates from the universities of Chichester and De Montford.

Alexander Whitley

Alexander Whitley is a choreographer working at the cutting edge of British contemporary dance. He has created work for Sadler’s Wells, the Royal Opera House and several of the UK's leading dance companies. His collaborations across a range of media and technology platforms have gained him a reputation for a bold interdisciplinary approach to dance-making.

Seke B Chimutengwende

Seke Chimutengwende is a choreographer, performer, movement director and teacher. His new work It begins in darkness is a group choreography looking at ghosts and colonial legacies. Seke has also recently choreographed a new group work for Candoco Dance Company, In Worlds Unknown. Seke is currently exploring long solo improvisation performances of 50 to 60 minutes and working as a performer with Forced Entertainment. Seke is a visiting lecturer at London Contemporary Dance School.

Theo Clinkard

Theo Clinkard’s practice spans choreography, design, performing, movement direction, mentoring & teaching. Following eighteen years working as a dancer, he launched his company in 2012. Choreographic commissions include Tanztheater Wuppertal Pina Bausch, Danza Contemporanea de Cuba & Candoco. He leads workshops internationally, including engagements in Chile, Australia, New Zealand, United States, Slovenia, France, Cuba, Finland and Sweden. Theo is an Associate Artist at Brighton Dome, The Hall for Cornwall and an Honorary Fellow at Plymouth University.

Adam Benjamin

Adam Benjamin was joint founder/ director of CandoCo Dance Company, a founder member of 5 Men Dancing, an award-winning choreographer, author, and National Teaching Fellow. He has been a Wingate Scholar, Rayne Choreographic Fellow and Associate Artist at The Place. He is currently developing the Dancers’ Forest to raise awareness of sustainability within the dance industry.

Olu Taiwo

Dr Olu Taiwo is Senior Lecturer in Performing Arts at University of Winchester and teaches in Acting, immersive and digital performance as well as physical theatre. He has worked on identity and performance and is a well-established performer using digital technologies. He is engaged with critical debates around the interaction of body, technology and the environment. Olu is a member of the University's Centre for the Arts as Wellbeing.

Alison Ferrao

Alison joined Magpie Dance as a volunteer in 1997 and has never left! In 2019 she became Artistic Director, seeing the organisation grow from two classes per week to currently delivering 22 different programmes catering for all ages and abilities. She has been instrumental in securing partnerships and collaborations with Royal Opera House (UK), Martha Graham Dance Company (US), Propellor Dance (Canada) and Arts with the Disabled Association (Hong Kong).

Laura Graham

Laura trained in dance, working as a professional dancer before moving into Arts Marketing working in venues such as New Wimbledon Theatre, Churchill Theatre Bromley and Laban London as the Arts Marketing and Press Manager. Deciding upon a new challenge, Laura joined Magpie Dance in 2009 as the General Manager. Stepping up as Executive Director in 2019, she finds Magpie Dance rewarding to work for and is proud and excited by the way it’s evolving.

Caroline Hotchkiss

Caroline has been a performer, choreographer, director and education practitioner for almost twenty years. She graduated from the Northern School of Contemporary Dance in 2000 and London Contemporary Dance School in 2001, after which she performed with many leading dance companies and choreographers. Caroline was formerly a co-artistic director for Blue Apple Theatre with responsibility for choreography and she now leads the Blue Apple Core dance collaborations with students from the University of Winchester.

Imogen Aujla

Imogen Aujla is a freelance dance psychology researcher, lecturer, and life and wellbeing coach at Dance in Mind (www.danceinmind.org). Her research centres on psychological wellbeing, inclusive dance, and the working lives of freelancers. Imogen is passionate about the application of psychology to enhance participation, performance and wellbeing in dance.

Laura Jones

Laura Jones, Co-Artistic Director of Stopgap Dance Company, joined in 2001, and has been integral to the company's growth and direction. She is a fierce advocate for dance inclusion and equality, advancing the sector through training and consultancy work. She has extensive teaching experience, with a passion for empowering future generations of diverse dancers, and developing accessible training opportunities. Her broad creative and performance experience includes working with numerous choreographers and performing nationally and internationally.

