Capturing Composition: Improvisation in Dance Research and Practice

24th to 27th June 2010

Firkin Crane, Cork, Ireland

As part of this conference, DRFI will be holding a Dance Expo for organisations and institutions involved in Dance Research, Education, Production and Advocacy. This will be a wonderful opportunity to promote your work to the 60+ international delegates attending the conference.

There are only 12 display positions available, of which three have been allocated to DRFI, Dance Ireland and Firkin Crane. As space is limited, exhibitors will be accepted on a first-come, first-booked basis. A fee of €75 for each display position is payable at time of booking. This fee includes a discounted Institution Membership for DRFI.

If you would like to be involved in this unique opportunity to promote your company or organisation, please contact Sheila Creevey at s.creevey@gmail.com for further details

We look forward to seeing you in Cork.

Dance Research Forum Ireland’s Annual General Meeting takes place on Friday, 25^th June 2010 during DRFI’s 3^rd International Conference.

Venue: Musgrave Theatre, Firkin Crane, Cork

Time: 15:15 to 16:45

Dance practitioners, teachers or researchers are encouraged to come along to the AGM.

Membership of DRFI is only €20 for the year (€10 for Students, €50 for Institutions). By joining DRFI before the AGM (or on the day of the meeting) you can actively partake in the meeting and vote on issues on the agenda.

Carmel McKenna (DRFI Secretary)

Tel: +353 (0) 87 6410180

mckennadance@gmail.com

carmel.mckenna@lit.ie

NOTE

If any member of DRFI wishes to have an item placed on the agenda, or has nomination(s) for officers of the Board of DRFI, please forward them to me.

The Interview – theory, practice, society

13th-17th April 2010, Queen’s University Belfast, UK

For more information: http://www.theasa.org/conferences/asa10/theme.htm

in association with

The Irish World Academy of Music and Dance

Presents a Seminar

on

A Sense of Relation

Wednesday, 10^th March, 2010 at 2 pm

Room B, Foundation Building, University of Limerick

Dance Research Forum Ireland (DRFI) was founded by Dr Catherine Foley in June, 2003. It is a non-profit, international, interdisciplinary, and inclusive society that promotes, supports and develops research and scholarship of dance in Ireland and further a field.  Through seminars, student symposii, international conferences, and publications, the Forum provides a platform for presentation, discussion, and critical reflection on all issues relating to dance and human movement. 

Seminar Chair: Dr Catherine Foley

Biography: Catherine Foley is course director of the MA Ethnochoreology and MA Irish Traditional Dance Performance programmes at the Irish World Academy of Music and Dance; she also supervises doctoral research in dance.  She is founder and Chair of Dance Research Forum Ireland.

Speakers

The sense of relation

Dr Simon Gilbertson

Since 1994, I have been working on the sense of relation. Though the term, sense of relation emerged in my work later in 2002, the body of this work began with the study of music improvised by a professional music therapist and individuals who had experienced severe traumatic brain injuries and continued through the study of the history of human perception and action. The concept of the sense of relation has been elicited, extended and expanded through a consideration of social neuroscience, studies of music, dance and theatre, elite sport, and human development over the life-span.

The process of differentiating and fusing entities of perception, creating context-dependant spectra of meaning and joining these in the real world, relies on a fundamental human faculty, which I have defined as, the sense of relation. Providing a hypothetical model for studies in social neuroscience and a description of contextualised human development over the life-span, the sense of relation offers a unique explanation for the coherent diversity of human experience.

In this paper, I will portray these steps through a narrative about the cry of children, little boys and transistor radios, champion racing horses and swimmers, iconic stories and Grammy-award winning musicians, and a man who seemed to be able to draw almost everything.

Biography

Dr Simon Gilbertson is Assistant Course Director of the MA in Music Therapy program at the Irish World Academy of Music and Dance and Associate Director of the Music and Health Research Group at the University of Limerick.

