Call for Papers: Organizer-refereed panel at the January 2016 Society for Classical Studies meeting in San Francisco Roman Dance Cultures in Context Organizers: Lauren Curtis (Bard College) and Zoa Alonso (Harvard University / Real Colegio Complutense) This panel investigates the role of dance and other non-verbal performances in the Roman world, a timely and important issue in ancient performance studies. In recent years, performance has become a burgeoning area of research in the study of the ancient world, encompassing Greek music, dance and chorality, rhetorical declamation, oral literature and its transmission, poetic recitation, acting, theatrical reception, and pantomimic enactment. But there are still important gaps to be filled in the search of this ‘moving Antiquity.’ In the Roman world, the aesthetic and social role of dance has begun to be recognized, but research has focused almost exclusively on the theater, with important advances in the area of Roman comedy and especially imperial pantomime. The Romans, however, also had a rich culture of bodily performance, from the rituals of everyday life, to the spectacles of public occasions, all of which have received far less scholarly attention. The panel therefore seeks to establish a wider notion of the role of movement and choreography in Ancient Rome. We invite contributors from a range of disciplinary perspectives to examine the manifold connections between dance and other aspects of Roman social and cultural life, investigating dance as a cultural product and process, the impact of dance on Roman literature, religion, art and society, and its connections with other Mediterranean cultures. Possible lines of inquiry include but are not limited to the following. How did Romans act as consumers, spectators, sponsors or critics of certain dance forms? What was the ritual role of movement in Roman ceremonies? How about the relationship between ritual and entertainment through the dancing/moving body? What moral and intellectual discourses surrounded dance at Rome? What was the relationship at Rome between concepts of music and dance? How did poetry and other literary forms respond to or reinterpret the idea of dance? What about material and visual culture? To what extent were Romans choreographic/kinesthetic practices influenced by, or a response to, Greek or other cultural traditions? How did Romans perceive the dance and movement of other peoples? What is the role of women in the process of creating, performing or studying ancient Roman dance culture? Please submit anonymous abstracts for a talk no longer than 20 minutes as an email attachment to [email protected] by March 2, 2015. Abstracts should follow the SCS guidelines for formatting abstracts (apaclassics.org/annual-meeting/guidelines-authors-of-abstracts), and will be peer-reviewed. Please include the title of the panel in your abstract, and address any questions to the organizers, Lauren Curtis ([email protected]) and Zoa Alonso ([email protected]). For more information, visit: apaclassics.org/annual-meeting/2016/147/organizer-refereed-panels-147th-annual-meeting
Posted on: Mon, 26 Jan 2015 09:31:03 +0000