We are pleased to announce State of the Art: The 2022 International Symposium on Screendance, directed by UW–Madison Art Department Professor Douglas Rosenberg. The event will be held at the University of Wisconsin–Madison from April 10-13, 2022. This year’s symposium will focus on a number of topics that are timely to the field of screendance, including, but not limited to, the Feminist roots of screendance, the generational and evolving critical landscape of the field, de-colonizing screendance, race and gender in screendance, intersectionality and facilitating new ways of knowing the cinematic body and mapping the literature of the field. All events will be free and open to the public
In the year 2000, UW–Madison held the first-ever International Dance for the Camera Symposium, which has, for the last twenty years, been a global touchstone for the field. It was a historic meeting that attracted not only scholars and practitioners of the genre, but choreographers and video/filmmakers from around the world including Latin American, the UK, Europe and elsewhere. In addition to generating dialogue on the history and theory of the field, the symposium included roundtable discussions, lectures, and a screening of selected dance film and video work from around the world. It also provided a generational bridge to the future of the art form. As an outgrowth of the symposium, a number of participants took the experience back to their own communities and continued to nurture the field through courses, festivals, workshops and other forms of audience building.
Since that time, the field has grown exponentially. There have been numerous international gatherings and symposia, new festivals and screening opportunities and new voices have emerged through both scholarship and practice. There is an International Journal of Screendance (founded at UW–Madison) and brilliantly written books, articles and chapters that focus on the practice in multiple languages by deeply thoughtful writers. As the field has evolved in the last two decades, it is a perfect time to bring together interdisciplinary artists and practitioners, scholars and historians to share new research in the field and to continue to build a welcoming international community.
For more information, including a schedule, travel accommodations, and registration, visit screendancesymposium.art.wisc.edu.
The International Screendance Symposium is generously supported by the Virginia Horne Henry Fund and is co-sponsored by the UW–Madison Art Department and UW–Madison Dance Department. Promotional support provided by the UW–Madison Division of the Arts.