Irish World Academy, University of Limerick, Liz Roche Company & Dublin Dance Festival

Welcome to the Modes of Capture Symposium 2021

This year’s symposium explores the theme of decolonising structures, thinking and embodiment within current modes of dancemaking and documentation.

Located in Ireland, where bodies have only in recent years unravelled processes of colonisation by church and state, the conference invites investigations from an Irish and international perspective. We ask how colonial thinking influences the formation of dancers and dance practice. We question what counts as archival material and whether bodily expression can be understood as testimony when the ‘bodies of evidence’ are missing. This theme resonates with current international calls to decolonise dance studies and to allow the expression of multiple narratives and minoritised positions on creative dancemaking processes.

Curators Dr Jenny Roche, Liz Roche and Dr Róisín O’Gorman, have brought together a group of remarkable local and international academics, dance artists, practitioners and scholars for the event, who will be sharing their work through a series of recorded presentations, live-streamed discussions, workshops and performances.

Symposium Themes:

• What is the interrelation between documentation, surveillance, self-observation and self-moderation in dance and how might we understand disconnections between internal sensing and external surveillance?
• How can we explore choreography as a container for experience, an embodied archive that can be transmitted to and/or can colonise other dancing bodies?
• How is visibility given through the markings of dance techniques and how are subjects made invisible when operating outside specific techniques and genres?
• Who are the voices/bodies ‘missing’ from the repertoire, history, discussions and development of dance?
• How can we expand and/or decolonize training and programmes of study/funding to ensure minoritized and differently abled bodies engage in dance practices and research at all levels?
• How does technology colonise dancing bodies and how might more awareness of the ubiquitous influence of technological tools reinstate a sense of agency in our practices?
• How is dance positioned in Ireland as a creative practice and how can we draw on international networks to share international best practices in capturing its vitality and liveness?

The Symposium is made possible through IntraSpaces, a creative partnership between Liz Roche Company and The Irish World Academy of Music and Dance at University of Limerick.