Abstract This paper elaborates on a pedagogical experiment of using reflective practice as a framework for teaching dance. The class that this paper unpacks was an undergraduate class in India’s first Liberal Arts University and none of the participants in the class were trained dancers. Highlighting the primacy of knowledge generated in body which thinks and a mind, which is embodied, this paper examines a possibility of developing a justification for dance in education that stems from its own unique teaching and learning possibilities, rather than through the lens of other subjects. The paper finally unpacks the possibility of creating and experiencing movement in the kinaesthetic sensorium that privileges knowing over seeing and ambiguity over certainty as approaches to relevant knowledge. Biography Aadya Kaktikar is an Odissi dancer with over two decades of performing and teaching experience. Currently working as an Assistant Professor at Shiv Nadar University, one of India’s first Liberal Arts universities, Aadya situates her work at the cusp of multiple disciplines of performance, education, history and anthropology. Particularly interested in the pedagogy of traditional dance forms practiced in contemporary education spaces, she is a Ph.D. scholar at the Departmen of Dance, Texas Women’s University and research interests include post- colonial dance history, dance pedagogy and developing culturally relevant teacher training

The Australian dance theatre collective, Remnant Dance, was established with a vision to ‘create, make, connect’ through artistic practice and performances. Remnant Dancers have generated unexpected social networking and community development whilst exploring connectivity through dance in the collective environment. In particular, during 2015/2016, Remnant Dance ventured into ambitious creative territory by inviting 22 artists from the fields of music, contemporary dance, and visual/multi-media arts to collaborate in response to fragments of literary texts, matched with wines. The project, winery psalms–the mixed half- dozen, generated six short, multi-art form pieces which were installed/performed on site at a winery, inviting audiences to experience viscerally a sensory connection through visual, aural and kinaesthetic (wine-tasting/responding to site-specific installations) mediums. An innovative venture for Australian artists and audiences, the collaborations extended creative practices that consider how artwork is seen as a commodity for consumption, challenging audience engagement with (assumed) boundaries that constitute performing art works. Biography Lucinda Coleman is currently an Adjunct Lecturer at the Edith Cowan University –Western Australian Academy of Performing Arts (WAAPA). She is the Dance Maker for the Australian dance theatre collective, Remnant Dance, and a Doctor of Philosophy (Performing Arts) was conferred on her by the Western Australian Academy of Performing Arts, in 2017. An experienced choreographer, performer and teacher, Coleman’s dance works have been performed throughout Australia and Asia, and since founding Remnant Dance (2010), her repertoire has included performances for the Cancer Council, STRUT Dance, the Adelaide Fringe Festival, Perth Fringeworld, charity organisations, and performances at theatre and community venues across Australia. As Remnant Dance Maker, Coleman has directed and produced over 20 arts productions in Vietnam, China, Myanmar, and Australia. www.remnantdance.com.au

Abstract This paper analyses political protest as a ground for testing acts of art and performance along the parameters of ephemerality and democracy. By investigating the JNU protest of 2016, in that three particular performative acts, this paper argues that any art or performance that claims to radicalise and assume an upfront political position must exhibit an ability to go beyond self-staging and emerge, not as a sole object of viewing but rather as a response and responsibility of its context. In the technocratic world of competing political criticisms that we live in today, while political protests are themselves prone to ‘self-aestheticisation’ (Groys, 2017, pp. 5), by assessing the degree of criticality with which a protest mobilises its cause and stays observant to complex opinions, it may be possible to contemplate how artistic endeavours can find in political protests methods of de-objectification in order for them to identify themselves as ”disruptive” for the existing systems. Biography Meghna Bhardwaj is a PhD scholar from School of Arts and Aesthetics, Jawaharlal Nehru University, Delhi. Trained as a dancer in Ballet, Modern, and Contemporary techniques, Meghna has been a resident at Facets, Attakalari Biennial 2017; Gati Summer Dance Residency 2015; Choreolab, Singapore, 2015; American Dance Festival, WDA, China, 2014; and MASA Dance Journey Program, Kibbutz Contemporary Dance Company, Israel, 2014. Her most recent performance includes Dance Round Table 2018, Taipei. She has presented her academic writing at the IFTR Conference, Stockholm, 2016, and has been published in the Journal for Emerging Dance Scholars (JEDS), 2016, and Ligament magazine 2017.

Abstract: This paper aims to reflect on perspectives of Portuguese expressive practices by confronting the analysis of contemporary dance works and a TV series, both of which deal with the construction of the Portuguese identity. The paper foregrounds notions such as exoticism, estrangement and authority, by focussing on two clear strategic tendencies of staging imaginations around the perception of traditional practices: by essentializing and by organicizing. Methodologically this work is framed within the multidisciplinary approach whereby an attempt has been made to generate a cross discussion between performative arts and anthropology. Biography: Sophie Coquelin has a “Licence” degree in Ethnomusicology from Paris-X-Nanterre University (France, 2004) and a Masters degree in “Ethnologie des Arts Vivants” from Nice Sofia-Antipolis University (France, 2013). Her professional experience took place at PédeXumbo Association as a cultural producer (2006-2014) and as a junior research fellow at the Institute of Ethnomusicology – INET-md (2014-2017). She is currently a PhD scholar at the University of Lisbon since September 2017. She intends to deepen her research on Anthropology and Art, by working on multimodality in dance, particularly on chamarritas balls (Azores Islands, Portugal).

Abstract: This article takes Michel Foucault’s theory of technologies of the self in conversation with Legend Lin Dance Theatre in Taiwan, to see how the choreographer Lin Lee-chen’s mottos “challenge yourself” and “find yourself back” form a belief system by weaving theory and practice together. Going deeper through field investigation and interview with the dancers, three sub-issues are gradually revealed. First on the use of energy: why do the dancers need to exhaust themselves totally in the practice? Second on the individual with the group: why is individuality taken away from each performer and unity is highly emphasized? Third on philosophy and spirituality: why the “idiotic” attitude is highly regarded in order to be in the state of psychic-emptiness? From these intriguing examples, I will postulate a new way of locating the subject’s relation to knowledge and practice for accessing the truth. Biography: Taiyueh Chen is a current dance research doctoral student and part-time lecturer at Taipei National University of the Arts (TNUA). Chen received his MA from TNUA with the master thesis winning the Chin-Lin Award from the Dance Research Society, Taiwan. His research interests include practice as research, presence in performance and the construction of self in dance practices. From 2013 till now, with grants from both the LMF Dance Foundation and the National Culture and Arts Foundation, Chen started his research in ontological issues of somatic practices relating to the Feldenkrais Method and Chinese Medicine.