Konzept und Leitung:
Gabriele Brandstetter und Nanako Nakajima. Veranstaltet vom Zentrum für Bewegungsforschung, FU Berlin.

Veranstaltungsflyer:
Flyer Aging Body in Dance (PDF)

Aging Body in Dance. – Zur Ästhetik und Politik des Körpers im Vergleich von europäisch-amerikanischen und japanischen Tanzkulturen.

Englischsprachige Tagung, Uferstudios, Berlin

Die internationale Tagung fokussiert das Thema des alternden Körpers – das in medizinischen, kulturwissenschaftlichen und politischen Forschungen längst hohe Aufmerksamkeit besitzt – mit der Perspektive auf den Tanz. Kulturspezifische Konzepte von Schönheit und Bewegung, Leistungsfähigkeit und Expressivität des Körpers stehen mit der Frage nach dem Status des alternden Körpers im Tanz auf dem Prüfstand. Modellhaft sollen die damit verbundenen Fragen nach normierenden Diskursen und Institutionen, gender-bezogenen Körper- und Bewegungskonzepten in kulturvergleichender Perspektive zwischen europäisch-amerikanischer und japanischer Tanztradition diskutiert werden; d.h. zwischen »jugendorientierten« Kulturen einerseits und einer Kultur, die – wie in Japan – alte Tänzer als »lebendes Kulturgut« würdigt. Die Differenzierungen und Wandlungen solcher traditioneller Kulturmuster im zeitgenössischen (globalisierten) Tanz sowie die Herausforderungen an Theorie, und an tanz- und kulturwissenschaftliche Forschung sollen in den Beiträgen der Tagung verfolgt werden. Die Konferenz findet in Kooperation mit japanischen Tanzforschern statt, sie ist gefördert von der DFG und der Japan Foundation.

[English version]

Aging Body in Dance: Seeking Aesthetics and Politics of the Body through the Comparison of Euro-American and Japanese Cultures

This is to be an international conference focusing on the aging body – a subject that has long been the subject of medical, cultural and political research – with special reference to dance. We shall be looking at culture-specific notions of the beauty and movement, agility and expressiveness of the body as they relate to the status of the aging body in dance. Models will be used for a comparative discussion of the differences in normative discourses and institutions and in gender-related concepts of body and movement between the Euro-American and Japanese dance traditions, i.e. between "youth-oriented" cultures on the one hand and a culture which – like Japan's – reveres aging dancers as part of the country's "living heritage" on the other. The distinctions and changes in such traditional cultural patterns in contemporary (globalized) dance as well as the theoretical challenges they pose for dance and cultural research will be pursued in the papers presented at the conference, and as well in the roundtables and presentations of the invited artists. The conference is based on the cooperation of the Zentrum für Bewegungsforschung, FU Berlin, and the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science, and is funded by the DFG and the Japan Foundation. For the program and other information see below.

Program, June 28 - 30, 2012

Thursday, June 28, 2012

14.00 - 15.00	Arrival/Registration
15.00	Opening: Gabriele Brandstetter (Freie Universität Berlin, Berlin), Nanako Nakajima (Japan Society for the Promotion of Science, Saitama)
	Section I: Aging Body in the Context of Postmodern Dance
15.45	Peggy Phelan (San Francisco) The Ends of Dance: Pina Bausch and Merce Cunningham
16.45 – Short Break
17.00	Ramsay Burt (Leicester) Yvonne Rainer's Convalescent dance: on valuing ordinary, everyday, and unidealised bodily states
18.00 – Break
20.00	Jess Curtis (Berlin) Lecture Performance: Jess Meets Angus - Dances for Non/Fictional Bodies (Choreography: Silke Z.) Post-Performance Talk with Gabriele Brandstetter

Friday, June 29, 2012

	Section II: Alternative Dancability: Dis/Ability and Performance
10.00	Ann Cooper Albright (Oberlin) The Perverse Satisfaction of Gravity
11.00	Susanne Foellmer (Berlin) Bodies' Borderlands: Right in the Middle. Dis/Abilities on Stage
12.00 – Short Break
12.30	Petra Kuppers (Michigan) Grace in the Hospice: Community Dance, Elders, Land
13.30 – Break
	Section III: Aging and Body Politics in Contemporary Dance
15.00	Johannes Odenthal (Berlin) Aging in dance is not an issue. Why are we always asking the wrong questions? On Gerhard Bohner, Koffi Kôkô, Kazuo Ohno, and endless other masters of dance
16.00 – Short Break
16.15	Kikuko Toyama (Saitama) Old, weak, and invalid: dance in inaction
17.15 – Break
20.00	Performance: Theater Thikwa plus Junkan Projekt (Choreography: Osamu Jareo) Post-Performance Talk with Nanako Nakajima

Saturday, June 30, 2012

10.00	Kaite O'Reilly (Llanarth/Berlin) SILENT RHYTHM: A Reflection on sensory impairment as a source of creativity and inspiration
11.00	Janice Ross (San Francisco) Sexuality and the Aging Body: Anna Halprin Dancing Eros at the End of Life
12.00 – Short Break
	Section IV: Intercultural Perspectives
12.30	Mark Franko (New York) Why are the Hands the Last Resort of the Aged Dancing Body
13.30 – Break
15.00	Yoshito Ohno (Tokyo) Figures of Life
16.00	Tamotsu Watanabe (Tokyo) Flowers Blooming in the Time of Aging
17.00 – Short Break
17.30	Roundtable: Aging Body/ Differently Abled Body? Difference, Convergence and Open Questions (in German with English translations) Kazuo Fujino (Kobe) – Moderator Gerd Hartmann (Berlin) Osamu Jareo (Osaka) Iku Otani (Kobe) – NPO Dance Box Nicole Hummel (Berlin) – Theater Thikwa
End of the Program around 19.00

Participants

Prof. Ann Cooper Albright (Dance Studies, Oberlin College, US)
Prof. Ramsay Burt (Dance Scholar, De Montfort University, UK)
Jess Curtis (Choreographer, Germany/US)
Juniorprof. Dr. Susanne Foellmer (Dance Studies, Freie Universität Berlin, Germany)
Prof. Mark Franko (Dance Scholar, University of California, Santa Cruz, US)
Prof. Kazuo Fujino (Art Management, Kobe University, Japan)
Gerd Hartmann (Director at Theater Thikwa, Germany)
Nicole Hummel (Theater Thikwa Berlin, Germany)
Osamu Jareo (Choreographer, Japan)
Prof. Petra Kuppers (Disability Studies, University of Michigan, US)
Dr. Johannes Odenthal (Dance Curator, Akademie der Künste, Germany)
Yoshito Ohno (Butoh Artist, Japan)
Iku Otani (General director, NPO Dance Box)
Kaite O'Reilly (Dramatist and Disability Artist, Freie Universität Berlin, Germany/UK)
Prof. Peggy Phelan (Performance and Theater Scholar, Stanford University, US)
Prof. Janice Ross (Dance Scholar, Stanford University, US)
Prof. Kikuko Toyama (Dance Studies, Saitama University, Japan)
Prof. Tamotsu Watanabe (Kabuki Critic, Japan)