Diane Amans

Diane is a freelance dance artist, lecturer and consultant offering professional development, arts and health projects, evaluation and mentoring. Diane is one of the leading practitioners in community dance and her textbooks - An Introduction to Community Dance Practice and Age and Dancing are set books on undergraduate programmes in the UK and abroad. Diane is a 2014 Winston Churchill Fellow and has worked with community dance practitioners in Australia, New Zealand, Korea and Japan.

Ruth Pethybridge

Dr Ruth Pethybridge is a choreographer, facilitator and researcher. She has delivered dance in diverse settings with all ages. Her socially engaged practice emphasises creativity in choreographic processes and blurring the lines between social gathering and performance. She joined Falmouth University as a lecturer in 2013 and completed her practice based PhD on concepts of community in cross-generational dance in 2017. Ruth regularly presents her work nationally and internationally and most recently has been working on an interdisciplinary research project with Oxford and Kent University that looks at the role participatory arts interventions can have in adolescent mental health outcomes.

Scilla Dyke

Dr Scilla Dyke MBE FRSA is an independent artist creating bespoke interventions between classical and contemporary dancers (having nurtured career transitions with more than 2600 artists internationally). Her career included positions at Rambert, Royal Ballet, English National Ballet, Royal Academy of Dance and One Dance UK. As Founder Director DanceEast, Scilla was instrumental in creating a dance ecology nurturing artistic talent and access to dance. In 2022, she was appointed as Patron People Dancing and nominated for AWA Women in Dance Leadership Award.

Rosemary Lee

Choreographer and filmmaker Rosemary Lee makes work in a variety of contexts and media, ranging from video installations to large-scale site-specific performances, often involving cross-generational casts. Her work is characterised by a special quality of care and attentiveness to the art, cast, audience and surroundings. Rosemary is an Associate Professor at C-DaRE-Coventry University, she holds an honorary doctorate from Roehampton University, is an honorary fellow at Trinity Laban and was awarded an OBE in 2022.

Chris Crickmay

Chris trained in architecture and subsequently taught fine art with a social and community emphasis in various colleges and universities, including Dartington College of Arts and UWE Bristol. His own creative practice involves collaborative work with dancers, exploring movement and interactive performance environments. This has included an ongoing collaboration with Miranda Tufnell in research, teaching, performance and writing. Together they have written two illustrated books on improvisation exploring approaches to creative practice. http://candjcrickmay.co.uk/

Miranda Tufnell

Having read English at UCL, Miranda trained in dance and from the mid-1970s was one of the pioneers of New Dance. She became well known for her mixed-media dance pieces combining light, sound, and movement to form mysterious performance landscapes. Her intense interest in the body led her into a parallel practice as an Alexander Teacher and Craniosacral therapist. Her innovative work in the field of arts and health has included a recent book. www.mirandatufnell.co.uk

Theo Clinkard

Theo Clinkard’s practice spans choreography, design, performing, movement direction, mentoring & teaching. Following eighteen years working as a dancer, he launched his company in 2012. Choreographic commissions include Tanztheater Wuppertal Pina Bausch, Danza Contemporanea de Cuba & Candoco. He leads workshops internationally, including engagements in Chile, Australia, New Zealand, United States, Slovenia, France, Cuba, Finland and Sweden. Theo is an Associate Artist at Brighton Dome, The Hall for Cornwall and an Honorary Fellow at Plymouth University.

Eline Kieft

Dr Eline Kieft (Ph.D) is an independent scholar, consultant and coach, who combines her background as anthropologist, dancer, shamanic practitioner and change facilitator. Combining these different modalities, she invites movement as a different way of knowing that reconnects us with ourselves and with the world around us. Her experiential pedagogy sprouts from a deeply lived connection with nature and her passion for personal growth and embodied spirituality. https://www.elinekieft.com and [email protected]

Sonia Rafferty

Sonia is Senior Lecturer and Programme Leader for BSc Dance Science at Trinity Laban and a freelance teacher, performer, choreographer, director, researcher and author. She has delivered professional/master classes for over 35 years, with a technical teaching philosophy strongly influenced by Limón principles and incorporating applied dance science knowledge. Sonia is a consultant in healthy dance practice, co-founder of Safe in Dance International (SiDI) and co-author of “Safe Dance Practice: An Applied Dance Science Perspective”.

