Moving Forward in Difficult Times: recognising what our dance practices bring to social engagement

Description

The current pandemic and geo-political contexts have exacerbated the difficulties of working for dance artists. The situation also highlights the profound need for connection and community building. Prof. Houston will turn to her research with socially engaged dance artists in order to think about how to move forward with more agency through these
difficulties. She will use her research with socially engaged dance artists working with non-professionals as a basis for exploring what might happen if we start to think about the 'soft skills' that are produced by socially engaged dance practices.

She contends that recognising and articulating how dance artists cultivate soft skills (such as taking care, negotiation, resilience, empathy) might give space for a more confident understanding and articulation of what dancers may offer, not only in a work context, but also to society. She will drawn on her work with the Empowering Dance Erasmus Plus project, collaborating with K3, Dansateliers, CDC Bassano del Grappa, La Briqueterie, HIPP and the University of Zagreb, to illustrate.

Estimated audience numbers (if applicable)

unknown, mixture of academic and dance industry

Period	24 Jun 2022
Held at	Hong Kong Academy of Performing Arts, Hong Kong
Degree of Recognition	International