Seminars

Studies in Dance

  • Founded
    2011
  • Seminar Number
    749

Studies in Dance takes a broad, interdisciplinary approach to dance scholarship while serving as an ongoing forum for discussion by established and younger scholars.  The Seminar embraces all forms of dance scholarship, regardless of discipline, research area, and methodology, and has the long-term goal of encouraging academic publication and new research.  The members include Barnard College and Columbia University faculty as well as independent scholars and faculty from other New York institutions, although speakers may come from outside the metropolitan area.

Chair
Professor Lynn Garafola
lg97@columbia.edu

Rapporteurs
Emily Hawk
eah2201@columbia.edu

Anna Waller
a.waller@columbia.edu

All seminars will continue to meet virtually through February 2022. Meeting links provided upon RSVP. Meeting dates and times are subject to change.

Meeting Schedule

09/27/2021 Online Meeting
6:00 PM
"Classical Ballet": Where Did It Come From?
Daria Khitrova, Harvard University
Abstract

Abstract

In this presentation, I explore the history of the notion of "classical ballet" and what it meant in different time periods. As my research shows, the emergence of the notion of "Russian Ballet" in the early twentieth century greatly contributed to the idea of "classical ballet" as we use the term today. Additionally, "classical ballet" became intertwined, in a complex way, with the notion of "classical dance," as it was theorized by modernist critics such as Akim Volynsky and André Levinson.
10/25/2021 Online Meeting
2:00 PM
Dance in Ghettos and Camps. The Holocaust as a History of Gestures
Laure Guilbert, Independent Scholar
Abstract

Abstract

My current project explores an aspect of the Shoah overlooked in the contemporary history of ghettos and concentration camps: the role of dance movement in the genocidal strategies of the Nazi perpetrators as well as in the deportees’ struggle for survival. Based on a unique collection of archives that bring to light forgotten personalities, this research examines the Holocaust through the lens of the body in motion. The latter is understood in its various experiences of choreographed gestures, rhythmic language, and motion expressivity that unfolded in the closed spaces of camp society. What role did these practices play in defining violence or refuge? How did they relate to wider sociocultural landscapes? A contribution to the sociocultural history of dance, this study completes a history of bodies in contexts of extreme violence, and the history of Holocaust art. Its outcome will also aim to enrich a reflection on resilience in our societies.
11/22/2021 Online Meeting
2:00 PM
meeting postponed
,




12/13/2021 Online Meeting
6:00 PM
meeting postponed
,




01/31/2022 Online Meeting
6:00 PM
Forgetting While Forgotten: Romanian Modern Dance During the Complicated Twentieth Century
Camelia Lenart, SUNY Albany
Abstract

Abstract

My presentation focuses on Romanian modern dance, a story of resistance and survival during two Romanian dictatorships: the pro-Nazi one (1940–44) and the Communist one (1944–89). I explore the way in which totalitarian regimes objectified, used, and misused the art form and the dancers’ bodies and minds for their political agendas. My work reflects upon the power of dance and dancers to survive political and social trauma, and the impact of this complex process on the continuity and development of modern dance in Romania and Eastern Europe.
02/28/2022 Online Meeting
6:00 PM

Buck Wanner,




03/28/2022 Location TBD
6:00 PM

Kathryn Dickason,




04/25/2022 Location TBD
6:00 PM

Ruth Horowitz,