Special Issue of Participations – Screen Dance Audiences :: Call for Papers — Deadline: May 1, 2010.

Screen dance is a dynamic and hybrid practice that is rapidly increasing in prominence and profile. Its presence morphs between hugely popular forms (Strictly Come Dancing; the Hollywood ‘dancical’); avant-garde practice (presented at dedicated screen dance festivals); the extremely prominent use of dance in commercial advertising (recent examples include Visa, Gap, iPod, Highland Spring); documentary recordings and adaption of live works; and digital and virtual dance performances (such as Bill T Jones’ Ghostcatching (image right).

The academic profile of screen dance has been gradually catching up with the development of the form – particularly Mitoma 2002, Dodds 2004 and McPherson 2006 – yet the relationship between screen dance and its divergent and diverse audiences is an area warranting specific attention in its own right. This is particularly so as the audience contexts of screen dance are extremely diverse – including broadcast television, cinema, dedicated festival performance, site specific projection, music television and the internet.

This special issue of Participations will explore Screen Dance Audiences across this range of practices and contexts and in doing so will seek contributions from a similar diverse range of methodological approaches from which to consider audiences – qualitative audience research, cognitive science, choreographic and practitioner perspectives, theoretical and practice-based. The journal will be co-edited by Dr Matthew Reason and Professor Dee Reynolds and is emerging from the ongoing AHRC funded Watching Dance research project.

Participations is an on-line, peer-reviewed journal devoted to the strengthening and development of the fields of audience and reception studies. It will be possible for papers to include video, audio and visual materials where copyright is held or permission obtained by the author.

Proposals for papers should be no more than 500 words and be emailed to both co-editors: Matthew Reason at m.reason [at] yorksj.ac.uk and Dee Reynolds at Dee.Reynolds [at] manchester.ac.uk

Proposals should be received by no later than 1st May 2010.
This special issue on Screen Dance Audiences is scheduled to be released in November 2010.

If you have any questions please contact the issue editors.