Lauren McKillop

Cripping the Archive: Representations of Disabled and Queer Artists in the Dance Archive. 

Cripping the Archive: Representations of Queer and Disabled artists in Dance Archives is research centred around Crip/Queer artists, their relationships to dance archives and what possibilities are proposed for their inclusion in dance archives of the future. This research is guided by the pivotal call ‘nothing about us without us’ which is widely associated with the disability community.

The research brings together qualitative research approaches and practice to answer ever forming research questions such as: Do disabled and queer dance artists want to be archived? What is/isn’t archived? What Queer/Disabled oriented archives already exist? What are normative archival frameworks and how can they be Queered/Cripped? How do archives retain lived experience? And, What about the now-ness of it all?

Want an update on my research? Drop me an email! Conversation is always welcome.

Loren McK is currently a PhD student at Centre for Dance Research, Coventry University. They are researching representations of Queer and Disabled artists in Dance Archives. Loren is a writer and performer with an interest in access support work and conversational practices.  Their education in contemporary dance, Trinity Laban (2013-16) and London Contemporary Dance School (2022) has resourced them to work from the body using movement as a tool for processing and being with people.

Accessibility; responsible and equitable spaces (performance, learning, researching); lecture/demonstrations, obviousness and legibility, Queer and Crip orientations. Queer and Crip lineages and futures.