2012 Special Topics Conference

Meanings and Makings of Queer Dance

February 16 - 18, 2012

University of Michigan

Ann Arbor, Michigan

This conference seeks to bring together queer studies and dance studies to consider the questions, methods, practices, and politics that preoccupy both fields.  Given the provocative challenges dance studies and queer studies make to hierarchies of power and ways of knowing, this conference will have presentations in a range of formats: traditional paper panels, embodied workshops, performances, and screendance.  Registration for this conference is now open.

---

2012 Annual Conference

Re-generations: Cultural Legacies in Contemporary Contexts

November 8 -11, 2012

Embassy Suites Hotel & Spa

Albuquerque, New Mexico

When we speak of dance traditions, dialogue coalesces around concepts like purity, innovation, legacy and change. Recognizing that many “traditional” artists display an endless series of innovations in practice, and even the most “experimental” artists make conscious decisions to engage with “traditional” values, we aim to move beyond the dichotomy of tradition/innovation. We encourage applicants to consider explorations of cultural legacies that account for complexities like the recontextualization of flamenco in the United States after the Spanish Civil War, the relocation of sacred indigenous dances within the secular sphere, the recuperation of traditions like Cambodian classical dance following the genocide by the Khmer Rouge, the syncretism of Yoruba religious practice within the framework of Catholicism and slavery in the New World, the queering of heteronormative icons like the Swan, the reinvention of bharatanatyam in the transition from colonialism to Home Rule, or the formation of new traditions by experimental artists like Merce Cunningham, innovators whose changes to convention became codified structures or systems. These topics are suggestive of the kinds of inquiries that might be pursued, but are not intended to limit the scope of possibilities under this conference theme. CORD is currently accepting abstract submissions for this conference.

---