The Centre for Screendance

The Centre for Screendance - hosted by the University of Brighton - continues the work of the original AHRC Screendance Network (2009 - 2011) and supports the International Journal of Screendance. The Centre also publishes a blog with news about relevant events, conferences and debates. 

The Centre aims to develop and advance screendance practices, and support researchers and curators around the world. We welcome a range of directions in screendance that might include experimental film techniques, choreographic traditions, visual arts, digital technologies, research-led approaches and radical interdisciplinary thinking.

A brief history

In January 2012, the former Screendance Network become the Centre for Screendance. Traces of the Network remain in The International Journal of Screendance (published online by Ohio State University), memories of a Screendance Symposium (Brighton, 4 February 2011), and the group’s desire to continue creating opportunities for artists, academics, educators and students to engage with critical dialogues about screendance’s past, present and future.

The idea of the Network was developed by Claudia Kappenberg (University of Brighton), Douglas Rosenberg (University of Wisconsin-Madison), and Katrina McPherson (formerly Dundee University). Their work included a successful bid to the United Kingdom’s Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC) for “Network Funding” and in April 2009 the Screendance Network officially began its work.

The Network’s goal was simple: to create a research forum for critical debate and publication on screendance.

The Network also aimed to foster dialogue with adjacent fields of practice and enquiry and invited scholars such as Professor Ian Christie, (Birkbeck, University of London UK), Professor Noel Carroll (Temple University, USA) and Catherine Wood, Curator (Tate Modern UK) to contribute at different stages of the project.

In December 2011 and after two years of debates and activities the Network – Claudia Kappenberg, Sarah Whatley, Douglas Rosenberg, Harmony Bench, Ann Cooper-Albright, Marisa Zanotti and Simon Ellis – held its final meeting. However, the work continues through the Centre for Screendance, and in collaboration with artists, scholars, Festivals and students worldwide.