ABOUT THE RESEARCH |
SPACE+DIGITAL+DANCE
An area of research with DancingStrong Movement Lab. looking at the notion that new technology challenges where the human body begins, ends and is present in the digital age
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SPACE+DIGITAL+DANCE (S+D2) is a practice-based, interdisciplinary research Movement Lab started by Adesola Akinleye and Gonzalo Preciado-Azanza in 2018. The Lab has worked internationally from inception, with Akinleye in UK & USA and Preciado-Azanza in Latvia & Spain. The project was conceived from their want to dance together despite their geographic locations. S+D2 has since grown to consider the global implications of bringing people together in movement across geographic, political, and verbal language barriers. S+D2 engages art, science, and technology to explore how we can challenge where the perceived body begins, ends and is present with a focus on how this offers new ways of cultural and political togetherness. S+D2 uses choreography and choreo-thinking as a holding space for interaction through a hybrid physical/digital world. S+D2 works towards hybrid dance encounters to push the limits between the real and the virtual world. The next phase of this work is Boundaries22/23
Adesola Akinleye, PhD: is an interdisciplinary artist-scholar and choreographer. She began her career as a dancer with Dance Theatre of Harlem Workshop Ensemble (USA) later working in UK Companies. She creates works ranging from films, installation and texts to live performance that is often site-specific and involves a cross-section of the community. Akinleye foundered and is co-artistic director of DancingStrong Movement Lab. a unique multi-generational, multi-disciplinary practice-based creation space. Akinleye is an Assistant Professor in the School of the Arts, Dance Division at Texas Woman’s University. She is a Research Fellow with Theatrum Mundi and visiting lecturer at Central School Saint Martins, Spatial Practices Department. She is a Visiting Artist 2020–2022 at Center for Art, Science & Technology (CAST) MIT and Research Affiliate at Art, Culture and Technology (ACT), MIT. Akinleye has published in the field of dance scholarship as well as cultural and social studies. Gonzalo Preciado-Azanza, MA: International dance researcher & artist. He is a Research Fellow at the Department of Art History of the Universidad de Zaragoza (Spain), where he is currently a PhD candidate. Former dancer of The Latvian National Ballet in Riga, having finished his training at English National Ballet School. He graduated in Dance at Middlesex University, he holds a MA in Cultural Management from the Universitat Oberta de Catalunya and a MA in Advanced Studies in Art History at the Universidad de Zaragoza (with Extraordinary Prize and Mention of Excellence for his Dissertation). His research areas include the relationship between identities dance and cultural history (19th and 20th Century), as well as the choreographic processes in the digital age. His results have been presented in international journals and conferences from US, UK, Italy, Greece, Latvia or Spain. |