S1 Ep21 Dance Workshop (Research as Dancing, Dancing as Research)

In this episode, we turn explicitly to research and recognise that we have, in fact, been researching all along.

The workshop explores multiple ways research operates within dance practice: researching by watching dance in performances, studios, streets, screens, and archives; researching through taking classes and experiencing different aesthetics, techniques, and pedagogical approaches; researching through movement research, understood as open exploration through doing, often overlapping with improvisation; and researching for creation, where texts, images, stories, politics, and contexts become material for choreographic work.

From there, the episode introduces artistic research as a distinct but still-emerging field. Artistic research is framed as a way of thinking through making, where practice is not an illustration of knowledge but a method of producing it. The artwork, process, and reflection form a single field of inquiry, and questions are asked not only with words, but through bodies, materials, time, and attention. What is discovered may remain situated, embodied, sensorial, and resistant to generalisation. The episode briefly situates artistic research historically, noting its relatively recent institutional emergence through PhD programmes in the arts in the 1990s.

The episode then unfolds through three open assignments:

1. Research a dance aesthetic or style Investigate a specific aesthetic through watching, reading, taking classes, or speaking with practitioners. Consider its history, imagery, context, and social or political conditions, then use this research as a starting point to create a dance. The outcome may be set or improvised, brief or extended, and should reflect on how different research methods shape the resulting choreography.

2. Research anatomy and bodily function Drawing on concerns of care, safety, and risk, this task focuses on researching a specific anatomical function or bodily system. Using critical sources from dance science, anatomy, and movement research, develop a warm-up, cool-down, improvisation, score, or choreography grounded in functional and safe practice. The episode reflects on how ideas of “correct” posture and healthy movement are historically, culturally, and scientifically unstable.

3. Research a non-dance topic Investigate a theme, person, story, place, image, or social situation not directly related to dance, such as people-watching, a character from a film, or a personal obsession. Use this research as material to generate a dance, allowing non-dance knowledge to shape movement qualities, structures, and staging.

The episode concludes by returning to research as an ongoing attitude rather than a fixed method. It reflects on autonomy, intuition, and criticality, arguing that intuition and research are not opposites. Research can also mean looking back at what we intuitively do, documenting it, analysing it, and learning from it. Artistic research is framed as an epistemic critique, challenging what counts as knowledge, who is allowed to produce it, and which forms of knowing are valued, including embodied, affective, collective, and non-verbal knowledge.

Rather than closing questions down, research is presented as a way of deepening complexity, increasing agency, and expanding the field of what dance can know and do.

Keep dancing. Keep researching. Reflect on how research shapes your practice.