RAI RESEARCH SEMINAR
SEMINAR SERIES AT THE ROYAL ANTHROPOLOGICAL INSTITUTE
Listening to the ‘voice of the body’: revisiting the concept of embodied ethnography in the anthropology of dance
Dr Ann R David, Head of Dance, Reader in Dance Studies, University of Roehampton
Wednesday 23 March at 5.30 pm
Whilst Radcliffe-Brown, Malinowski, Mead and other early eminent anthropologists noted the importance of dance in the field, it is only later with anthropologists working in the arts (music, dance, film) such as Blacking, Williams, Grau, Farnell and Hughes-Freeland amongst others, that the importance of the ethnographer’s participation was acknowledged. This seminar takes a fresh look at embodied practice, drawing on diverse fieldwork in the UK that looks at Indian folk dance and Bollywood film dance, and is supported by theoretical paradigms from haptic and sensory theory. Ideas such as ‘listening to embodiment’ or hearing the ‘voice of the body’ are discussed as a challenge to the more orthodox forms of cognition and perception.
This event is free, but tickets must be booked. To book tickets please go to http://annrdavid.eventbrite.co.uk