How is history moved, reconfigured, stimulated, by current research on dance? In connection with the Lyon Dance Biennale and the publication of A New History of Dance in the West (Ed. Seuil, Sept. 2020), this international conference in Lyon, France, aims to extend questions addressed by scholars’ contributions to the book, as well as generate entirely new dialogues via various acts of “decentering” dance historical scholarship. The polysemic notion of decentering is here understood as an invitation to reevaluate theoretical models, methods, approaches and historiographies of dance.

Introduction

How is history moved, reconfigured, stimulated, by current research on dance? In connection with the publication of A New History of Dance in the West (Le Seuil, Sept. 2020), this international conference aims to extend questions addressed by scholars’ contributions to the book, as well as to generate entirely new dialogues via various acts of “decentering” dance historical scholarship. The polysemic notion of decentering is here understood as an invitation to reevaluate theoretical models, methods, approaches and historiographies of dance.

One idea for a choreographic inspiration for the decentering process is Alwin Nikolais’s 1970 experiments and development of a “travelling center”. For Nikolais, decentering the dancing body provided emancipation and an opening up of the body’s expressive forces, especially in relation to a heritage of codified, hierarchical methods of organizing the body in dance training. Just as Nikolais experimented with a multiplicity of impulses and a polyfocality in space and time, this trans-period conference “Towards a Decentered History of Dance” hopes to valorize and initiate new ways for researchers to modulate their viewpoints (geographically, through time periods, aesthetics, genres, ethics as well as in relation to both artists and audiences of dance) concerning the history of embodied movement, that is to say, both theatrical as well as social dance practices.

Decentering is thus understood as an intellectual process of deconstruction, in which “moving the center” is a means to decolonize and reorient research perspectives, theoretical notions and methods by which dance practices and cultures have historically been legitimized or ignored (“center vs. periphery”, “capital vs. province”, “noble/savant vs. common/popular”, “occidental vs. oriental”, “high art” or theatrical dance vs. “folklore” or “ethnic dance”). Decentering the dance historian’s perspective is a theoretical and methodological gesture requiring an effort of reflexivity and a certain willingness to take risks. This is particularly pertinent where deconstructing hierarchies, reconceptualizing categories, reinventing and redefining sources and methods is concerned. Our intention is to generate a safe space for new knowledge and scholarship emerging from a decentered state of potential imbalance. Conceptualizing how people from different regions of the world relate to and have related to one another in the past via dancing and via movement experiences like Nikolais’s “travelling center” will hopefully allow new research in dance history to resonate with the various intellectual and corporeal imperatives to “move the center” that have been challenging a variety of fields in the social sciences and humanities.

Attending or following the conference

The conference will take place in hybrid form, with a mix of virtual and in-person papers. There are two ways to follow along:

• In person in Lyon – please register here: https://histoiredanse.sciencesconf.org/registration
• Online – Zoom links will be provided for each day on the following page (no registration required): https://histoiredanse.sciencesconf.org/page/zoom

We look forward to seeing you either in Lyon, where safety protocols will be in place, or virtually.

If you’d like to attend Lyon Dance Biennale performances, please see the official website for tickets: https://www.labiennaledelyon.com

All paper abstracts and biographies can be found in the bilingual conference booklet produced by the Centre national de la danse: https://histoiredanse.sciencesconf.org/page/livret

Program

June 10

CNSMD de Lyon

1:30pm : Doors open

 1.45pm: Opening remarks – with Mathieu Ferey, director of Lyon’s CNSMD

Session 1. A Voice for Decentralization: Nikolais (2-3pm)

• Élie Goldschmidt Décentrement et décentralisation dans l’œuvre du chorégraphe Alwin Nikolais et de quelques autres de ses contemporains Decentralization in the Work of Alwin Nikolais and Some of his Contemporaries
• Helly Minarti Danser dans la boue : décentrer le moderne Dancing in the Mud: Decentering the Modern

Session 2. Decentering Ballet (3-4.30pm)

• Tatiana Nikitina Sur les traces des danseurs : circulation des artistes chorégraphiques en Russie dans la première moitié du XIXe siècle In the Footsteps of Dancers: The Circulation of Choreographers in Russia in the First Half of the 19th Century
• Madison Mainwaring Le travestissement à l'Opéra de Paris : le genre et la question de l’agency dans le ballet du XIXe siècle Drag at the Paris Opera: Gender and the Question of Agency in Nineteenth-Century Ballet
• Lynn Brooks Comme ils dansaient : reconsidérer les figures du Noir et du Blanc sur scène dans l’Amérique d’avant-guerre How They Danced: refocusing the Black and the White on Antebellum U.S. Stages

