Body of Knowledge

Body of Knowledge is a research project that explores how the dancer’s body can be considered as a living archive by understanding experiences – dance related and other – that have been collected by and remain in the body. Recalling and categorising memories, events, performances, training, holidays, injuries – to name a few – has inspired us to develop ‘collections’ from which we have generated new performance work. Treating the body as a living archive, we challenge more traditional archives that contain tangible artefacts and documents, and emphasise the knowledge that resides in and with the dancer. This event is the last phase of their Body of Knowledge project, and Sally, Lisa and Rachel will present some of the dancing, speaking and writing practices they have been working with in order to unearth, understand and use their personal archives. They are joined in a post-performance discussion about the project by Betsy Gregory and Sally Hawsley