With much that has already been written around the topic of the training regimen, specially of the Western dancer/ athlete, little theory exists of his/ her presence in the performance context and even less from the viewpoint of the African dancer/-athlete.
In re-viewing/ re-searching the notion of being 'in the zone' or at the pinnacle of performance what are some of the issues that surface within the ever changing and intersecting contexts of Culture, Gender and understandings of Health (mental, physical, social, spiritual and emotional). As South Africa's interaction with the world continues to reflect simultaneous images of poverty and wealth - AIDS orphans and glistening five-star hotels -- what are the multiple roles for dance educators, administrators, pedagogues, teachers, arts critics, sports coaches, hysiotherapists; biokineticists, master class coaches, Pilates instructors et al for the range of bodies with whom we interact and the multiple needs of these dancers and athletes as end users?
Some of the questions one could consider include:
· How do dancing bodies that are not normative stereotypes shift a body aesthetic? Who determines how these bodies should look like or move like?
· Is cultural specificity a useful indicator in assessing Dance in the post-colonial performance arena?
· When does an aesthetic shift occur and by whom is it initiated or dissolved? What lurks behind the positioning of the 'African Venus' in the concert hall or stadium?
· How should we as a dance community respond to issues surrounding performance altering drugs?
· Is there a space for a range of human experience, or to share the diversity of human stories (compare Buckroyd)?
· How might the relationship of food and the [non]use of food supplements help us understand gendered identities in the student dancer?
· What are the intersections of eating disorders, wealth and class?
· How is physicality embodied through competitions and festivals (compare Merleau-Ponty)?
· Which parallels or divergences exist for the [e]motional preparation of the peak performance by the dancer and/ or athlete?
We invite the submission of proposals with an abstract (max 250 words) and rationale that includes your name, institutional affiliation, email address and contact details. Your proposal should outline whether you intend to make a joint presentation (max. 30 mins) or individual paper (max. 20 mins). As far as possible individual papers will not run concurrently in the conference programme. You may also wish to offer a performative experience and/or workshop (max.1hour). All proposals will be reviewed by the Programme Committee.
Please send your submission(s) as email attachments in MS Word to Gerard.samuel@uct.ac.za.
Deadline for submissions 14 February 2011.
More information here.
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