Susanne Foellmer

Dr. Susanne Foellmer is a dance and theatre scholar. She received her PhD at Freie Universität Berlin, focusing on unfinished corporealities in contemporary dance and performance art. Educated at the Instiute for Applied Theatre Studies at the Justus-Liebig-Universität Giessen (MA degree) her dissertation dealt with dance and drama in the Weimar Era with a special focus on the dancer and actress Valeska Gert, dealing also with re-presentations of gender, politics and inter/mediality.

Her most recent research approaches dance and performance from the perspective of “leftovers”, being examined in her current project “On Remnants and Vestiges. Strategies of Remaining in the Performing Arts” (funded by German Research Foundation/DFG).

Collaborating with scholars on an interdisciplinary level in the field of sociology and communication studies at Freie Univerisitaet Berlin, she is furthermore investigating in the interrelations of dance and politics, particularly with regard to choreographies of locally executed protest in topical situations of social riot and its globally distributed social mediatisation (e.g flash mobs).

Besides, Susanne works as a dramaturge in dance and theatre, with Helena Botto, Dance Company Rubato, Isabelle Schad, and Jeremy Wade, among others. She also has been active as a curator in dance exhibitions and for the Dance Congress 2009 at Kampnagel, Hamburg.

In the broader context of outside academia cultural work she acted as a member of the Jury for Dance and Theatre at the Berlin Senate, Department for Cultural Affairs as well as chair of the umbrella association Contemporary Dance Berlin (ZTB).

Taking dance and choreography as a core of my research, I am largely interested in regarding those as impetus and nexus for a wider perspective on what movement releases and implies in both the narrower field of the performing arts ­– for instance examining the ontological challenges when it comes to archiving and reconstruction – as well as in areas more or less akin to it, involving for instance a critical view on sociability and politicality from a dance and choreography point of view.

Bridging those fields, an important focus of mine lies on the understanding of dance theory as a specific critical practice, as well as reflecting artistic work in interdisciplinary research contexts and the social and political field.