Call for papers NOFOD conference 2024: The Dancer and the Dance

NOFOD - Nordic Forum for Dance Research 16th international conference, Kristiania University College, Oslo, April 23 - 26, 2024

Call for papers: The Dancer and the Dance: practices, education, communities, traditions, and histories 

Deadline for abstracts: November 15, 2023

Email: conference@nofod.org

Throughout history the dancer has amongst other things been the focus of attention, admiration, despise and contempt. Being the situation for dance movement, steps, dances and choreography, the human body, and embodied practices are central in most dance contexts. Historically dance is practised, transformed, adapted, choreographed, invented, renewed, passed on, conserved, and understood as ever changing. One could argue that there is a mutual dependency between the dancer and the dance and that without the dancer dance simply does not exist, or is that necessarily so?

One way of understanding the dancer is through Rebecca Hilton’s dancerness – as “the very particular way/place/state from which a dancer experiences a dance, the choreography, the world. […] Dancers think, feel and act upon the world in a particular way.” 1 The 16th NOFOD conference addresses dancers’ experiences and actions, as well as different understandings of the dancer, dance, and dancing. We invite presentations investigating the dancer, the dance, and their relationship from various perspectives and contexts.

NOFOD invites presentation proposals that relate to or engage with, but are not limited to, the following topics and questions:

• Practices and contexts - What are the dancer’s experiences of dancing in different or changing contexts, and of having different roles (practitioner/ performer/ collaborator/ creator)? What kind of affects, moods and atmospheres do the dancer contribute to? What embodied knowledge(s) is developed by the dancer? How can the dancer’s embodied experiences be a resource for embodied writing, as well as multidisciplinary studies? What does it mean to be a dancer in the past, present, and future? In what directions are dance practices heading?
• Education - What constitutes the challenges and demands in dance pedagogy in school and higher education? What changes are needed to facilitate more equity and inclusion in dance education? What does it mean to be a dance educator, to educate and become a dancer? What is needed and called for in the education of future professional dancers? In what ways may education transform the dancer?
• Community, society, and intersectionality - How can dance as communities of traditions and practices negotiate and handle the need to adapt to new societal concerns and developments? I what ways can dancers contribute as change-makers in society through activism/artivism? How can questions of equity and inclusion be challenged by, and challenge, the dancer? May dance be applied in therapy, without losing its poetic and imaginary potential? How can intersectional perspectives shift the understanding of the dancer and the dance?
• Traditions and histories - In what way is the dancer a carrier, as well as transformer and reformer of traditions? How can the dancer’s embodied knowledge provide ethnographic perspectives from within the practice? Can historical research capture the dancer’s experiences? Can the dancer’s embodied knowledge function as an embodied archive for historical research?

Keynote speakers

• Elizabeth Svarstad (Norway). Independent dancer, choreographer, movement director and dance researcher.
• Leena Rouhiainen (Finland). Head of University of the Arts Research Institute, and Vice Dean and Professor of Artistic Research, Theatre Academy, University of the Arts Helsinki.
• Rose Martin (New Zealand/Norway). Dean at Faculty of Education, Arts and Culture, Nord University.

Proposals

The NOFOD board embraces a plurality of approaches to the conference theme and welcomes a range of proposals for presentations:

• Paper presentations: 20 minutes + up to 10 minutes discussion
• Lecture-demonstrations: 45 minutes
• Roundtable discussions and conversations: 45 minutes
• Movement workshops: 60 minutes

If you are interested in contributing to other formats, please specify in your proposal your requirements and whether the format needs 30, 45 or 60 minutes.

Please send your proposal in the form of an abstract of no more than 300 words and a short bio (100 words) to conference@nofod.org by the postponed deadline November 15, 2023.

Participation fees

(Early bird//after March 1, 2024)

• 90€//105€ for students (up to MA degree), non-affiliated scholars, and independent artists
• 180€//210€ for NOFOD members
• 240€//270€ for non-members

Information about registration and payment will be announced on NOFOD's webpage by January 2024.

Welcome to Oslo!

The conference is arranged by NOFOD, Nordic Forum for Dance Research, www.nofod.org, in cooperation with Kristiania University College in Oslo, www.kristiania.no.

For the very first time a NOFOD-conference will take place in Oslo, and the NOFOD board members look forward to welcome you!

Irene Velten Rothmund (chair), Katrín Gunnarsdóttir (vice chair), Halldis Folkedal/Hilde Rustad, Lars Dahl Pedersen, Sarah Pini, Kirsi Heimonen, Tuire Colliander, Amy Skånberg Dahlstedt and Petra Hultenius.