PRAXIS, INC: 2024

PRAXIS, INC: Innovate, Network, Collaborate is the department's annual community event in which we invite current students, faculty and alumni to come together and share their skills in the field of Performance Studies, engage in important conversations, and stay connected with colleagues and peers.

Praxis includes a wide range of programming like visual artwork, practicum workshops, discussion panels and informational sessions. Some programs which students and alums have led in the past include: self scripted choreography, a film installation inspired by amusement parks, and a talk on publishing without an agent.

This year's program will include sessions by:

Camila Arroyo Romero, Ph.D. Candidate
Monika Blaszczak, M.A. Candidate
Phoebe Fregoli, M.A. Candidate
Nína Hjálmarsdóttir, M.A. '20
Stacey Manos, M.A. Candidate
Pauline Mornet, M.A. '22
Isaac Silber, Ph.D. Candidate
Akhil Srivastava, B.A. Candidate
Fengyi Wang, M.A. ‘23
Savyon Vaknin, M.A.Candidate
Ray Yang, M.A. Candidate 

KEYNOTE: 

“The Nerve of a Dancer’s Life”: Reconsidering the Daily Work of Dance Class

For many dancers and performers, “class” is the place one goes to acquire “technique.”  Drawing from philosophical theories of embodiment as well as dance and performance studies, this talk presents some of the ways in which techniques of the body have been theorized in the history of U.S. concert dance. With a focused reconsideration of the relationship between Cunningham class and the Judson Dance Theater during the early 1960s, the talk then searches for another history of dance, exploring what else beyond the acquisition of technique has been produced through the radical gathering and collective practices that have unfolded under the auspices of “taking class.”

Danielle Goldman is Associate Professor of Critical Dance Studies and Chair of the Arts at Eugene Lang College, The New School. In her research, she analyzes the social, cultural, and historical conditions that affect how people move. She holds a MA and PhD in Performance Studies from New York University and a BA in Philosophy from Stanford University. She has performed in the work of Sarah Michelson, DD Dorvillier, Anna Sperber and Beth Gill.  Her book I Want to be Ready: Improvised Dance as a Practice of Freedom was published by University of Michigan Press in 2010.