Thinking Touch in Partnering and Contact Improvisation
Artistic, Scientific and Philosophical Approaches
Dance Studies Conference
San Gwann Dance Studios, School of Performing Arts, University of Malta
30 June 2016
08.45
09.00
09.10
Coffee & Registration
Welcome
Keynote Lucia Walker To Dwell in Possibility... Conscious Inhibition in Dancing and Touching
10.00-10.15
Coffee
10.15-11.30
Pedagogies of Touch
Experiential and Actional Touch: movement pedagogies for theatre and performance, Vanio Papadelli,
PhD (Goldsmiths University, London)
Touch and other senses in Contact Improvisation teaching (and learning), María Paz Brozas, PhD
(University of León)
Contact Improvisation and Medical Students: mapping the terrain, Malaika Sarco-Thomas, PhD, and
Rebecca Zammit (University of Malta)
11.30-12.00
Shadow Matters, Flaviana Xavier Antunes Sampaio (University of Chichester, UK)
12.00-13.00
Lunch
13.00-13.50
Keynote Corinne Jola ‘Touch me, touch me now - We’ve got to get it right’: When cognitive
neuroscience is in contact with dance.
13.50
Break
14.00-15.30
Philosophies of Touch
Touching the Boundaries: Relational Skin(s), Laura Potrovic (University of Paris 3 Sorbonne Nouvelle &
University of Zagreb) and Biliana Vassileva (University of Lille, France)
Exploring Bodily Boundaries: Redefining Disability through Dance Improvisation, Carolien Hermans
(Institute for Cultural Inquiry, University of Utrecht, NL)
Invisibility, Impalpability, and Culpability: Phenomenology and Aesthetic Education, Brandon Shaw,
PhD (University of Malta)
15.30
Coffee
15.45-17.00
Social Ecologies of Touch
Argentine Tango: Social Dance and the embodiment of community on the Maltese Islands, Jean-Paul
Baldacchino, PhD (University of Malta)
Dancing with Graphs: Social Network Theory Approaches to Action/Reaction Dynamics in Partnering,
Griffith Rees, PhD (Oxford University), and Ilya Vidrin, EdM (Harvard University)
17.00-17.30
Concluding thoughts
Keynote Biographies
Lucia Walker (Artist – Pedagogue)
Lucia is an independent artist and pedagogue based in Oxford, England and Durban, South Africa. She travels and teaches
internationally, exploring a lifelong delight in movement and communication. She was introduced to Contact
Improvisation in 1985, studying with Steve Paxton, Nancy Stark Smith, Julyen Hamilton and Kirstie Simson. She has
been learning, teaching and practising the form ever since. Lucia worked for many years with Jointwork DanceGroup,
working with schools and community groups. Besides choreography Jointwork focused on exploring improvised
performance and Lucia continued this research with Telling Times International Theatre project. She continues to work in
many contexts leading workshops and collaborating in dance, physical theatre, communication and movement research
projects. In 1987 Lucia qualified as a teacher of Alexander Technique. She teaches individuals, groups and on teacher
training programmes, working with a wide range of interests and abilities. Recent work includes workshops with Rosetta
Life (creative and movement expression for those with terminal illness), Prepared for Nothing and Ready for Anything
with Flatfoot Dance Company Durban, Not I but You and Us with students from Coventry University, What If…? with
children for the Saturday Club at St. Michael’s Hospice and solo improvisation The Planet is my Partner.
Corinne Jola (Choreographer – Scientist)
Corinne is a scientist, lecturer and choreographer based in the UK since 2004. She trained in Psychology and Dance with
Masters awarded in Choreography (distinction) and in Psychology. She also holds a PhD in Cognitive Neuroscience. Her
research topics include: a dancer’s embodiment of movement notation; brain activity linked to spatial perception and
movement observation; and the adaptability of the sensory and motor system in dancers, non-dancers, as well as dance
spectators. Her research has been published internationally in book chapters, peer-reviewed journals and conference
proceedings and her performances and dance installations have been selected at several festivals and conferences in the
UK and abroad. The dialogue between science and dance is given a real voice through her comprehensive
interdisciplinary approach. In her role as a facilitator for communication between the disciplines, she aims at developing
effective understandings of how people interact and communicate with each other. For more information please refer to
http://tiny.cc/cjola or http://www.CoCoDanse.com.