Dance history scholars to convene this weekend on campus

With an exquisite sense of timing, the Society of Dance History Scholars chose one of the brightest weekends of the Saratoga summer for its 31st annual conference. Titled Looking Back/Moving Forward, the conference takes place on the Skidmore campus from Friday to Sunday, June 13-15, the same weekend as the second annual SaratogaArtsFest, with its dozens of arts-oriented events and activities.

Nonetheless, the conference?s 140 participants?about 115 hailing from across the U.S. and another 25 from abroad?will probably spend much of their time on campus intent on their PowerPoints, DVD players, computers, and projectors, viewing the world of dance in a wide range of sessions offered by more than 70 presenters. (Among the presenters is the legendary Village Voice dance critic Deborah Jowitt.) The talks, panel discussions, and workshops will explore numerous dance practices? ballet, breaking, the buck, digital dance, hula, the lindy hop, modern dance, ring shouts, rumbas and zarzuelas, to name a few. According to the program, participants will analyze archival explorations and dance reconstructions, consider the challenges of dance biography, reflect on relations between dance history and architectural theory, and explore the effects of time on the bodies of dancers.

The weekend will also include a chance to take in the Martha Graham Dance Company?s dance concert at the Saratoga Performing Arts Center on Friday night. The company is currently in residence at Skidmore, and its performance is among the SaratogaArtsFest highlights.

The conference is open to walk-in participants, with registration at the door. Attendance for the full three days is $210 ($115 for students or retirees) or $65 for a single day ($35 for students or retirees). Among the offerings: a panel discussion titled ?The Dance Legacy at Skidmore College? at 4-5:30 p.m. Saturday, June 14, in Davis Auditorium. Moderated by 1970s dance department faculty member Lisa Fusillo, the panel will include current dance department chair Mary DiSanto-Rose and faculty member Denise Limoli, Brenda D?Aiuta ?80, Penny Hatch ?81, Sara Juli ?00, Rhonda Stampalia ?81, Carolyn Frankil Warren ?80, and Erin Strong ?00.

Two Sunday sessions are open and free to holders of SaratogaArtsFest ArtsPasses. They include a 9-10:30 a.m. panel discussion of Martha Graham?s seminal dance work Appalachian Spring (1944) (with Graham company artistic director Janet Eilber among the speakers), and an 11 a.m.-12:30 p.m. workshop in the Dance Center?s Studio 2, offering 18th-century French ballroom and contredanse and the contemporary Umfundalai technique used by dancers in Africa, the Caribbean, and South America.

The aim of the Society of Dance History Scholars is to advance the field of dance studies through research, publication, performance, and outreach to audiences across the arts, humanities, and social sciences. Click here for more information about the organization.