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This case study details the impact of South Asian dance research on its practitioners and organisations. Immediate beneficiaries include artists engaging in, and organisations supporting, South Asian dance. Through them, we have given prominence to dance genres outside the established canon and fostered broader understanding of dance in a culturally diverse society. By articulating the relationship between artistic practice and the social, political, and financial mechanisms of late twentieth- and early twenty-first century Britain, our research has influenced creative practice, teaching and dance writing, as well as contributing to the practicalities of artists' business ventures and grant applications.
Shobana Jeyasingh is one of a handful of British choreographers - and indeed, choreographers worldwide - who successfully choreograph work using a multiplicity of cultural techniques and methods. Having trained in the Indian classical form Bharata Natyam, Jeyasingh produces work that utilizes a mix of classical, contemporary, popular and site-specific techniques. Impacts are generated through her writing, mentoring, public engagement and performance works, as she asks audiences and dancers to re-think notions of authenticity, unchanging tradition, and binary identities such as Asian and British. While her workshops in schools and performance works in various British and European sites change perceptions of gender, ethnic identity and Indian dance, in a tour supported by the British Council and commercial sponsors, she has taken her diasporic, hybrid sensibilities to India, to convey a postmodern, multicultural British identity.
How can digital technology redefine choreographic practices? This is an important question in terms of: the impact of networked technologies in connecting individuals virtually; screen interfaces as mediated contexts for embodied communication; the impact of technology in mediating experiences of motion. Interest in these questions is manifest in both academic, practice-led research and professional arts contexts.
This case study identifies how interdisciplinary, collaborative choreography and technology research projects undertaken within the Centre for Applied Research in Dance have focussed on choreographic innovation in live, mediated networked environments and the development of software tools enabling new methods of choreography and documentation.
Through community arts practice based on the principles of mindfulness, choreographer Rosemary Lee works with inclusive, therapeutic and inter-generational groups, as well as artists and dancers, using unique elements: close attention through touch and mindful listening. Her work has evolved over two decades of practice, research and collaborations, and shows impact and reach through bringing transformation to community participants, artists, health professionals and professional arts practice. She moves away from the role of choreographer as director with a set agenda, and empowers participants to embody issues that are important to them, setting a model for community life. The performance works Common Dance (2009) and Square Dances (2011) have led to a DVD and symposium that develop a practice-as-research methodology for dance practitioners and researchers, and to workshops for artists and practitioners around the world.
Dance research has frequently suffered from the divide between historical investigation and performance making. This case study focuses on an innovative approach to a practice-based process of making dance histories, or choreological historiography. This approach brings together the narratives that are central to research in Music, Dance, Drama and Performing Arts (MDDPA) at the University of Bedfordshire. Since 2010, this approach has informed choreographic work or performance-lectures across Europe. Events such as the Royal Ballet School's Focus on Style highlight the benefits a practice-based historical investigation in dance brings to both dance scholars and dance practitioners.
The impact is on dancers and audiences in North West England. Choreographic practice in live dance performance was found through a collaborative research programme to build particular relationships with audiences. Where audience feedback influences the choreographic process the subsequent effect on how audiences respond to performances is marked. Strong links between audiences and dancers can enhance creativity in performers, and enrich and expand the imaginations and sensibilities of audiences. On the basis of this kind of empathetic relationship, the Manchester Dance Consortium has worked to enhance locally the quality of dance as a cultural asset and to intensify the involvement and receptivity of dance audiences.
Since 2008, three coordinated projects have interlinked expertise and resources in Surrey's dance division (including Surrey's National Resource Centre for Dance, NRCD, est. 1982) with the institution's technological expertise.
The aim was to enhance access, visibility and experimentation with the dance heritage by digital means. The project has generated an online repository for dance resources, available for the education sector. It also led to economic benefit for the non-academic project partner, digital design company Bullet Creative, who were able to build both their technical skillset and their knowledge base, in order to then continue to expand their own dance-related business portfolio. The digital archiving expertise is also disseminated to future online archive projects.
This case study charts the specific impact of The Living Room (Yael Flexer, 2010-11) to determine the impact made on the UK contemporary dance profession (professional and emerging choreographers as well as organisations who support those choreographers). The Living Room constitutes a seminal moment in Flexer's choreographic development and career and was made just prior to the culmination of twenty years choreographic work. Her earlier performance research, for example Doing, Done, Undone (toured internationally 2007-2010) through to later pieces such as Weightless (2013) have made a significant impact on the UK contemporary dance profession. It is Flexer's long and sustained career in a sector known for its emphasis on young and emerging choreographers along with her depth of research into choreographic methodologies that has made a difference to this professional dance sector.
Flexer's choreographic style and methodology is the research that underpins this impact. The pathways to impact involve direct engagement by professional and emerging dancers and choreographers, apprentices in Flexer's choreographic process and via workshops delivered by Flexer for young people and emerging dancers, and her commissions for national dance organisations seeking change. Flexer has been developing creative methodologies that question the socio-cultural diversity and hybridity of the dancer (specifically in The Living Room, 2010-11). This provides a unique pathway to impact as the beneficiaries become invested and able to critically reflect on the choreographic process and its application to their own signature style and feminist artistic/choreographic voice.
This project, Robots and Avatars (http://www.robotsandavatars.net) informs how young people will work, learn and play with new representational forms of themselves and others in virtual and physical dimensions in coming decades making an impact on participants, educators, employers and other artists. Funded by NESTA, the programme influences the way educators and employers engage with young people in workplaces that are likely to include increasing telepresence, collaborative work, flattened hierarchies and international mobility. Exhibitions around Europe showcase work by artists, scientists, designers and architects who explore the relationship between the body, technology and virtual spaces, while forums examine impact and ethics. The research is transmitted to students and young professionals through workshops and mentoring, while social networking provides platforms for international groups. The project is also concerned with special topics like women and technology, and alternative identities for cultural groups. Key beneficiaries include young students and professionals, scholars and members of the general public.
This case study addresses new methods for identifying talent in young musicians and dancers, and also concerns issues regarding their wellbeing during training, both inside and outside the academy. This research has achieved impact in two areas, firstly by raising awareness among training institutions and performance companies of the importance of scientific assessment and screening, and secondly through impacts on policy-making, educational and otherwise, beyond the submitting HEI. This impact has been achieved through research dissemination that includes, but goes beyond peer-reviewed journal articles. This has involved broadcast media, digital media, symposia, workshops and numerous conference presentations, the popular press and resource papers for teachers.