Making Siobhan Davies RePlay; the UK's first digital dance archive

Siobhan Davies RePlay is the UK’s first digital dance archive, and one of the first in the world to bring together the complete works of a single choreographer. Built over 30 months and launched in 2009, the archive is an ongoing collaboration between researchers at Coventry University and Siobhan Davies Dance in the UK. This paper describes some of the making of the archive and the various challenges and pleasures involved in working with audio-visual dance content. It will also discuss the various initiatives that developed in parallel with and subsequent to the project, to increase the impact of the archive and to enhance user-engagement. Siobhan Davies RePlay continues to grow and has informed other similar projects, playing an important role in promoting greater understanding of the digital environment as a site for knowledge organization and distribution.