This SNSF-funded project examines social phenomena from a dance studies perspective. It deals with social choreographies and understands these as social orders that are produced performatively. In this way, the research project contributes to understanding artistic and social processes in their interconnections and to rethinking them as choreographies.
The term ‚social choreography‘ has received increasing attention in the last decade, particularly in English and German-speaking dance studies. This is due to a reinterpretation and expansion of the term ‚choreography‘, which reflects aspects of the ‚social‘ more strongly. The research project brings together the multitude of definitions, concepts and methodological approaches to social choreography, creates the necessary order, takes them further and applies them analytically.
Two focal points form the central research interest of the project: (1) The investigation of the different relationships between social and political topics and phenomena in the context of an expanded understanding of choreography; (2) the bodily negotiation of virulent socio-political discourses (climate change, ecology, decolonization and urban development) in choreographies by contemporary dance makers.
The project develops an innovative methodology that is characterized by the combination of theory-based, performance-analytical and praxeological approaches and thus expands the discourse within dance studies. Two variants of production- and process-related approaches are used in the project: On the one hand, the sub-projects draw on praxeological and ethnographic research methods; on the other hand, the project develops ‚laboratories‘ with cooperating artists – choreographic orders are tested directly in the relevant social space/context, analyzed and discussed together.
Over the course of the four-year project phase (November 2024–October 2028), several publications are planned (including book publications, an online glossary and a podcast series) as well as public workshops and laboratories to interweave academic and artistic research.
Subproject A (C. Thurner): Urban Choreographies
Subproject B (J. Wehren): Landscape Choreographies
Subproject C (J. Hilari): Migration Choreographies
Subproject D (D. Castillo): Choreographies of Precariousness
