D-TRACES (Dance Teaching Resources and Collaborative Engagement Spaces)

Funded by JISC

The D-TRACES Project (Dance teaching resource and collaborative engagement spaces) will exploit a unique and significant digital dance resource, the Siobhan Davies digital archive, which launched in June 2009 following 30 months of development by researchers at Coventry University, supported by Siobhan Davies Dance. Following a systematic analysis of user engagement and impact on the local student experience, the project will develop a model for embedding the digital archive within the Personal Development Planning (PDP) element of the undergraduate dance curriculum at Coventry University, thereby generating learning objects for much wider distribution. The aim is to enhance the students’ experience of working with online resources for application and transfer to other learning situations whilst providing a model for application in the wider HE sector and in disciplines other than dance. PDP has been selected as a prime site for this project as it specifically encourages students towards establishing themselves as autonomous practitioners within their chosen field. The project will illustrate ways in which students can engage meaningfully with resources which offer alternative modes of knowledge generation; in this case film content of dance rehearsals and performances, artist sketches, journals etc. By embedding the resource within PDP, the project will address broader agendas including employability and provide expanded, imaginative means for students to capture, document, review and present their learning and their career aspirations. The D-TRACES project thus seeks to support deeper engagement with Siobhan Davies Replay, whilst encouraging students to develop effective ways to self-archive, build more digital resources and support the health of dance as an academic discipline.