Archaeology for dance: An approach to dance education

Abstract

The paper proposes that existing methodologies for dance studies can be extended through consideration of recently developing methodologies from social archaeology. It is first argued that an archaeological perspective on dance is enriching for archaeology, whose recent interest in dance as a focus of investigation can be seen as an attempt to broaden the scope of archaeology as a discipline to encompass the totality of the human experience. The argument is then put forward that the process of archaeological investigation is a useful metaphor for the dance process in its broadest acceptation and provides a good model for dance analysis. The final section of the paper considers ways in which dance students' experience and understanding of dance can be enhanced through using an archaeological approach highlighting the usefulness of an archaeological perspective, and thus fleshing out a sense of its relevance. The methods of social archaeology are discussed in the more specific context of dance education and they are found to be of value in relation to practices of documentation and reconstruction of dance works, due to the fragmented nature of the dance evidence. No prescriptive conclusion is however posited. The scholarly community of dance practitioners and educators is invited to engage in a fruitful dialogue with archaeologists with a view to explore the disciplinary nexus in greater depth and take it further.