CATR The Other D, Roundtable Call for Papers

[Rebecca Biason]

Seika Boye, Heather Fitzsimmons-Frey, Evadne Kelly and T. Nikki Cesare Schotzko
Centre for Drama, Theatre and Performance Studies, University of Toronto
seika.boye at mail.utoronto.ca, h.fitzsimmonsfrey at mail.utoronto.ca, evadne_f at yahoo.com, cesare.schotzko at utoronto.ca

CATR/ACRT 2015 – Energizing Communities | Seminar Proposal
The Other ‘D’: Locating Dance in Drama, Theatre, and Performance Studies in Canada

Scholarly Rationale
Historically, dance studies scholars in Canada have comprised a discrete community of academics even as the practice and/or scholarship of dance has occupied fringe spaces within disciplines including kinesiology, anthropology, theatre and performance studies. There are an increasing number of interdisciplinary performance-based academic departments that incorporate dance-focused projects into their curricula. However, without attending support from or for dance studies, this anticipates the risk of a generalizing of dance that abstracts it from its own scholarship and history. Within the particular context of Canadian institutions and departments, this risk becomes even greater as the first and second generations of dance studies scholars age and retire from academic posts. As the redistribution of hiring reflects more and more interdisciplinary structures, how will dance studies in Canada be prioritized? How does the transmission of Canadian-focused knowledge continue?
            Following a two-day symposium of the same name held at the University of Toronto in January, this seminar will explore these trends within Canadian academia.  We will engage modes of both ‘energizing’ the dance community around theatre and performance studies, and those around dance, while broadening the conversation to include the larger field of theatre and performance studies scholars in Canada who engage dance in their own scholarship or pedagogy. As with the symposium, these conversations are at once an open act of advocacy and a gesture towards strengthening scholarly communities and broadening interaction between dance, drama, theatre, performance studies, and beyond.  

Structure
            This roundtable will include between ten and twelve participants who are selected from their submitted abstracts. Ideas will develop through a blog during spring 2016, culminating in the ninety-minute meeting during CATR. We will ask participants to submit 1,500-word papers and supplementary media by Friday, 8 April 2016, allowing us to begin a dialogue. The first portion will provide an opportunity for participants to provide brief five to seven minute presentations that introduce their research in relation to the exchanges that will have transpired via the blog network; and the second, longer portion of the seminar, will involve a group discussion facilitated by the seminar conveners. 
 
Call for Participants
Seminar: The Other ‘D’: Locating Dance in Drama, Theatre, and Performance Studies in Canada
Historically, dance studies scholars in Canada have comprised a discrete community of academics even as the practice and/or scholarship of dance has occupied fringe spaces within disciplines including kinesiology, anthropology, theatre and performance studies. There are an increasing number of interdisciplinary performance-based academic departments that incorporate dance-focused projects into their curricula. However, without attending support from or for dance studies, this anticipates the risk of a generalizing of dance that abstracts it from its own scholarship and history. Within the particular context of Canadian institutions and departments this risk becomes even greater as the first and second generations of dance studies scholars age and retire from academic posts. As the redistribution of hiring reflects more and more interdisciplinary structures, how will dance studies in Canada be prioritized? How does the transmission of Canadian focused knowledge continue?

We invite scholars to consider ways dance connects, divides, creates, defines and, indeed, energizes peoples and communities.  While our invitation is not limited to historical inquiry, we will root our discussions in looking backwards towards the historical development of dance and dance studies in Canada to honour the labour of the past and acknowledge the needs of the present. This call is at once an act of advocacy and a gesture towards strengthening scholarly communities and broadening interaction between dance, drama, theatre, performance studies and beyond.  

            The roundtable will run virtually through spring 2016 and will culminate in the ninety-minute in-person meeting during CATR. We ask participants to submit 1,500-word papers and supplementary media by Friday 8 April 2016. 
            Themes of interest include, but are not limited to:
o	the positioning of dance in theatre, performance studies and the academy;
o	significance of gender;
o	embodied performance and marginalized peoples;
o	dance equity and advocacy; 
o	documentation and legacy; 
o	dance’s philosophical, theoretical, practical pedagogical and methodological offerings;
o	cultural performance where there are no “fields” of theatre vs. dance.

To apply for this seminar, please send a 350-word abstract by 30 January, 2016 to theotherdance at gmail.com. Please include the subject heading “CATR - Roundtable.” Feel free to contact us with any additional questions before the deadline. 

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