Choreographing Histories : Critical Perspectives on Dance Histories in Nordic Dance Practices and Scholarship

Abstract

This text is based on a roundtable organised by the five authors at the 2022 NOFOD conference in Copenhagen. As scholars and practitioners invested in the research and teaching of dance history both inside and outside academia, we wanted to address the pressing issue of how ‘history’ is defined and positioned within Nordic dance scholarship and practices today. Dance, as we think of it and practise it in our everyday lives, is far more diverse than the so-called ‘contemporary dance’ that the white authors listed as scholars and practitioners in the conference call indicate. For this roundtable, we wanted to show that dance theory and practice-led work in dance go far beyond the Eurocentric idea of contemporary dance present in the conference call, and to advocate for a more inclusive understanding of the practices of making or researching dance in the future.