Research Network for Dance Studies
The creation of CoDa finds its impetus in the general observation that, apart from some exceptions, research on dance is still highly fragmented. Dance scholarship often takes place at university departments that do not focus specifically on dance, but rather identify themselves with other branches within the humanities, such as (art) history, cultural studies, theater and film studies, philosophy, sociology, or media studies. Even though the interest in building interdisciplinary connections between different research domains is characteristic of dance scholarship, the actual potential of this interdisciplinarity can only be fully realized through a common network that enables dance scholars to bring their different methodological approaches into dialogue with each other.
The national and international research units that are members of “CoDa | Cultures of Dance” bring together at least three fundamental pillars that are still too often treated separately in contemporary dance studies: (i) dance as an aesthetic practice (micro-perspective); (ii) dance as a sociocultural phenomenon (macro-perspective); (iii) dance and embodied knowledge (intra-perspective). Combining these perspectives enables the development of new interdisciplinary methodologies that increase both the scope and depth of dance studies. The research network provides the necessary framework to facilitate the interaction between the partners as well as to set up new initiatives, such as CoDa Summer Schools or joint research projects, that will help to expand and deepen the international field of dance studies.
By facilitating collaboration on various levels, CoDa will foster the mutual exchange of knowledge, competences, and skills between dance researchers and practitioners coming from different backgrounds but with a shared interest into how diverse cultures of dance operate in terms of aesthetics, politics, (inter)disciplinarity, and embodied epistemologies.