Erica Stanton

Erica is a dance teacher and choreographer. She co-founded the collaborative dance company Mothers of Invention with Marion Gough and following Marion’s legacy, has supported the professional development of dance teachers for over three decades. Erica specialises in Limón technique which she has taught in the UK, the USA, and New Zealand. Her work in curriculum development includes the first MFA Choreography programme in the UK which is based at the University of Roehampton.

David Waring

David is an independent dance artist and formerly Artistic Director of Transitions Dance Company and Co-Programme Leader MA/MFA Dance Performance programme at Trinity Laban (2002-2021). He has taught professional technique classes nationally and internationally since 1997 and performed his hustler series throughout the UK since 2006. David is author of Heroes of the Stage: Connecting with the Joy of Performing (Mindful Heroes - Stories of Journeys that Changed Lives, 2019, Aberdeen, Scotland: Inspired By Learning).

Baptiste Bourgougnon

Baptiste graduated from the National Conservatoire in Paris. During the first 15 years of his career Baptiste focused on performing and worked as a dancer with numerous choreographers internationally. Since 2012, Baptiste has developed his pedagogic work and has been teaching floorwork, release technique and improvisation to dance companies and schools around the world. In 2019 Baptiste became the Director of Undergraduate Courses and International Development at the London Contemporary Dance School at The Place

Lise Uytterhoeven

Lise Uytterhoeven is Director of Dance Studies at The Place. She is the author of Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui: Dramaturgy and Engaged Spectatorship (2019) and co-author of What Moves You? Shaping your dissertation in dance (2017). She has published in Contemporary Theatre Review, Research in Dance Education, The Bloomsbury Companion to Dance Studies and The Ethics of Art. Lise is Co-Chair of the Society for Dance Research and part of the Associate Board of Dance Research.

Kate Marsh

ORCID: 0000-0002-3175-2921

Dr Kate Marsh is a self-identified Crip Artist-Researcher with over 20 years of experience in performing, teaching and making. She is an Assistant Professor at C-DaRE, Centre for Dance Research at Coventry University. Her interests are centred around perceptions of the body in dance and notions of corporeal aesthetics. Specifically, she is interested in each of our lived experiences of our bodies, and how this does (or doesn’t) inform our artistic practice. Her PhD explored leadership in the context of dance and disability and draws strongly on the voices of artists to interrogate questions around notions of leadership, perceptions and the body.

Magdalen Tamsin Gorringe

Magdalen Gorringe started learning bharatanatyam during her childhood in Madurai, South India. She freelanced as a bharatanatyam dancer, workshop leader and administrator for a number of years before starting a funded PhD at the University of Roehampton. She gained her doctorate for her thesis – ‘Towards a British Natyam: The Professionalisation of Classical Indian Dance Forms in Britain’ in 2021.

Funmi Adewole

ORCID: 0000-0001-5274-7876

Dr Funmi Adewole has a background in media, education, arts development and performance. She started out as a media practitioner in Nigeria and moved into performance on relocating to England in 1994. For several years she toured with Physical/Visual theatre and African dance drama companies. She continues to practice professionally, performing as a storyteller and working as a dramaturge with makers who are interdisciplinary or cross-sectorial in focus. In 2019, she was awarded a life-time achievement award by One Dance UK for her contribution to changing perceptions of the Dance of the Diaspora in the UK. She has a PhD in Dance Studies from De Montfort University Leicester, where she now works as a lecturer in the Dance department.

Jorge Crecis

ORCID: 0000-0002-8932-9018

Jorge Crecis has a degree in Sport Sciences, studied at the Royal Conservatory of Madrid and holds a PhD by Goldsmiths. He worked as a professional dancer, and lectured in universities worldwide. Award-winning choreographer who has been commissioned by companies including Scottish Dance Theatre and Acosta Danza among others. He also coaches professional dance companies and athletes. Author of the book: Designing Presence: Entering Towards Vivencia. Featured in the book: Fifty Contemporary Choreographers.

Katye Coe

ORCID: 0000-0002-7642-7428

Katye Coe is a dancer and activist based in the UK. Her work as a performer spans over 20 years of international performance practice. Katye teaches independently across the UK and internationally and her teaching practice is an extension of her performance practice. Katye is a certified Skinner Releasing Technique teacher and has worked extensively with Helen Poynor through the Walk of Life Training. She guest teaches regularly at London Contemporary Dance School and at Independent Dance.