As a music therapy clinician he has worked in England and Germany in a range of clinical settings working with children and adolescents with autism, children and adults with cancer, neurological illness and trauma. He completed his doctoral research on music improvisation with people with traumatic brain injuries related to road traffic incidents in 2004 under the mentorship of Professor David Aldridge at the Chair of Qualitative Research in Medicine, University Witten/Herdecke, Germany.

Simon has presented internationally and been published in a number of peer-reviewed journals. He has written two book chapters on music therapy with people who have experienced traumatic brain injury and has written his first book, ‘Music therapy and traumatic brain injury: A light on a dark night’ with David Aldridge for Jessica Kingsley Publishers. Simon is the current World Federation of Music Therapy Regional Liaison for Europe.

A changing sense of relation

Mats Melin

This paper is a personal reflection on my own changing sense of relation between movement genres, music, and musicians.  From growing up dancing mainly to recorded music within strictly defined parameters of movement and music relation to interacting with different musicians over the years. The first steps in realising that some musicians have a better understanding of playing for dance than others and the pitfalls of picking the wrong one! The journey of discovering other styles of dance, in particular Cape Breton step dancing, where the relationships between, the dancer and movement patterns interacting with the musician and the music are crucial. Finally, as a non-musician, acquiring the skills to go inside the music and feel the movements it asks you to perform and the sense of relation with certain musicians and other dancers.

Biography

Swedish born Traditional Dancer, Choreographer and Researcher Mats Melin has worked professionally with dance in Scotland since 1995 and in Ireland since 2005. He has been engaged in freelance work nationally and internationally as well as having been Traditional Dancer in Residence for four Scottish Local Authorities. Mats co-started the dynamic Scottish performance group ‘Dannsa’ in 1999 and have been commissioned to choreograph for the Northlands and the St Magnus Festivals. Mats is a former member of the Scottish Arts Council’s Dance Committee. In 2005 Mats graduated with first class honours the Master of Arts degree in Ethnochoreology at the Irish World Academy of Music and Dance, University of Limerick, Ireland. His current position is Lecturer in Dance at the Irish World Academy of Music and Dance at the University of Limerick. Mats is currently conducting PhD research on Cape Breton Step Dancing. .

Relating Verbally and Non-verbally through Dance.

Dr. Olive Beecher

This paper focuses on findings from my PhD thesis titled ‘Dance Experience and Sense of Being – Therapeutic Applications of Modern Dance’.  The research involved five pupils with cerebral palsy or spina bifida.  The process based intervention facilitated verbal and non-verbal communication while creating dance movement.

Biography:

Dr. Olive Beecher (BA, MA, Ph.D), is a professional dancer and dance academic.  Olive trained at the Nikolais/Louis Dance School in New York where she studied extensively with Alwin Nikolais, Murray Louis and Sara Pearson. She received a scholarship in her second year of study.  On returning to Ireland she took up a two year sabbatical post as dance lecturer at Thomond College, University of Limerick. Olive worked with Mary Nunan and was a founder member of Daghdha Dance Company under Mary’s artistic direction. Olive continued to study under internationally renowned teachers from the USA and Europe for a further ten years.  She performed in New York, the UK, in theatres throughout Ireland and at the Dublin Theatre Festival. Under the supervision of Dr. Catherine Foley, Olive completed her PhD in Dance at the Irish World Academy of Music and Dance at UL in 2005.  For the the past nine years she has been  teaching dance and related areas at the Academy. At University College Cork Olive was invited to write the Educational Gymnastics and Dance Education Modules for the B.ED. Sports Studies Programme; she continues to teach dance at UCC.

In 2008 Olive choreographed ‘Heart time’ and ‘Threshold’ and performed these solo works at Mamuska , Daghdha Space, St.John’s , Limerick. In September 2009, Olive together with former Daghhda dancer Claire O’Dea founded Tangerine Days Dance Theatre. The company will perform  two new works for the  Limerick’s Performance Festival, Unfringed  2010.

The deadline for receipt of proposals (information below) has been extended to Friday, 29th January 2010. Proposals should be forwarded electronically in Rich Text Format to carmel.mckenna@lit.ie or mckennadance@gmail.com.