Session 3. Decentering: Decolonizing? (4.45-6:30pm)

• Rainy Demerson Décentrer l’Occident : décoloniser la danse à travers le monde Decentering the West: Decolonizing Dance around the World
• Jessica Orsinet Être chorégraphe noir·e en France pluriterritoriale : regards croisés sur le récit et l’esthétique dans l’écriture chorégraphique Being a Black Choreographer in France's Diverse Territories: Perspectives on Narrative and Aesthetics in Choreography
• Isabelle Calabre Les quadrilles créoles, continent noir de l’histoire de la danse Creole Quadrilles, A Black Continent of Dance History

June 11 – morning

Usines Fagor / Biennale de la danse

8.45 : Doors open

Session 4. Dance and Ethnography (9-10.30am)

• Elina Djebbari Espaces et temporalités du dance floor : pour une histoire de la salsa au Bénin Space and Time on the Dance Floor: Towards a History of Salsa in Benin
• Elena Bertuzzi Admirer, filmer, juger, comparer : différentes manières de regarder une même performance. L’exemple du debaa des femmes de Mayotte Admiring, Filming, Judging, Comparing: Different Ways of Looking at the Same Performance. The Example of Women's Debaa in Mayotte
• Laura Fléty Opacité des émotions dans une danse andine (Bolivie) Opaque Emotions in One Andean Dance (Bolivia)

Session 5. Embodying the Voice (10.30-11.15am)

• Paule Gioffredi Danser la voix Dancing the Voice 
• Dialogue avec la chorégraphe Flora Détraz Discussion with the choreographer Flora Détraz

Session 6. Rethinking Exoticism (11.30am-1pm)

• Christina Gillinger-Correa Vivar Échappées du harem – l’auto-positionnement artistique des danseuses exoticisées Leila Bederkhan et Armen Ohanian Echappées du Harem - The Artistic Self-Positioning of Exoticized Dancers Leila Bederkhan and Armen Ohanian
• Sriradha Paul Par-delà le temple : l’odissi à l’ère transnationale Out of the Temple: Odissi in the Transnational Era
• Fernando López Rodríguez « On n’a pas de danseurs dans ce pays » : être chercheur aux Émirats arabes unis “We Don't Have Dancers in This Country”: Working as a Scholar in the United Arab Emirates

1-2pm : Lunch break

June 11 – afternoon

Usines Fagor / Biennale de la danse

Session 7. New York City, 1930s (2-3pm)

• Rachel Straus Décentrer le ballet russe à New York : les écrits sur la danse de Lincoln Kirstein et John Martin (1930-1948) Decentering Russian Ballet in New York City: The Dance Writings of Lincoln Kirstein and John Martin (1930-1948)
• Ann Dils Cartographier Manhattan : danse, propriété et identité dans le New York des années 1930 Mapping Manhattan: Dance, Property, and Identity in 1930s New York City

Session 8. Brazil, Second Half of the 20^th Century (3-4pm)

• Jacyan Castilho Angel Vianna, une pionnière brésilienne du décentrement de la danse somatique Angel Vianna, a Brazilian Pioneer in Decentering Somatic Dance
• Giulherme Hinz D’un devenir (quasi) inattendu : premiers matériaux pour une histoire du labanisme au Brésil About an (Almost) Unexpected Outcome: The First Sources for a History of Labanism in Brazil

Biennale performances at Usines Fagor

4pm : Christophe Haleb – Entropic Now

5:30pm : Brigel Gjoka & Rauf Yasit (en collaboration avec William Forsythe) – Neighbours (Part I)

June 12 – morning

Usines Fagor / Biennale de la danse

8.45 : Doors open

Session 9. Trances and Transformations (9-10.30am)

• Maëlle Rousselot Décentrer le regard sur le ballet classique à travers le prisme de la transe : Giselle Decentering Classical Ballet Through Trance: Giselle
• Michel Briand Des décentreurs de danse : Lucien de Samosate, le butō – et les dionysiaques d’aujourd’hui “Decenterers” of Dance: Lucian of Samosata, Butoh and Today’s Dionysians
• Maëva Lamolière Regarder la danse de Carlotta Ikeda depuis la catégorie « féminin ». Regards croisés entre la France et le Japon Carlotta Ikeda: Between France and Japan, Borrowed Material, Cross-Pollination, Hybridization. Rethinking Historiography to Read Movement Anew

Session 10. Historiography in Flux (10.45am-12.15pm)

