Monday 24 April 2023, 14:00 - 18:00
OPEK Kleine Zaal, Vaartkom 4, 3000 Leuven
The symposium is free of charge, but registration is required.
Language: English
The Symposium is followed by the Research Seminar Dancing diaspora: Rethinking Contemporary Dance discourses on Tuesday April 25th. Organised by the KU Leuven, Ghent University and Antwerp University, the Seminar welcomes (PhD) students and academic researchers as well as artists, dramaturges and practitioners who are engaged with the theme. More info and registration here.
Symposium
On April 24th, 2023, Cultural Studies (KU Leuven) and STUK House for Dance, Image & Sound host Dancing diaspora: Opening up European Contemporary Dance, a symposium that brings together speakers from different theoretical fields with dance scholars, practitioners and interested audiences to think about dance and diaspora cultures.
Despite its air of neutrality and inclusivity, European contemporary dance has for a long time systematically excluded choreographers of colour and dance styles that originate within culturally diverse communities or has included them through mechanisms of cultural appropriation and exotification. In the last 10 years however, choreographers of colour have increasingly claimed their position in the European field of dance. Building on different cultural experiences and references, these choreographers have introduced new choreographic strategies and have drawn attention to underrepresented aesthetics and forms of (embodied) knowledge.
Within the framework of the Dancing diaspora we will focus on this newly emerging body of works. Using diaspora as a theoretical lens, we will map the aesthetic and discursive strategies used by these choreographers, analyse their potential to critically deconstruct the label European Contemporary Dance, and explore how they contribute to a rethinking of (European) cultural identity.
Speakers: Funmi Adewole (performer, dramaturge and dance researcher), Fabián Barba (choreographer, performer and dance researcher), Cecilia Lisa Eliceche (mother, dancer, choreographer and campesina).
This symposium is a collaboration between STUK and Cultural Studies (KU Leuven) as part of the course Contemporary Dance & Dance Studies. The course Contemporary Dance & Dance Studies was initiated from the cultural policy plan KU Leuven. The symposium and seminar are supported by CoDA - Cultures of Dance, the Research Network for Dance Studies funded by the Research Foundation Flanders (FWO), and by the Flemish Government/OJO-Initiatives
This edition of the Symposium is co-financed by the Creative Europe programme of the European Union in the frame of DANCE ON, PASS ON, DREAM ON.