Call for articles - special issue: (RE)IMAGINING DANCE IN THE AGE OF DISTANCE

2020-06-05

This special issue is motivated by the transformation the world has seen in just a matter of months in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic. In light of such upheavals and change, we are now forced to reconsider what dance is and how we might continue to operate as dance practitioners, educators, and researchers. With such change comes the possibility for dance to be transformed, reconsidered and reimagined in ways that have implications for meanings, enaction, contexts, communities, practice, education, policy and application.

The proliferation over the past months of online spaces becoming locations where dance is being shared, taught, made, learnt, researched and developed has led to a number of queries waiting to be critically examined: How are we sustaining relationships and global dialogues within dance? What might be new ways of engaging in dance research and practice in a socially and physically distanced context? How are we becoming creative and innovative with our dance teaching, learning, making, performing and researching within this time of online engagement? How are we reimagining the meanings of dance and redefining the body in online spaces? Where were the dominant voices coming from in these digital dance encounters? What relations and communities emerge through dance in the age of distance? And, how can we look at opportunities for valuable virtual mobility within these times?

With this special issue we invite article submissions which critically and creatively discuss, define and give examples of how dance [practice] is being reimagined in the age of distance. The uncertainty we face and the challenges that the current climate of the world brings now and, into the future, presents a number of social, political, and economic concerns. What can be observed occurring around the world over the past months illustrate how dance and dance practitioners can offer hope, relief, change, or an alternative view of the world in these turbulent times. This can remind us that dance holds a place within the future we are collectively shaping.

 

Possible themes can be, but are not limited to:

  • Inclusivity and equity within a virtual dance landscape
  • Dancing avatars and identities and communities emerging through them
  • Engagement with technologies and innovating within technologies for dance
  • The reimagination of the meanings of dance in an increasingly online world
  • Business, leadership and enterprise in dance in the age of distance
  • Sustaining relationships and communities in and through dance in times of change
  • Ethics, privacy and ownership of dance in a rapidly changing world
  • Implication of digital delivery for Indigenous dance knowledges and practices
  • New conceptions of space in relation to dance and movement in and through technologies

 

We invite the above themes to be explored in relation to the following areas:

  • Teaching dance
  • Learning dance
  • Making dance
  • Performing dance
  • Networking in dance
  • Collaborating in dance
  • Researching dance
  • Transforming identities in dance