Moving Dance Studies: Methodological and Institutional (Re)-Positioning of an Expanding Discipline

Workshop within the Scoping Workshop scheme of Volkswagen Foundation, Germany.

Dance studies is a relatively ‘young’ and small, yet significantly expanding discipline in the German speaking countries. Its research focuses on moving bodies in time and space, in the realm of the performing arts as well as, (for example, globally, in urban contexts such as, in political protests). Furthermore, different abilities and techniques, in varying artistic, social and cultural contexts, open dance studies to numerous disciplinary fields. With the expansion and institutionalization of dance studies comes a proliferation of research areas, which have not been systematically investigated yet. Hence, the scoping workshop aims at 1. generating an overview of the research developments and institutionalization of the discipline in the German context. 2. seeking to foster awareness of the multitude of research in the field, which works on expanding methods and cooperations, and integrating dance studies into a wide arena of disciplinary contexts – in exchange with global developments in the field. Hence, 3. the policy paper will envision and initiate ways to develop institutional support structures for dance studies.