Professor Dr. Susanne Foellmer
Alfried Krupp Senior Fellow
(October 2022 - September 2023)
- graduated in Applied Theatre Studies at JLU Gießen, received PhD at Freie Universität Berlin
- Professor in Dance Studies at the Centre for Dance Research (C-DaRE) at Coventry University, UK
- dramaturge, a.o. for Meg Stuart and Jeremy Wade; founding member of the Dachverband Tanz Deutschland (2004); board member of the Coventry Dance NGO; member of the advisory board for the conception phase of a House for Dance and Choreography, Dance Archive and Communication Centre for Dance Berlin
Fellow project: "Protest Movements. Choreography As a Tool to Create and Analyse Dynamics in Topical Situations of Resistance“
Conventionally, choreography is understood as the writing of movement or the creation of a dance piece. Recently, the term has expanded into fields other than the arts where the structured arrangement of movement is of relevance: in social and economic contexts such as work organization, and even in cell biology or organic chemistry.
In political contexts, choreography can serve as both practice- and analytical instrument, for instance, to create and to understand dynamics in settings of resistance: One the one hand, choreography is a means to orchestrate protests, for example in danced flash mobs. Also, it can serve as a tool to allow for rallies in times of prohibition of corporeal public assembly, such as in a pandemic. On the other hand, aspects of choreography can help to identify emerging power relations, in conflicting areas between protesters and state authorities as well as within social movements themselves. In this respect, the double mode of choreography as the organizing and commanding (of) movement is key.
Furthermore, choreography illuminates the connections of recent protests between the onsite public sphere and the online space of social media as another medium for voicing political concern. Choreography, then, also generates an aesthetic momentum in distributing social and political agendas.