From May 15 to 18, the Fondation Jean-Pierre Perreault invited the entire dance community to take part in the focus day series Between Traces and Writing.
Featuring round table discussions, conversations, performances and workshops, the event explored the themes of traces, notation, documentation, memory, body/archives and digital technologies in dance.
This focus day series was inspired by several questions: What do we mean by traces, documents, diagrams and scripts in dance? How does orality persist in memory? What role do traces and writing play in the creative process? Must we document dance in order to transmit it? If yes, then how? What do choreographers’ and dancers’ notations reveal to us? How can digital technologies be used to document the creative process or “conserve” dance? Can we invent a system of writing or memorization that will allow dance to circulate in space and time? How can we build dance repertoires and keep our heritage alive? Finally, what do dance traces tell us about our personal and collective identities?
