Dance (Hi)Stories

“The future unfolds against the veil of the past,” says Franz Anton Cramer – the political relevance of an art form is closely tied to its historical meaning and the way it is examined. This thematic block is dedicated to the discussion of dance and its (hi)stories. In the past years, one could discern a heightened interest in the reconstruction of historical performances, as well as in the archiving of one’s own work – for contemporary dance has made an increased attempt to question its cultural memory. How is the repertory of gestures stored in this context, who remembers it and how is it passed on? How is dance archived and what will the archives of the future look like?
In order to counter the transience of this fleeting art form with something that will last, contemporary choreographers are increasingly seeking to document, reproduce and archive their works. Within the range of topics addressed here, opportunities, difficulties and challenges related to archiving dance will be shown in specific approaches: In storing documents, restaging pieces of famous protagonists of modernist dance, maintaining the repertory as a living archive, or storing artistic productions in archives already during one’s career. Dance archives are faced with the difficult task of finding adequate forms that, on the one hand, can preserve dance as a cultural heritage and, on the other, keep this form of art alive in regard to its specific resistive quality.