Performing the Archive

Professor Rachel Fensham
E: r.fensham@surrey.ac.uk
http://www2.surrey.ac.uk/dft/research/currentprojects/performingthearchive/

Performing the Archive extends to a range of creative, curatorial and critical projects examining relationships between the body, memory, social history and archival practices. In particular, the theme rethinks the role and significance of archives as repositories with second lives in the present and of the notion of a living archive. The group builds upon the unique resources of the Laban Archive housed in the National Resource Centre for Dance (NRCD). There are two current AHRC-funded projects in progress - The Pioneer Women project and Digital Dance Archives (DDA).This latter project is concerned with archival interactivity and extends this research grouping into consideration of audiences, and interactive communities.

Performances of the Popular

Dr Sherrill Dodds
E: s.dodds@surrey.ac.uk
http://www2.surrey.ac.uk/dft/research/currentprojects/pop/

This new theme emerges out of the Dance and Spectacle theme which culminated in the 2010 Society of Dance History Scholars conference hosted by the Department in July and the Popular Music and Dance Matters symposium. Performances of the Popular (POP) examines the full range of popular genres and the ways in which performance produces and shapes popular culture, including in fields of site-specific performance, screen studies, non-Western dance, theatre and film. 

The Surrey Documentary Group

Dr Helen Hughes
E: h.hughes@surrey.ac.uk
http://www2.surrey.ac.uk/dft/research/currentprojects/surrey/

This research group is concerned with issues to do with documentation and documentary film that extend beyond film to other modes of documentation in social and scientific research. A strand of this research is concerned with the blurring of genres of representation, through techniques such as animation, and the role of documentary film and theatre in activism, such as in relation to the environment. They will host a seminar on Documentary and Intimacy in early 2011.