Professor Christopher Bannerman
First posted: March 2021
Under the heading of Intercultural Dialogic Exchange we have grouped all of the material that relates to the ResCen partnership with east Asian colleagues at Beijing Dance Academy and Taipei National University of the Arts. While this features the flagship ArtsCross initiative, still called Danscross in China, it expanded to include Shift of Balance, a British Academy-funded programme designed to deepen our dialogue and to include issues such as PhD students and the ways that practice and research can be introduced into curricula.
There are also other activities that have emerged from our exchange – conference presentations, seminar contributions, written papers and video presentations; as well as artistic projects which have been inspired by the ArtsCross performances and/or by the people who have been brought together through our partnership. The richness of the exchange is evident as is the range of interests that individuals bring to the discussions – however they are all part of the attempt to know the other and to thereby know ourselves.
This is not easy and the Sinophone context presents particular challenges and richness as the East Asian region lies outside the familiar western discourses of colonial and postcolonial interactions and theorising; despite the British presence in Hong Kong. The scope of the history is also daunting for a westerner used to dealing with centuries at most, and with specific understandings of modernity and its origins which are challenged through interacting with dynamic and fast-changing East Asian contexts. These are challenges, but often they are stimulating challenges which require another response in the ongoing dialogic exchange.
| Posted | |
| 2009-2020 | ArtsCross pages Danscross 2009 Beijing, ArtsCross 2011 Taipei, ArtsCross 2012 Beijing, ArtsCross 2013 London, ArtsCross 2014 Beijing, ArtsCross 2019 Beijing |
| 2009 | Danscross Beijing: Dancing in a shaking world The inaugural project at Beijing Dance Academy (BDA) which featured choreographic sessions spread over many months and a final performance |
| 2011 | ArtsCross Taipei: Uncertain…waiting… The addition of Taipei National University (TNUA) and the first intensive project involving all choreographers working simultaneously, supported by TAL Foundation and AHRC (Bannerman PI, Martin Welton CI) and UK arts partner Step Out Arts. |
| 2012 | ArtsCross Beijing: Light and Water The second project of the BDA-TNUA-ResCen partnership involving all choreographers working simultaneously, supported by TAL Foundation and AHRC (Bannerman PI, Martin Welton CI) and UK arts partners Step Out Arts and The Place |
| 2013 | ArtsCross London: Leaving home, being elsewhere The third project of the BDA-TNUA-ResCen partnership involving all choreographers working simultaneously at The Place in London |
| 2013 | ArtsCross London: Reception at Asia House |
| 2013 | On Curation: The development of Danscross and walking with Zhuangzi A paper by Prof Christopher Bannerman detailing the background to the development of ArtsCross |
| 2014 | ArtsCross 5th Anniversary At Beijing Dance Academy and the National Centre for the Performing Arts, Beijing. Featuring selected Works from the first five years. |
| 2015 | Beijing Dance Forum Images of the Shift of Balance meetings |
| 2016 | Shift of Balance Taipei Images of the Shift of Balance meetings |
| 2016 | Choreographic Practices publication |
| 2016 | BDA Film: Nuo – Fate Nuo–Fate (2017) is an award-winning documentary film by HU Xiaojiao’s about the development in China of Mask, an ArtsCross London 2013 work. The film includes footage from London performances and academic-artist seminar sessions and traces the roots of the dance work Nuo-Mask (2016) performed at China’s National Centre for the Performing Arts, back to the rituals and folk opera forms of rural China. |
| 2016 | British Academy-funded reflections on ArtsCross (2014-17) The publications that emerged from the Shift of Balance discussions |
| 2016 | Working Out a Future – Brief Thoughts on Developments of Dance Practices in China, BDA Anniversary 2015, Stefanie Sachsenmaier Report on the Beijing Dance Academy Dance Studies 30th Anniversary which coincided with the first Shift of Balance meeting. |
| 2016 | Dance Studies East and West: BDA Anniversary 2015, Alexandra Kolb Report on the Beijing Dance Academy Dance Studies 30th Anniversary which coincided with the first Shift of Balance meeting. |
| 2016 | Re-analysis of Yang Liping’s Iconic ‘Sign of the Peacock’ using Roland Barthes’ Theory, Wang Xin A paper by BDA scholar Wang Xin presented for discussion as part of the Shift of Balance discussions |
| 2017 | Shift of Balance London These sessions included PhD student presentations, T’ai Chi as an expression of traditional Chinese thinking and a visit to English National Ballet to see a rehearsal of Akram Khan’s Giselle |
| 2017 | Akram Khan interview Professor Christopher Bannerman in conversation with Akram Khan discussing the creation of a solo for Chinese Classical dance artist Hua Xiaoyi |
| 2018 | Co-Curating Dialogue: on a bridge with Zhuangzi, Chris Bannerman A video presentation by Professor Christopher Bannerman reflecting on the development of the ArtsCross initiative |
| 2019 | Dancing in the shaking world – Global Improvisation Initiative Symposium A presentation by Chris Bannerman, Zhao Zhibo, Ma Jiaolong at the Global Improvisation Initiative Symposium, 16 May 2019, Middlesex University. |
| 2019 | ArtsCross Beijing: Beyond the Clouds Process and performance video documentation, performer vlog & writings, academic commentaries and papers, Conference documentation, Producers Forum documentation |
| 2020 | The Producers Toolbox: The Way/Dào of the Producer The first two video presentations by Emma Gladstone and Farooq Chaudhry in a series focused on UK producers and presenters who talk about their work |
| 2020 | Indigenous Corporeal Presence: Bulareyaung Dance Company’s LUNA and Indigenous Territorial Issues, LIN Yatin A paper published in the Taiwan Dance Research Journal focused on the work of Bulareyaung Pagarlava an ArtsCross choreographer in 2011 and 2014 |
| 2021 | ArtsCross Memories In the gap caused by the covid-19 pandemic, past ArtsCross participants offer their memories and reflect on the influences of the project on their work |