Dancing East Asia: Critical Choreographies and their Corporeal Politics
April 7-8 | Hatcher Library Gallery, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor
This conference examines the moving body as a medium of artistic experimentation, cultural exchange, and political activism in East Asia. Invited scholars from Asia, Europe, and North America will present new research on dance in the East Asian region, including China, Japan, North and South Korea, Taiwan, and Hong Kong. Covering late imperial times to the present, the conference will offer a landmark event for the emerging field of East Asian dance studies.
Dancing East Asia has been designated the 2017 “Special Topics Conference” by the Society for Dance History Scholars, the dance studies organization of ACLS.
This conference is one part of an ongoing research project focused on Dance Studies and Global East Asia and an edited volume directed and authored by Emily Wilcox and Katherine Mezur.
Visit the conference website.
Conference Program
Friday April 7th
Location: Hatcher Library Gallery, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor Central Campus
8:00-8:30 Coffee/Tea and Snacks
8:30-9:00 Welcome and Opening Remarks
Emily Wilcox & Katherine Mezur
9:00-11:30 PANEL I—Estranged: Shifting Contemporary Geographies
Chair: Tarryn Chun, University of Michigan
9:00-9:30
“Modern Dance, Peking Opera, Global Modernity: Mei Lanfang’s New Dance-Driven Operas of the 1910-1920s”
Catherine Yeh, Boston University
9:30-10:00
“Nationalist in Form, Socialist in Content: Choe Seung-hui and the Oriental Ballet in North Korea”
Suzy Kim, Rutgers University
10:00-10:30
“Diasporic Modernities: Locating East Asia in Global Modern Dance History”
Emily Wilcox, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor
10:30-11:00
“New Horizons of Chinese Dance: Classical Dance in the Twenty-First Century”
Dong Jiang, Chinese National Academy of Arts, Beijing
11:00-11:30
Q&A
12:30-3:00 PANEL II—Suspended: Between States Retraced
Chair: Clare Croft, University of Michigan
12:30-1:00
“Choreographing the Colonial Mass Pageant: Itō Michio in the Pacific War”
Tara Rodman, Northwestern University
1:00-1:30
“Faith vs. Desire: Si fan in the Chinese and Japanese “New Dance” Movements, 1920s-1940s”
Nan Ma, Dickinson College
1:30-2:00
“Scalar Shifts: From Kunqu Bodies to Hong Kong’s “One Country, Two Systems”
Ellen Gerdes, University of California, Los Angeles
2:00-2:30
“Choreographing Race: Dancing Bodies on Musical Stages in Korea and Beyond”
Ji Hyon (Kayla) Yuh, CUNY Graduate Center
2:30-3:00
Q&A
3:00-3:30 Break
3:30-6:00 PANEL III— Enlisted: Women Bodies Politic
Chair: Hitomi Tonomura, University of Michigan
3:30-4:00
“Dance in Imperial China: The Mobile Entertainer”
Beverly Bossler, University of California, Davis
4:00-4:30
“Performing Nation: Geisha Dance Performance under Japanese Militarism in the 1930’s”
Mariko Okada, Oberlin University, Tokyo
4:30-5:00
“Negotiating Chinese National Identity through Ethnic Minority Dance on the Global Stage: from Yang Liping’s Spirit of the Peacock to Dynamic Yunnan”
Ting-Ting Chang, T.T.C. Dance, Taipei
5:00-5:30
“Fans, Sashes, and Jesus: Evangelical Activism and Worship Dance in South Korea”
Soo Ryon Yoon, Yale University
5:30-6:00
Q&A
Saturday April 8th
Location: Hatcher Library Gallery, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor Central Campus
Coffee/Tea and Snacks 10:00-10:15
10:15-1:15 PANEL IV—Twisted: Corporeality Interrogated
Chair: Se-Mi Oh, University of Michigan
10:15-10:45
“Disruptive Gestures: Radical Choreographic and Political Practice in 1960s Japan”
Sara Jansen, Universities of Brussels and Antwerp
10:45-11:15
“Korean Dance beyond Koreanness: Park Yeong-in in the German Modern Dance Scene”
Okju Son, Chung-Ang University, Seoul
11:15-11:45
“Cracking History’s Codes in Crocodile Time: The Sweat, Powder, and Glitter of Women Butoh Artists, Ashikawa Yoko and Furukawa Anzu”
Katherine Mezur, University of California, Berkeley
11:45-12:15
“Digital Performance in Twenty-first Century Taiwan: Huang Yi & KUKA, a new form of Sino-corporeality”
Yatin Lin, Taipei National University of the Arts
12:15-12:45
“Exorcism and Reclamation: Chiao and the Corporeal History of the Taiwanese”
Ya-Ping Chen, Taipei National University of the Arts
12:45-1:15
Q&A
End of Public Programs
Poste by: Emily Wilcox eewilcox@umich.edu