• Mélanie Papin Pour une histoire du champ chorégraphique contemporain en France par les « forces discrètes » Towards a History of French Contemporary Dance Through Its “Discreet Forces”
• Sylviane Pagès Penser l’histoire de la danse en France par ses bords : réception, circulations et fabrique transnationale du geste Thinking Dance History in France Via the Edges: The Reception, Circulation and Transnational Production of Movement
• Collectif Entre-Lignes Partitions chorégraphiques : sources premières et autosuffisantes d’analyse et de transmission ? Choreographic Scores: The First, Self-Sufficient Sources for Analysis and Transmission?
• Dialogue avec Elena Bertuzzi Discussion with Elena Bertuzzi

12.15-1.45pm : Lunch

June 12 – afternoon

Usines Fagor / Biennale de la danse

1.45pm : Doors open

Session 12. Rethinking “Contemporary” (2-3.30pm)

• Victoire Jaquet Esthétiques et politiques des pratiques festivalières dans l’œuvre de Taoufiq Izeddiou Aesthetic and Political Meaning of Festival-Adjacent Practices in the Work of Taoufiq Izeddiou
• Karine Bénac-Giroux Quelques défis de la danse contemporaine aux Antilles (Martinique) : vers de nouveaux Imaginaires ? A Few Challenges in Contemporary Dance in the Antilles: Towards New Imaginaries? 
• Mahalia Lassibille Faire du « contemporain » en danse une problématique d’espace. À travers une ethnographie des catégories au Niger Turning the “Contemporary” in Dance Into a Geographical Issue. An Ethnography of Categories in Niger

3.30pm : Studio Orbe, Eric Minh Cuong Castaing & Nach – Vibes

Session 13. Sharing the Pleasure of Dance (4.15-5.15pm)

• Chloé d’Arcy Bienfaits des eaux, plaisirs de la danse. Organiser des bals dans les stations thermales et balnéaires au XIXe siècle The Benefits of Water, the Pleasures of Dance. Organising Balls in Spas and Bathing Resorts in the 19th Century
• Madeleine Planeix-Crocker Stay (Dis)Connected : déplacements et rapprochements dans la performance en commun. Le cas des Jams Sessions au Centquatre – Paris Stay (Dis)Connected: Forms of Displacement and Togetherness in Community-Based Performance. The Case of the Jam Sessions at the Centquatre – Paris
• Dialogue avec le chorégraphe Saïdo Lehlouh Discussion with the choreographer Saïdo Lehlouh

5.15pm : Noé Soulier – Removing Reset

5.45pm : Closing remarks – discussion with Dominique Hervieu (artistic director of Lyon’s Dance Biennale and Maison de la danse), Noé Soulier (choreographer, director of the CNDC d’Angers) and Catherine Tsékénis (director of the Centre national de la danse).

6.30pm : Additional Biennale performances at Usines Fagor

Organizing committee

• Laurent Barré (Centre national de la danse)
• Laura Cappelle (CERLIS – Centre de recherche sur les liens sociaux)
• Elizabeth Claire (CNRS/EHESS)
• Marie-Hélène Delavaud-Roux (université de Bretagne Occidentale)
• Marie-Hélène Garelli (université Toulouse II Jean Jaurès)
• Mariem Guellouz (université Paris Descartes)
• Felicia McCarren (Tulane University)
• Florence Poudru (Passages XX-XXI, CNSMD de Lyon)
• Aude Thuries (CEAC, Université de Lille)

With the contribution of Christine Détrez (ENS de Lyon)

Scientific committee

• Adrien Belgrano (École des hautes études en sciences sociales)
• Pauline Boivineau (université d’Angers)
• Adeline Chevrier-Bosseau (université Clermont Auvergne)
• Federica Fratagnoli (université Côte d’Azur)
• Yosef Garfinkel (Hebrew University of Jerusalem)
• Patrick Germain-Thomas (sociologue)
• Marie Glon (université de Lille)
• Michael Houseman (École pratique des hautes études)
• Sylvie Jacq-Mioche (historienne de la danse)
• Sergey Konaev (State Institute of Art Studies, Moscow)
• Hélène Marquié (université Paris-8 Vincennes – Saint-Denis)
• Geraldine Morris (University of Roehampton, London)
• Gerald Siegmund (Justus-Liebig Universität, Giessen)

Partners

Institutional partners

• Biennale de la danse de Lyon
• Centre national de la danse
• CNSMD de Lyon
• ENS de Lyon

Research labs/LabEx

• LabEx ICCA (Industries culturelles et création artistique)
• Centre de recherche sur les liens sociaux (CERLIS, UMR 8070)
• Centre de Recherches Historiques (CRH, UMR 8558)
• Lettres, langages et arts (UT2J, LLA CREATIS, Toulouse)
• Héritages et constructions dans le texte et l’image (HCTI EA4249, université Bretagne Occidentale)