Launch Event for the Oxford Handbook of Shakespeare and Dance

We’d like to invite you to the launch of The Oxford Handbook of Shakespeare and Dance (OUP, 2019) at Coventry University’s Centre for Dance Research on Wednesday 29th May from 2pm.

Dr Jennifer Nevile will give the keynote paper, entitled ‘Ballet Plots, a Pike Exhibition, Fireworks and Alchemy: An Early Seventeenth-Century Dance Master’s Notebook’.

Dr Anne Daye will lead a Shakespearean dance workshop.

Dr Lynsey McCulloch and Dr Brandon Shaw will introduce this new handbook, the first edited collection to examine the relationship between Shakespeare and dance.

It would be wonderful to see you there. If you have any queries or would like further information, please contact Lynsey McCulloch at ab3405@coventry.ac.uk.

For directions to the Centre for Dance Research at the ICE Building in Coventry

CALL FOR PAPERS: Adaptation and Dance

Dance productions frequently draw on artistic precedents. Ballet companies rely on classics based on fairy and folk tales but audiences also enjoy an expanding repertoire of works based on a broader range of sources: art – The Green Table, The Rake’s Progress, A Simple Man; the Bible – Job, The Judas Tree, The Prodigal Son; film – Edward Scissorhands; biography – Anastasia, Fall River Legend, Mayerling; children’s literature – The Tales of Beatrix Potter; novels – Anna Karenina, The Great Gatsby, Manon, Woolf Works; operas – The Car Man, Madame Butterfly; plays – Edward II, Hobson’s Choice; poetry – Images of Love. Shakespeare has provided inspiration for a large number of dance-makers. These examples signal how across several decades choreographers working globally with a range of companies have produced one-act and full-length pieces for stage and screen.

In recent years there has been growing interest in the analysis of a range of topics connected with adaptation and dance. By bringing together scholars and practitioners, this one-day conference seeks to move away from the dominant focus on film and television in Adaptation Studies and consider the neglected area of dance. Papers are invited on topics related, but not limited, to:

• Fairy and folk tale ballet adaptations
• The history of ballet adaptations
• Modern dance and classical ballet interpretations of literary works
• Key choreographers as adaptors
• The idea of the choreographer as ‘auteur’
• Dance adaptations of novels and poems
• Stardom, celebrity and dance adaptations
• Shakespeare and ballet
• Genres of dance adaptation
• The theoretical underpinnings of Adaptation Studies in relation to dance

It is hoped that selected papers will form an edited collection. Proposals (between 50–100 words) and a brief biographical note should be sent to Elinor Parsons (eparsons@dmu.ac.uk) and Hila Shachar (hila.shachar@dmu.ac.uk) by 6 November 2015.

De Montfort University

Dance Disguised & Obscured: A Dance Study Forum

Saturday 21st and Sunday 22nd March 2015
Organised by the Dolmetsch Historical Dance Society at Goldsmith’s, London.

Two contrasting topics are explored by specialists in their field, sharing new understanding and sources in dance history. Delegates are welcome to attend either as participants in practical exploration or as observers and commentators on the dance and performance under discussion.

Saturday’s topic concerns baroque theatre dance in Spain, France and Germany.

Sunday’s topic concerns morris, mumming, disguising and folk dance.

For full details and booking form go to http://www.dhds.org.uk/conference/year/2015

Premodern Queenship and Diplomacy in Europe: Workshop

Two workshops, open to the public, part of the ‘Premodern Queenship and Diplomacy in Europe’ conference, Canterbury Christ Church University, 11-13thSeptember 2014.

Friday 11 September, St Gregory’s Centre, Canterbury Christ Church University

The early modern dance workshop examines the sexual politics of early modern diplomacy by way of non-verbal codes of conduct. Dr Anne Daye’s workshop relies fully on audience participation, as she will recreate a ballet scene from The Nine Muses: A Trope for Peace in Female Diplomacy. Through the precision of dance, Anne Daye will bring to life the means by which early modern queens could engage with diplomacy, at the same time as revealing the limitations to their power.

For more information about the dance workshop, please see the dance workshop webpage: http://www.premodernqueenship.com/#!untitled/c1mij

Saturday 12 September, St Gregory’s Centre, Canterbury Christ Church University

The early modern performance workshop seeks to investigate the complex and fascinating ways in which Elizabethan dramatists theatricalised British& European Queenship. Whether they staged events from the thirteenth century, or, provided flattering portraits of Elizabeth I, early modern dramatists were keen to reimagine Queenship and diplomacy. The workshop is important in investigating three major Elizabethan dramatists, John Lyly - who introduced Queens onto the early modern stage - Shakespeare, and Marlowe, to assess how the early modern theatre contributed to cultural and social understandings of powerful Queens. Featuring a talk by Dr Andy Kesson (Roehampton), the drama workshop explores the textual and performative means available to premodern elite women to engage informally with diplomacy. It will be followed by scenes from three plays by five professionally trained actors, Sophia Kayes, Sarah Mackenzie, Stephanie Winiecki, Ruth Rundle and Brian McMahon. The aim of the workshop is to invoke audience participation via an open floor discussion at the end of the performance between the actors, literary specialists and audience members.

For more information about the drama workshop, please see the drama workshop webpage: http://www.premodernqueenship.com/#!untitled/c152x

CALL FOR CONTRIBUTIONS: 'Shakespeare and Dance'

A new edited volume: Shakespeare and Dance
Editors: Dr Lynsey McCulloch (Coventry University) and Dr Brandon Shaw (Brown University)

We are seeking potential contributors to an edited volume of essays on the subject of Shakespeare and Dance. Despite much academic interest in movement, materiality and the body – and the growth of dance studies as a disciplinary field – Shakespeare’s employment of dancing as both theatrical device and thematic marker remains under-studied. The reimagining of his plays as dance works is also neglected as a subject for research. This volume looks to examine Shakespearean dance in all its variety, with the objectives of stimulating interest in and producing conceptual schema relevant to this growing area of study.

The proposed volume will feature essays not only from literary scholars but also from dance historians, choreographers and practitioners, historical dance reenactors; music specialists, dance critics and performance theorists. Topics might include the following: early modern choreography; masque culture and influence; the jig, and dance as resolution; Shakespeare’s dance sequences; the early modern dancing body; music and dance; movement direction in Shakespearean performance; Shakespeare as dance within balletic and contemporary choreographies. We also welcome co-authored works, particularly those in partnership with dance practitioners.

After discussions with a prominent academic press, we aim to submit a full proposal in September this year. Please send an abstract of no more than 300 words, alongside a short biography, to Dr Brandon Shaw at brandon_shaw@brown.edu and Dr Lynsey McCulloch at lynsey.mcculloch@coventry.ac.uk by August 15th, 2014. Selected authors will be notified by August 31st, 2014. Completed essays of approx. 8000 words will be due mid-2015, subject to contract.