13th
July 2005
Dear Chair
of LUTSF
Conference of the Society of Dance History Scholars.
4-14 June 2005,
Please find enclosed two copies of
my report and a CD-R from my trip to chair at the conference of the Society of
Dance History Scholars. I am very grateful that my project has been supported
by the Lisa Ullmann Travelling Scholarship Fund. Without this support it would
have been very difficult for me to attend the conference.
The project has been very successful
as I was not only able to attend an international conference, but I had the
opportunity to chair a session panel aat the conference. It is very important
to establish relations with overseas universities as it challenges one’s
perception of research and methodologies.
I certainly will recommend the Lisa
Ullmann Travelling Scholarship Fund to other dance scholars. It is an
invaluable asset to have this experience which will be beneficial for my
further academic career.
Yours
sincerely
Thomas
Hecht,
Introduction
Currently, I am conducting doctoral
research in dance at London Contemporary Dance School and I am keen on an
academic career. Thus, attending national and
international conferences represent an essential part to achieve my goal.
In February 2004, I was
invited to chair a panel at the conference of the Society of Dance History
Scholars in Chicago in June 2004. I certainly did not want to miss out to
establish professional and academic relationships with dance educators and
dance historians in the United States. LUTSF gave me the opportunity to attend
the conference which would not have been possible without this support.
Chicago
Prior to the conference, I spent five days
at Chicago where I explored highlights of the ‘Windy City’ such as the Navy
Pier, the Magnificent Mile, the lake front and the Museum of Modern Art. In
1871, the ‘Great Chicago Fire’ destroyed 17,000 buildings, allegedly the fire
started by a cow kicking over a lantern. However, the opportunity to re-build
and re-structure a city attracted many architects from all over the world and
in 1885, the first – nine stories – skyscraper was built. In the new
millennium, Chicago has the reputation of being a big, sophisticated city with
small town hospitality. And that is exactly how I perceived the Midwest’s
largest city.
Conference
of the Society of Dance History Scholars
The conference took place at the campus of
Northwestern University in Evanston which is approximately 40 minutes from
downtown Chicago. The conference opening was on Thursday evening but many
delegates arrived on Friday. I found it very stimulating to be on an US campus
and to ‘breathe’ different structures of dance education within this community.
My doctoral research is focused on ballet and dance education, hence I
attempted to go to all ballet papers that were presented at the conference,
although it was sometimes very difficult to decide. The first paper (Norma Sue
Fisher-Stitt) explored ballet in Canada from 1949 to 1959 and its increasing
marginalization from a geographical, social and cultural perspective. This was
followed by a paper on creative processes in ballet which was very interesting
for me as I had led a dance laboratory with a similar focus in the previous
year in London.
In the afternoon, I had the
chance to meet Ann Nugent from University College of Chichester, UK, who
presented her research on deconstructive practices of William Forsythe. It was
very encouraging. Having a European colleague at the conference showed me the
importance of international conferences for dance research as much US research
is based on cultural and historical studies of dance, while the UK tends more
and more to investigate dance practice as research.
In the late afternoon, I
attended two paper presentations of postgraduate students from the University
of Riverside in California which offers a PhD programme in Dance History and
Theory. I had visited the Riverside campus in 2003 and also attended several
seminars, and therefore I was very interested in these presentations to learn
more about research papers of US postgraduate students. The evening ended –
very late – with a concert with choreographic works based on ethnographic
research by Reggie Wilson, Rebecca Rossen and Meida Villafana-McNeal. In line
with the main them of the conference ‘centering dance’, I was able to centre
myself within this stimulating community of dance artists, researchers and
practitioners.
A publication workshop,
convened by Ann Cooper Albright, on Saturday was extremely helpful and gave insights
into the difficult process of getting academic research published. This was
particularly in regard to make the step from being a doctoral student into the
academic world of dance publications. A highlight of the day for me was the
meeting of the working group of doctoral strategies in dance education. It was
very helpful to learn more about US doctoral dance education as the model of
teaching largely differs from UK models. The main differences are the taught
elements of the US programmes. It challenged my perception of doctorates in the
United States and it has strengthened my aim to work as a dance researcher in
the United States once I have finished my doctorate in London.
The last day was very short
but intense. I was somehow nervous on Sunday morning, as I had to chair a panel
entitled ‘Centering Men’. I had met the presenters the day before and it was
particularly interesting for me to be responsible for a smooth running of my
panel. Indeed, it went very well and we had a fruitful discussion about
‘centered men’ in dance.
Conclusion
It is incredible how fast the time passes
when one is abroad. The trip to Chicago allowed me to fully achieve my
objectives to challenge my research practice and to network in an international
environment. I have greatly benefited from being in an international research
atmosphere. The conference also encouraged me to submit more papers to
International conferences and I have been accepted to present a paper at the
IPP conference in Mainz (Germany) in August and at the Arts and Humanities
Conference in Hawaii in January 2006 where I will present the findings of my
pilot research of my doctorate. I also made contacts with UK institutions at
the conference which, hopefully, will lead to some teaching hours.