Social Choreography Network

What does social choreography mean today, and to what extent can this field provide new frameworks to help address the issue of cultural stereotyping of refugees?

Violent military conflict, environmental crises, breakdown of social, racial or ethnic integration, are some of the many reasons why millions of peoples are being displaced across the world. Immigration is regarded today as arguably one of the most pressing political issues by voters and the wider public, and not only in a post-Brexit UK. Whilst the problem of forced migration is typically addressed from within the social sciences (e.g. migration and diaspora studies, sociology, political science, or development studies), little is known about the way in which the movement arts and bodily perspectives are responding to such crises.

The gap in knowledge that the network is aiming to address concerns a lack of understanding of embodied socio-choreographic practice at a regional and cross-national level. There is no existing platform that has developed a framework devoted to movement as the chosen medium, nor a project that has mapped movement-based practices, models or methods dealing with refugee crises. There is a gap in the ethical understanding, which is why we need to ask ourselves what constitutes "good practice" across different regional and national contexts in social choreography, especially in relation to pressing issues such as forced migration.

This network also seeks to build upon a current interest in expanded choreography. In recent years the term "choreography" has been used in an ever-widening sense, becoming synonymous with specific structures and strategies disconnected from aesthetic bodily expression, style and technique. The function of choreography as an expanded trope has shifted from a set of protocols or tools used primarily in dance (or applied dance), to an open cluster of knowledge production concerned with the organization of bodily movement in social, political and even economic contexts. Our network is clear about its focus on non-stage practices. We have decided not to focus on the treatment of migration within aesthetic choreography (e.g. Akram Khan, Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui, etc.) but to foreground work that is being carried out more directly with local communities and through motor activity that is not typified by technique or style. Named participants have been chosen on the basis of their specialist knowledge across different areas and the capacity to deliver workshops, forums, public engagement, mediation, relief work and therapy. What kind of ethos and theoretical discourse is emerging from such practices, and what kind of synergies can be leveraged across projects in different geopolitical contexts?

An area of intense study in dance history (Hewitt 2005, McNeill 2007, Jackson 2008), social choreography offers a theoretical link between everyday movement and the choreographic arts that can inform a number of other disciplines. According to Hewitt, social choreography redefines ideology's mode of operation, linking "aesthetic" and "performative" perspectives with more abstract socio-political understandings of social movement and action. Histories of the discipline and biopower are currently problematized by movements of people and goods in disorganised and undisciplined flows. The historical approach to social choreography needs to be revisited in order to take into account present-day issues such as the impact of digital technology, the closing of national borders, the restriction of free mobility, and crucially, the stereotyping of "refugees" or "asylum seekers", both negative cultural tags that seem to efface the individual person behind the label.

By bringing together experienced practitioners working on the ground, and by linking communities affected by forced displacement, we will help lead social choreography to a second phase of development as an interdisciplinary and international field of study.

Beneficiaries of this project include the wider public, creative industry network members, and Refugee Community Organisations (RCOs). Project participants have been identified in each beneficiary group to maximise impact. All participants are heavily invested in community work involving integration of displaced groups through movement and embodied practices. Key beneficiaries include:

1. Colegio del Cuervo, Cartagena (Colombia). CdC is a creative hub and dance school led by Alvaro Restrepo (network member). The organisation works with displaced children in the community of Portezuela. They will benefit from internationalisation of their school, specialist knowledge exchange, and a visit from UK experts (Co-I and PI).

2. Arkadi Zaides Dance is an Israeli based independent project led by Zaides (network member). The role of this project is to reach out and bring together different communities and different sectors of society, focusing primarily on the Arab sector in Israel. Zaides will benefit from contact with likeminded practitioners, knowledge exchange, and use of new technologies within his work through work with PI, Co-I and named participant Cherene.

3. Led by network member Taigue Ahmed, Ndamsena is a Chad based dance training company that supports cultural dialogue between different ethnic groups, enhancing social cohesion in Chadian society. They will benefit from opening their work to English-speaking audiences, by engaging with new communities and stakeholders in the UK, and by knowledge exchange.

4. BeAnotherLab will also benefit from this project. This international lab co-led by Christian Cherene (network member) involves the use of Virtual Reality technology, and its implementation in the creation of empathy within the broader public. Through a customised Virtual Reality and mirror interface, BeAnotherLab are dedicated to placing members of the public inside the bodies of individuals labelled as minority groups (e.g. migrants). They will benefit from application of their technology to a general embodied ethical framework and discussion of their work in Leeds symposium, as well as published article.

Two local Refugee Community Organisations (RCOs) have been approached and will engage in key activities planned as part of this AHRC network. Refugees and asylum seekers associated with the Coventry Refugee and Migrant Centre (Sabir Zazai) and Leeds Refugee Forum (Ali Mahgoub) will be invited to key events, and will take part in workshops that will ensure local community impact.

The project will engage beneficiaries through public engagement activities in Leeds, London and Coventry. Regular team meetings, scholarly publication, and dissemination of impact case studies via project website will further enhance impact (see CfS for details). PI Salazar Sutil will lead these activities with close support from UoL support structures: i.e. from Faculty Research Office, PCI management, and through close mentorship from Co-I Whatley, who has plenty of experience delivering AHRC funded projects. Salazar Sutil and Whatley have previously collaborated on an AHRC-funded Network.

Finally, the project will continue an existing collaboration between PI and the Theatre of Sanctuary project at West Yorkshire Playhouse (network activities were carried out there in October 2016), and with key network partner Platforma (Tom Green) a leading arts and refugee network in the UK. Impact will be generated by taking part in Refugee Week 2017, organised by Green in collaboration with Southbank Centre, Rich Mix and British Museum.

All these network collaborators will be encouraged to share their definition of the problem statement (what is social choreography today?), by participating in brainstorming for potential solutions, and assisting in the evaluation of the network. An ethical guideline drafted by the network participants will be shared globally (online), providing an important resource, we hope, for future work.