CDaRE PGR Brochure

Centre for Dance Research (C-DaRE) Postgraduate Research

Image credit: Brandon Kahn: Marie-Louise Crawley (in mask), Likely Terpsichore? (Fragments), Ashmolean Museum of Art and Archaeology, UK (2018).

Research Coventry

discover more online www.coventry.ac.uk/research

Welcome to the Centre for Dance Research Central to our research is the body and the body as a producer and container of knowledge. We ask questions about how we might better understand that knowledge, how we capture it, how we document it, and the kinds of novel analogue and digital methods we can use to document this knowledge.

A lot of our work is directly related to, and in collaboration, with professional performing arts companies and cultural organisations, both within the UK and internationally.

Professor Sarah Whatley Executive Director

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About C-DaRE The Centre for Dance Research (C-DaRE) is located within the Faculty of Arts and Humanities. The centre specialises in an inclusive interdisciplinary approach to diverse forms of artistic and scholarly research in dance, supported by new approaches to documentation, analysis and dissemination of choreographic creativity.

Our funded research, often centred on our collaboration with partners across the cultural sector, ranges from major projects funded by research councils, the European Commission, the Leverhulme and Wellcome Trusts, British Academy, British Council, to smaller seed funding by the HEA and artist-led projects funded by Arts Council England. Our research projects range from large-scale collaborative projects to smaller scale projects on a local, regional or national level. Many combine our own expertise with multi- or interdisciplinary teams of researchers to explore particular challenges facing the creative and cultural industries. Our research is often initiated by, or involves, international choreographers and dance artists; together we are excited by developing new ways to make and document dance, to enhance appreciation of dance and to find ways to enhance people’s lives through participating in dance.

C-DaRE is also home to international peer-reviewed journals. These include the Journal of Dance and Somatic Practices and the Journal of Dance, Movement and Spiritualities, published by Intellect. Our publications include several sole and jointly authored books, book chapters, journal articles, films, exhibitions, and various live, digital and immersive performance outputs.

We are a team of international researchers, research professionals and a large community of PhD candidates, researching a range of topics connected to our core themes.

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Research themes Our research themes are many and varied, as are our research methods. These themes and methods are both reflected in and expanded by the many topics of our research students.

Broadly, those themes focus on reflexive enquiry into embodied practices, collective and political action, digitisation, cultural value and the expanded choreographic field. In addition, C-DaRE also investigates and critiques the legal frameworks that can be used to support and empower the cultural sector.

Our broad research themes include: ▪ Dance documentation, dissemination and publication ▪ Cultural heritage and preservation ▪ Choreographic processes and somatic practices ▪ Dance digital and software studies ▪ Movement and computing ▪ Interdisclipinarity and interculturalism ▪ Inclusivity and collectivity ▪ Critical discourse and performance philosophy ▪ Alternative performance sites, mixed reality and immersive environments ▪ Intellectual property, human rights and implications of Artificial Intelligence and ethics ▪ Bodies, health and wellbeing ▪ Practice research

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Research environment C-DaRE hosts a variety of conferences, symposia and other research events that attract delegates from across the UK and internationally. Our biennial ‘Dance and Somatic Practices’ conference is an international gathering for scholars and practitioners to share new work through curated panels, papers, workshops and performative sharings.

We also run a unique events series called C-DaRE Invites... Each event is ‘An Invitation to...’ a unique occurrence developed in collaboration with staff and a guest(s) proposer. Events include, but are not limited to: presentations, talks, discussions, sharing of practice, performances and film screenings.

Presenters include C-DaRE members, postgraduate researchers and invited external researchers, artists and organisations.

Each event is focused on a topic related to the invitee's current research and interests, and is also curated to take place during a particular meal of the day, i.e. breakfast, lunch or afternoon tea. We believe that sharing food can be a gateway to conversation and developing relationships and collaboration.

Regular reading groups and other meetings also support postgraduate research (PGR) students to develop their research skills and share research in progress.

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Postgraduate research: what we offer Researchers and PGR students are colocated in ICE, a university building which includes a large dedicated PGR workspace with a number of hot-desking spaces and computers, a large flexible dance studio for practice research, meeting rooms for symposia and other gatherings, an archive room, and a specialist library providing rare and specialist dance resources. We also have some specialist IT equipment for video editing, motion tracking, etc.

We encourage PGR students to get involved with all of our events in many different ways, including submitting proposals, volunteering to help out, or joining the organising committee for conferences. Students may also gain experience of journal production by supporting the editorial processes with our own journals. Getting involved will also give students valuable experience in the field while studying.

While studying for a PGR degree is an individual pursuit, there are many opportunities to become part of a research community. This includes regular PGR gatherings, the centre’s international seminar series and centre-based research symposia and conferences. Students are also supported to organise their own events and meetings, which has included praxis and reading groups.

The growing research environment and PhD community that is currently flourishing at C-DaRE provides an equally exciting and fertile research context for current and future students and collaboratively created research events are now happening regularly.

Paula Kramer former Coventry University PhD student

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Image credit: Emilie Gallier (PhD candidate) with Nina Boas and Camille Gerbea.

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Find us on social media: CDaRE_CU

PGR enquiries E: cdare.fah@coventry.ac.uk Find us Institute for Creative Enterprise (ICE), Parkside, Coventry, CV1 2NE www.coventry.ac.uk/cdare

J1690-20 Š Coventry University.

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