Future Bodies: Dancing Towards Repair
An international online symposium from MA Dance: Participation, Communities, Activism
About Future Bodies: Dancing Towards Repair
Welcome to the digital symposium of MA Dance: Participation, Communities, Activism
Launched three years ago, the MA enables a global learning exchange between a community of dance artists working towards social justice and change in their local contexts.
Our second Future Bodies symposium centres our second graduating cohort who present their research projects. The third cohort of students share creative documentations of their international collaborations working with dance across borders in the digital space. The Curatorial Team, who lead the course, host the event while our keynote listeners, invited academics with related research interests, practice a deep engagement with the student presentations in order to weave the strands of each project together from their own position.
The learning community is based in many different countries and thus the symposium seeks to create encounter across time zones – making the impossible, possible. From preventing burn out in activist practices in the UK, to feminist cartographies in Chile, to diasporic dances in Canada and the Caribbean, the diversity of praxis is celebrated in this event. Come join us for an hour, or persist with us over thirteen, as we move towards repair…
When so many systems are broken, what does it mean to repair or to 're-pair'? Repair is also about noticing and undoing the deeper habits we carry, especially those shaped by dominance or control… How can we mend without just papering over the cracks and can we use dance to move towards our desires for a better world?
— The learning community of MA Dance: Participation, Communities, Activism
Research presentations at a glance
| Time | Presentation |
|---|---|
| 09:10-09:40 | State Subject; Dance Object by Avni Sethi (India) |
| 09:40-10:10 | Birdsong Dancing: A Chorus of Voices by Eve Dent (England) |
| 10:30-11:00 | The Uracha Project: Dancing to Pull Each Other Together by Sujeong Seok (South Korea) |
| 11:00-11:30 | Rocking it! Adventures in Embodied Matrescence by Becca Townsley (England) |
| 13:10-13:40 | Pleasure Gardens by Iona Hannagan Lewis (Cymru) |
| 13:40-14:10 | Remaining Otherwise by Manal Tass (Morocco/Germany) |
| 14:10-14:40 | Resourcing Resistance by Rhiannon Colvin (England) |
| 16:25-16:55 | Women Cartography by Fernanda González (Chile) |
| 16:55-17:25 | Disobedient Bodies by Sádé Budhlall (Trinidad and Tobago) |
| 17:25-17:55 | Dancing the Conversation by Silva Laukkanen (USA/Finland) |
| 18:55-19:25 | Derecho de Permanecer by Melissa Gmuer de Mora (USA) |
| 19:25-19:55 | BODY, ARCHIVE, MEMORY by Hugo Peña (Chile/Germany) |
| 20:15-20:45 | No Slowing by Bronwen Wilson Rashad (Cymru/England) |
| 20:45-21:15 | Welcome Back by Lisa Gelly (Canada) |
Full Programme
9:00-11:45 Research Presentations by Graduating Students
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9:00-9:10 Welcome
9:10-9:40am
Avni Sethi (India)
State Subject; Dance Object
How is citizenship lived, rehearsed, negotiated, and felt through the body? How do bodies belong, to the law, to the land, and to themselves?
9:40-10:10am
Eve Dent (England)
Birdsong Dancing: A Chorus of Voices
Exploring embodied kinship with the more-than-human
Short Break
10:30-11:00am
Sujeong Seok (South Korea)
The Uracha Project: Dancing to Pull Each Other Together
Rebuilding kinship and social weaving among South Korean youth through community dance.
11:00-11:30am
Becca Townsley (England)
Rocking it! Adventures in Embodied Matrescence
A creative movement exploration of the lived experiences of motherhood.
11:30-11:45
Keynote listener response
12:15-12:45 International Collaborations by First Year Students
In the first year of the MA Dance: Participation, Communities and Activism, students take part in an international collaboration that connects communities, cultures, and practices across different countries. Working remotely with a peer and their local community, students explore how digital collaboration can foster connection, participation, and activism.
This online exhibition showcases creative documentations of these collaborations, capturing the relationships, challenges, and discoveries that emerged through processes of listening, moving, and making together across difference.
13:00-15:00 Research Presentations by Graduating Students
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13:00-13:10 Welcome
13:00-13:40
Iona Hannagan Lewis (Cymru)
Pleasure Gardens
Cruising, community and queer choreographies.
13.40-14.10
Manal Tass (Morocco/Germany)
Remaining Otherwise
Dances of relating and resisting in the SWANA context.
14:10-14:40
Rhiannon Colvin (England)
Resourcing Resistance
To sustain our social movements, we must sustain ourselves.
14:40-15:00
Keynote listener response
15:30-16:00 Graduate Game Show: Where are they now?
With Gladys Agulhas, Anno Bolender, Andrea Carmona Hernandez, Marília Coelho, Filip Kijowski, Bianca Kruppa
Members of the first graduating cohort of the MA return to share their news 12 months after finishing the course. What has happened in the meantime?
16:15-18:15 Research presentations by graduating students
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16:15-16:25
Welcome
16.25-16.55
Fernanda González (Chile)
Women Cartography
Dancing in between otros mapas.
16.55-17.25
Sádé Budhlall (Trinidad and Tobago)
Disobedient Bodies
An exploration of Afro–Indo relational politics in Trinidad and Tobago through a collaborative practice-as-research process between Odissi and Moko Jumbie practice.
17.25-17.55
Silva Laukkanen (USA/Finland)
Dancing the Conversation
Rehearsing belonging in dance and disability dance education.
17:55-18:15
Keynote listener response
18:45-21:30 Research presentations by graduating students
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18:45-18:55
Welcome
18.55-19.25
Melissa Gmuer de Mora (USA)
Derecho de Permanecer
Walking, visibility and belonging across the fault lines of US immigration practice.
19.25-19.55
Hugo Peña (Chile/Germany)
BODY, ARCHIVE, MEMORY
Where borders cross us, where we cross borders — intergenerational and intercultural dances of forced displacement in Berlin.
Short Break
20.15-20.45
Bronwen Wilson Rashad (Cymru/England)
No Slowing
What can a dance, woven from the land by the women who live there, do?
20.45-21.15
Lisa Gelly (Canada)
Welcome Back
Choreographies of hosting emergent rituals for intergenerational futures.
21:15-21:30
Keynote listener response
21:30-22:00 Collective Rest and Closing Ritual
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