11 September 2024
The DRM mid-point event ‘Making dance research legible’ took place on 10th September 2024 at St Mary’s Guildhall, Coventry.
The event began with a performance provocation titled UNBOXED by Sara Macqueen and Christopher Radford of Linden Dance Company. This was followed by a presentation from keynote speaker Professor Kate Elswit who discussed her work at the intersection of dance historical research and technology. Elswit shared insights to the research project ‘Dunham’s Data: Katherine Dunham and Digital Methods for Dance Historical Inquiry’, conducted in collaboration with Harmony Bench, and Elswit’s current research project ‘Visceral Histories, Visual Arguments: Dance Based Approaches to Data’. Elswit’s presentation explored how data-driven approaches that are tailored to dance might provide innovative ways of understanding and using digital tools to make dance research and the study of embodied knowledge legible.
Following Elswit’s keynote, each of the programme’s five networks provided an overview of their research journeys thus far. These presentations provided the opportunity to discuss current challenges, innovations, interests and needs within dance research. A panel discussion with Dr Kate Marsh, Professor Angela Pickard, Professor Michela Vecchi and chaired by Professor Sarah Whatley situated the Network’s research within the wider dance sector and its contemporary socio-political environment. The panel discussion reflected on the development of dance research, its current position and imagined possible futures for the sector. The panel discussion raised questions about dance’s position within the Creative Industries, the use of terminology, how dance is valued within the Creative Industries and dance’s relation to other sectors when working in collaborative or interdisciplinary ways. The event concluded with a workshop by Dancing Otherwise Network lead Professor Vicky Hunter. Hunter’s workshop invited participants to consider their research communities, how new communities and collaborations might be created, what collaborations are important and how these relationships might be supported through a reimagined funding system.
This visual timeline maps DRM event that have taken place up until the mid-point event:
Photography credit: Neil Hepworth
1 November 2023
As of the end of October 2023, the Networks have these numbers of leads, partners, and industry partners.
These numbers will increase exponentially over next 17 months.
| Leads | 5 |
| Co-leads | 11 |
| Partners | 32 |
| Industry Partners | 48 |
| Research assistants/ Admin/ Comms | 2 |
| Total | 98 |
The networks cover the following areas (as of October 2023):
UK areas from map above include:
Bath (3), Belfast (1), Birmingham (1), Brighton (1), Cambridge (1), Canterbury (1), Cardiff (1), Chichester (4), Coventry (1), Devon (2), Edinburgh (2), Epson (1), Exeter (1), Forres (1), Glasgow (2), Kingston upon Thames (2), Leeds (7), Leicester (4), Liverpool (2), London (21), Newcastle Upon Tyne (2), Portsmouth (1), Scarborough (2), Slough (1), West Sussex (1), Westbury (1), Wolverhampton (1)
Geographic overview of the Dance Research Matters networks
The number of planned research activities and events as they stand as of the end of October 2023 are:
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