Ÿ Maps, Trespassing and the Periphery 159
Seika Boye, Emma Doran
2016
FORUM Performance Matters
unpublished
At the culmination of the recent symposium "The Other 'D': Locating 'D'ance within Drama, Theatre, and Performance Studies in Canada," we decided it would be valuable to consolidate our responses in order to reflect on our experiences. These responses include readings, conversations, and reflections on the symposium (held January 2016, Centre for Drama, Theatre, and Performance Studies, University of Toronto) and a subsequent roundtable held at the annual conference of the Canadian Association
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... or Theatre Research (May 2016, Calgary). These two events we hosted (along with Nikki Cesare Schotzko, Heather Fitzsimmons Frey, and Evadne Kelly) were intended to examine ways dance studies connects to the academy, and the future of dance studies in Canada both within and beyond the scope of drama, theatre, and performance studies. Considered in this reflection are the conversations generated during the symposium, but also the experiences of its incubation stages including soliciting proposals, implementing a selection process, hearing presentations, scheduling, writing, interviewing, grant writing, and website building, all of which form the foundation of any arts performance or conference. In particular, we have returned to some powerful statements: we invited specific scholars and artists to write personal reflections about their individual journeys in and through drama, theatre, dance, performance studies, and beyond, in practice, theory, and pedagogy. We also reflect on our collaboration in an e-interview with Rebecca Schneider. These statements and the e-interview can be found on theotherd.ca website under the drop-down menu "Statements." Instead of a clear, neatly packaged message, here are some of our thoughts, which we offer as reflections, provocations, and invitations for future discussion and, we hope, debate. While our part in this conversation about dance studies in the academy began in earnest as we decided which questions to ask Schneider in our e-interview, we (Boye and Doran) have actually been thinking together, connecting, and crossing paths in ways related to these issues for more than a decade. These intersections are worth noting as they shape the directions of our idea sharing. We first met as part of the 2004 cohort of the Masters in Dance at York University (then within the Faculty of Fine Arts). During our master's studies, we were both focused on Canadian dance history for our research-Emma on Winnipeg's Contemporary Dancers and Seika on women modern dance pioneers in Toronto. We were both trying to fill in gaps in the history of theatrical dance in Canada. Following this two-year program we met again while working at Dance Collection Danse (DCD), Canada's only dedicated theatrical dance history archives and publisher. Seika updated the collection of over five hundred file fonds, and Emma was one of the first to begin digitizing the collection. We both also fulfilled many other roles, as is so often the case in a small, hardworking dance organization. Emma began her doctorate in Communication and Culture at Ryerson University in 2008, and her dissertation is titled "'Feeling' in Modern Dance Print Media: Loie Fuller, Isadora Duncan and Maud Allan" (2014). Seika began her PhD in Drama, Theatre and Performance Studies at the University of Toronto in 2010 and will soon be defending her ______________________________________________________________________________ Seika Boye is a PhD candidate and Lecturer in the Centre for Drama, Theatre and Performance Studies at the University of Toronto, where she also serves as Director of the Centre for Dance Studies. Emma Doran specializes on performance studies, modern dance studies, media ecology, and phenomenology. She is a postdoctoral fellow in the Modern Literature and Culture Research Centre at Ryerson University.
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