Staging Sound in Bahia, Brazil: Negotiating Musical Knowledge, Technology, and Power in Professional Music Performances

Music

Wed 18th April 12-1pm
Venue: Bishop Otter Campus: Room LO3
Free admission

This presentation examines the knowledges necessary to make popular music by examining the many nuanced interactions that take place immediately before performances by professional musicians. Building on work by Tom Porcello (1998) and Paul Théberge (1997) that emphasizes the centrality of technological understanding and the ability to communicate such knowledge, I focus on the micropolitics of interactions between musicians, sound technicians, and producers in the context of live performances and recording studios. At stake for these negotiations is often the success of the presentation, which can, in turn, have implications for career trajectories and professional survival.

Reconstructing Ragtime Dancing: Moving from the Archive to the Repertoire

Dance

Wed 28th March 12-1pm
Venue: Bishop Otter Campus: Room LO3
Free admission

Despite being one of the first modern dance forms, we know relatively little about ragtime dancing. The little we do know addresses only the codified and commodified dance practices of professional performers and their elite audiences. My project is to reconstruct the ragtime dancing of a wide range of cultures and classes–to ask ourselves how immigrants and migrants danced ragtime, for example. The goal is to maintain the diversity of ragtime dancing and recognize the opportunities for creative choice built within the practice, rather than homogenize my primary sources into a single universal historical dance object called ragtime dance. By embracing the difference within dance forms, I argue dance researchers can better access the multiple meanings, pleasures, and intrinsic power of the dancing we study.

T.S. Eliot and Dance

Literature and Dance

Wed 7th March 12-1pm
Venue: Bishop Otter Campus: Room LO3
Free admission

Dr Susan Jones will discuss the impact of early twentieth-century European dance on Eliot’s poetics and subsequently that of Eliot’s poetry on modern dance forms in the United States. Dr Jones is an ex-soloist with The Scottish Ballet and now Lecturer in English at St. Hilda’s College Oxford.

Dance in the novels of Balzac, Flaubert and Maupassant

French Literature and Dance

Wed 22nd Feb 12-1pm
Venue: Bishop Otter Campus: Room LO3
Free admission

Anna Davies will speak on the literary representations of social dance in the novels of Balzac (1799-1850), Flaubert (1821-80) and Maupassant (1850-93). Setting these readings in the context of the historical court records pertaining to ‘illicit’ dancing in the Paris dance-halls and guinguettes, she will explore how far these literary portrayals add to our understanding of the social and political significance of popular dance in Paris as the 19th century unfolded.

Album Cover Moments: Frank Sinatra, Gender and the Complexities of Star Imaging

Performing Arts, Music and Film/Media

Wed 25th Jan 12-1pm
Venue: Bishop Otter Campus: Room LO3
Free admission

Frank Sinatra’s post-war star image represents an exemplary case of intertextuality, crossing the multiple boundaries of film, television and nightclub performances, musical recordings, and an extensive variety of media commentary. The image of masculinity articulated via this intertextuality both illuminates post-war debates around masculinity and challenges further ideas of gender, sexual and American identity. This paper considers some of this imagery, exploring in particular the 1954 Warner Bros. film Young at Heart and its explicit referencing of Sinatra’s persona as a singer in both musical and visual terms.

DisGo

THU 19th April
7:30pm
Full £10, Conc £6

…”It’s as if we’ve been transported to some nocturnal ritual in ancient Sparta… curiously alluring, intriguing and weirdly enjoyable…” Luke Jennings, The Times.

DisGo’s territory is minds, organs, nervous systems. Join the international company of incredible dancers on an intimate journey into the night…

Touring now for its fourth season, the show is back due to audience demand. Fleur Darkin Company invite you to come and play. Surrender to the sound and dance sensation of DISGO.

DISGO is intimate, not intimidating. DISGO creates new and closer proximities between performer and audience. DISGO is a different experience for everyone. The centre of DISGO is within the individual experiencing it “One of the more overtly theatrical of the new wave British choreographers” (The Times), Fleur Darkin merges her company of powerful dancers with the audience to create a riot of choreography. Experience a unique intimacy with the performers as they dance this raw and powerful new work.

Set in a stunning immersive light design by Sam Collins and with a soundscore including Plastikman, Fourtet and Mortitz Von Oswald… why don’t you put your hands up for Berlin… Detroit… Chichester?

Photo Credit: The Company

Edge:2012

THU 3rd MAY
7:45pm
Full £10, Conc £6

Edge: The postgraduate performance company of London Contemporary Dance School
EDge features a new generation of the most promising contemporary dancers performing commissions by exciting young choreographers. Led by Artistic Director Jeanne Yasko, EDge’s 2012 tour showcases performances by a strong and diverse ensemble of 12 dancers.

The programme features new full length works by internationally acclaimed artists Matthias Sperling (Canada/UK) and James Wilton (UK) alongside other works including Alston Takes Cover, a joint commission by The Place and Dance Umbrella. Alston Takes Cover includes three choreographers’ personal takes on Richard Alston’s iconic Wildlife, created by Tony Adigun (Avant Garde Dance), Rachel Lopez de la Nieta (Dog Kennel Hill Project) and Moreno Solinas/Igor Urzelai (BLOOM!). This unique programme is filled with high-level energy and technical excellence that pushes the performers to their limits and leaves you on the edge of your seat.

“fresh and exciting to watch”

Dance Expression

Photo Credit: Hugo Glendinning