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ArtsCross Beijing 2012: Light and water (a large scale international exchange project)

In 2011 the Danscross collaboration with Beijing Dance Academy (BDA) expanded to include Taipei National University of the Arts (TNUA). In November 2012 the renamed ArtsCross Beijing 2012: Light and Water took place with support from an AHRC International Networking award.

The TNUA involvement offered rich opportunities to extend discussion and understanding of multiple manifestations of ‘Chineseness’ and associated artistic, academic and political traditions and practices. The project took place despite a Chinese embargo on UK collaborations following David Cameron's meeting with the Dalai Lama and nervousness associated with the 10-year change of government.

Featuring ten choreographers and twenty-four academics (People’s Republic of China [PRC], Taiwan, UK/EU, Japan), the project involved sustained academic exchange with a range of research concerns. For the Directors the research aims included:

PRC (Xu):

- modernising and internationalising choreographic and academic practices;

- achieving an appropriate space for dialogue with Taiwanese colleagues;

- developing Chinese and English-language networks of exchange;

- presenting socially challenging work in mainstream venues;

- debating modern Chinese identity/ies and their manifestation in performance;

- debating disciplinary boundaries in performance;

Taiwan (Ping, Wang):

- achieving an appropriate space for dialogue with PRC colleagues;

- presenting dance knowledge, skills and research in PRC;

- debating Chinese vs Taiwanese identity/ies;

UK (Bannerman):

- developing wider understandings of 'Chineseness’ and associated national, cultural, artistic and political contexts;

- internationalising artistic and academic practices in a world of multiple modernities;

- 'holding the space' for exchange between PRC/Taiwan/UK/EU artists and academics;

- developing reflexive understanding of Western artistic, academic and philosophical practices and the assumptions that underlie them.

My research concerns stem from my role. Despite recent work on interconnected histories, eg Bhambra's Rethinking Modernity (2007), the practice of intercultural exchange is not literary and the perception of disconnected histories is a potent force which my ArtsCross research addresses.