Theme Day: Negotiating Identity

Negotiating Identity is a day of learning and exchange exploring how we inhabit, perform and negotiate our multiple identities through dance practice.

The series emerged from a concern with the ways identity is increasingly mobilised in contemporary political and cultural contexts. While identity can be a vital site from which to speak, organise and claim recognition, it can also become entangled with power— shaping who is able to speak, from where, and with what authority. This day seeks to complicate these dynamics without negating histories of harm or the ongoing need for repair.

This theme day understands identity not as a fixed position, nor as an end in itself, but as a generative lens that opens up particular ways of seeing. We each inhabit intersecting positions of privilege and marginalisation, moving between empowered and disempowered parts of ourselves depending on the contexts and relations we enter.

Taking the work of four artists as a starting point, the day asks how identity is negotiated through artistic practice and what this means for participants and audiences. It invites us to consider identity as relational and ever shifting, and to reflect on how we move between different positions of power in our practices and encounters with others.

This theme day is designed both as a learning space for current PCA students as well as an open day for prospective students to experience the kinds of exchange, dialogue and learning that take place on the programme.

If you intend to apply to the MA Dance: Participation, Communities, Activism course for Sept 2027 entry, you are invited to join current students, staff and external guests as they explore the idea of Negotiating Identity in depth – from many different perspectives. You will also have the chance to meet staff at the end of the day so they can get to know you and you can discuss any questions you have about the MA.

Programme

12.30-13.00: Introduction

13.00-14.00: Session 1 - Amin Farid

14.00-15.00: Session 2 - Lisa Mariko Gelley

15.30-16.30: Session 3 - Sádé Budhlall

16.30-17.45: Session 4 - Antoine Hunter

17.45-18.30: Q&A with prospective students