Emerging Bodies

The concept of 'worldmaking' is based on the idea that the world is not given, but rather produced through language, actions, ideas and perception. This collection of essays takes a closer look at various hybrid and disparate worlds related to dance and choreography. Coming from a broad range of different backgrounds and disciplines, the authors inquire into the ways of producing dance worlds: through artistic practice, discourse and media, choreographic form and dance material. The essays in this volume critically reflect the predominant topos of dance as something fleeting and ephemeral - an embodiment of the Other in modernity. Moreover, they demonstrate that there is more than just one universal 'world of dance', but rather a multitude of interrelated dance worlds with more emerging every day.

Gabriele Klein is professor of dance and performance studies at Hamburg University. She is a member of the Hamburg Cluster of Excellence 'Understanding Written Artefacts'. Her research fields are the social and political theory of dance, choreography, and performance, body politics, and transnational popular dance cultures. Sandra Noeth (Dr. phil.) is a Professor at the HZT-Inter-University Centre for Dance Berlin (Berlin University of the Arts/University of Performing Arts 'Ernst Busch') and curator and dramaturge internationally active in independent and institutional contexts. She specializes in ethical and political perspectives toward body-practice and theory and in dramaturgy in body-based performing arts. As Head of Dramaturgy and Research at Tanzquartier Wien (2009-2014), Sandra Noeth developed a series of research and presentation projects on concepts and practices of responsibility, religion, integrity and protest in relation to the body. As an educator, she has been working with DOCH-Stockholm University of the Arts since 2012 and was Resident Professor in the 2015-16 HWP-program at Ashkal Alwan, Beirut.