Dance Staff invited to visit South Korea
Monday 28 November 2011
Two members of staff from Dance in the School of Arts were invited by Surrey’s international partners in Seoul,South Korea, to give lectures, present their research and lead workshops and discussions with academics, practitioners and students.
Jennifer Jackson, Senior Lecturer in Dance, reflected on her recent choreographic research alongside invited scholars from France, India, Japan and Korea in two papers presented at EWHA Women’s University and at the Korea National University of Arts. For the Korea Society for Dance Documentation 5th International Symposium on Practice Based Research in the Performing Arts, Jennifer presented ‘Time Chant: dancing between Personal and Shared Histories in New Ballet Choreography’ an analysis of creative strategies in her work with dancers from English National Ballet. In ‘Dancing the Invisible: investigating embodied knowledge and improvisation in mature dance practice’, she discussed the productive dynamic in practice based research between the professional artist and academic researcher and engaged with questions from traditional Korean and contemporary dance practitioners about frameworks for arts practice in the academy.
Dr. Efrosini Protopapa, Lecturer in Dance and Choreography, presented the practice-led research project The Body of a Diplomat that took place in Germany and the UK in summer 2011, in a talk titled ‘Ignorance and Negotiation: a choreographer searching for knowledge’, at the Korea Nation University of Arts, as part of their symposium on 'Arts eduation and Practice-based Research'. Efrosini also gave a paper on ‘Collaborative Practice and Principles of Performance’, looking at a solo she toured internationally between 2006-2009, at the International Symposium of The Korean Society for Dance titled ‘Reflections on Dance Practice and Research’, which was held at Sungkyunkwan University. In both these two presentations, Efrosini contextualised her research in terms of latest debates on practice-led research, which inform her teaching as well as her own choreographic research projects, and responded to questions from international scholars and students on the methodologies and challenges of developing high-quality professional practice as part of academic research.