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DANCING SYDNEY ARCHIVE PROJECT Amanda Card
We understand ourselves relative to the remains we accumulate, the tracks we house, mark, and cite, the material traces we acknowledge. (Rebecca Schneider, 2001, p.100)
Most humans are collectors, but choreographers and dancers, like many performing artists, often get caught up in moving-on. Cheryl LaFrance (2013) thinks it’s almost unnatural for dancers to look backwards when they are “constantly thinking ‘forward’ about creating new works” (p. 12). It has also been regularly observed (and widely lamented) that the principle artifact of dance, the moving body, disappears. As an ephemeral art, dance celebrates and suffers from the promise and problems of its transience. Dancing Sydney : Mapping Movements : Performing Histories is the initiative of three friends and colleagues Erin Brannigan, Julie-Anne Long and myself. This project hopes to play a part in making the past, present and future of dance in Sydney more visible. Since 2016 we have been organising and showcasing dance through research, publications, exhibitions, symposia, workshops, community events and
