GALVANIZING DANCE/STUDIES: BUILDING ANTIRACIST PRAXIS, TRANSFORMATIVE CONNECTIONS, AND MOVEMENT(S) OF RADICAL CARE
The DSA 2021 Program Committee collectively re-imagines this international conference as a vessel that builds, explores, collaborates, performs, and agitates current practices within the field(s) of dance. Specifically, as our first COVID-times conference, it is important that our work responds to our current global crises. We imagine this conference as the start of a long process of holding ourselves to account. As dancers/scholars, we can equitably uphold diverse movement(s) of care and connection. From this generative yet fractious position, our theme, “Galvanizing Dance/Studies,” calls for dancers, choreographers, activists, curators, pedagogues, technologists, scholars, and those who otherwise engage with dance and movement practices to submit proposals that interrogate the many embodied, disembodied, and colonial laden conversations around the urgent needs of our current moment, by putting theory into action.
Knowing that this year’s conference format and structures will be curated to expose, dismantle, challenge, and transform white, supremacist practices of convening and assembly, we seek a wide range of critical perspectives and modalities that yield to future propositions, questions, and/or critiques.
As always, DSA welcomes all proposals that address the full spectrum of dance studies and practice. This year, we particularly invite you to consider the multiple ways your work intersects with each of the following sub-themes:
- ANTI-RACIST RESTORATION AND ACTION
- (IN)STABILITIES
- DECOLONIZING TECHNOLOGIES AND TECHNIQUES OF SUPREMACY
- CONNECTION
- HEALTH & RADICAL CARE
- MOBILIZATION/GALVANIZATION
In the spirit of the conference theme of “galvanization,” DSA encourages submissions to a new presentation format: Hubs. Briefly, Hubs consist of 12 linked presentations, of any format, meeting three times over the course of the conference, for 90 minutes each day. Please note that you must opt-in to participate in a Hub using the submission portal, as applications are made individually. It is DSA policy that individuals only present research once throughout each conference; your Hub participation counts as your singular presentation and will you not be able to submit a proposal in any additional formats. At the time of submission, you will be asked to choose the sub-themes (listed above) that best represent your work and answer demographic questions to ensure that presenters from various geographic locations and career trajectories will be present. Accepted Hub members will dive deeply into each other’s work during their three Hub sessions, at which conference attendees can be audience members. Because this conference is privileging intersectional collaborative efforts that feature research from those working across diverse fields, Hubs are strongly encouraged and have the highest likelihood of acceptance.