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   Radical body expression, dissident postures, ideological injunctions… Throughout the 20th century, dance has often been conveyed in the form of protests. How have choreographers, with their stances and their art, striven to resist? What are they objecting to?  By confronting the discourse of artists and theorists from all over the world, the symposium questions the criteria for the aesthetic assessment of activist choreographies. After all, isn’t resistance a form of creation?

Many artists involved in social and political movements have insisted that art has a cause, through their commitment to the workers’ movement, to condemnations of racial and social segregation, to feminist campaigns, to denouncing sexual discrimination, to opposing totalitarian regimes, etc.



Their activism went hand in hand with historical upheavals that shook the century. This results in a wide range of dance works, with each work adopting the aesthetic values and the forms of involvement that were typical of their specific era and their intended objectives. Most often, these works are seen through the prism of their commitment to a cause, and their status as works of art is debated. However, while some dancers portray violence or inequality in their work in order to make them more palpable to the public, others, far from using forms of depiction which may be considered simplistic, offend the very systems of representation.



By confronting the discourse of artists and theorists from all over the world, the symposium questions the criteria for the aesthetic assessment of activist choreographies. After all, isn’t resistance a form of creation?

Claire Rousier,

Director of the Department for Development of Choreographic Culture of the CND.



> Detailed programm of events



Thursday 17th January 2008



> 6 pm : Victoria Phillips Geduld, Performing Politics in the American Dance: New Dance Group and Survival of the Fittest

> 7.30 pm : Opening of the exhibition Dance Is a Weapon. NDG 1932/1955

> 8.30 pm : Cécile Proust, femmeusesaction #19, final/ment/seule



Friday 18th January 2008



> 9.30 am / 10.30 am : Catherine Soussloff, The Choreographer as Political Subject in the 20th Century

> 11 am / 12 am : John Perpener, Eleo Pomare: Artist and Activist

> 12 am / 1 pm : Blondell Cummings, The Artistic Authentic Voice within Politics

> 2.30 pm / 3.30 pm : Janez Jansa, Procedures in Reconstruction of Pupilija, Papa Pupilo pa Pupilcki (Mum Pupilija, Daddy Pupilo and Little Children Pupilceks)

> 3.30 pm/ 4.30 pm : Emilyn Claid, Down to Earth: How British New Dance Happened – One Person’s View

> 4.30 pm / 5 pm : Véronique Fabbri, Building in Dance

> 5.30 pm / 6 pm : Mark Franko (moderator), Debate with the speakers of the day

> 7 pm : Cécile Proust, femmeusesaction #19, final/ment/seule



Saturday 19th January 2008



> 9.30 am / 10.30 am : Boyan Manchev, The Resistance of Dance

> 11 am / 12 am : Jens Richard Giersdorf, Choreographies of Rebellion and Opposition in a National Context

> 12 am / 1 pm : Mark Franko, Bill T. Jones’ Still/Here and the Choreographic Public Sphere

> 2.30 pm / 3.30 pm : Mattia Scarpulla, The ‘Foreign Identity’ of Choreographer Ea Sola : Speaking against the Cultural Devastation of War, at the Crossroads of East and West

> 3.30 pm / 5 pm : Mylène Sauloy, The Body in the Soul

> 5.30 pm / 6 pm : Véronique Fabbri (moderator), Debate with the speakers of the day

> 7 pm : Cécile Proust, femmeusesaction #19, final/ment/seule



Sunday 20th January 2008



> 9.30 am / 10.30 am : Hélène Marquié, Dance and Feminism in France: Intersections, Avoidance, Issues

> 11 am / 12 am : Geneviève Vincent, Queer and Resistance

> 12 am / 1 pm : Marina Nordera, Being a Woman and Dancing ‘Against’

> 2.30 pm / 3.30 pm : Okwui Okpokwasili, Pent-Up!

> 3.30 pm / 5 pm : Martha Rosler, Is there a ‘Public’ in this ‘Private’ Life?

> 5.30 pm / 6 pm : Boyan Manchev (moderator), Debate with the speakers of the day



During the conference, the exhibition Dance Is a Weapon. NDG 1932/1955 will be open from 10 am to 7 pm.



The Media Library will be open on Thursday 17th from 5.30 pm to 8.30 pm, and on Friday 18th, Saturday 19th and Sunday 20th from 10 am to 7 pm.

> Information and bookings

Centre national de la danse - Box office

1 rue Victor Hugo

93507 Pantin cedex - France

T +33 (0)1 41 83 98 98

<span class="link-mailto">reservation@cnd.fr</span>



Please download the Enrolment form here





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