Dramaturgy of Dance and Movement
“dance first and think afterwards”
(Samuel Beckett)
Contents:
Conference Programme
Abstracts
Call for Paper
Download the programme in PDF format: http://uartpress.ro/journals/public/docs/ICTS24-Programme.pdf
08.30—09.00 – Registration of participants
09.00-09.10 – Welcome speech, Professor Sorin-Ion Crișan, Rector University of Arts Târgu Mureș
09.10 – 10.20: Session 1, chair Sabin Sabados
09.10-09.20: KÖLLŐ Csongor - The Bodymind Connection: Asian Practices and the Transformation of Western Theatre (language of presentation: English)
09.20-09.30: PATKÓ Éva - Onnagata Role within Kabuki Theatre - Movement, Grace, Precision (language of presentation: English)
09.30-09.40: Traian PENCIUC - Dancing Deities: Hierophany and the Creation of Transformative Spaces in Tibetan Cham Dance (language of presentation: Romanian)
09.40-09.50: Andrei-Călin ZAMFIRESCU - Om Namah Shivaya. The Choreographic, Aesthetic and Cosmological Attributes of the Hindu God Shiva as Nataraja or Lord of Dance (language of presentation: Romanian)
09.50-10.00: Angela PRECUP - A Journalistic Incursion into the Musical and Choreographic Tradition of Târgu Mureș (language of presentation: Romanian)
10.00: 10.10: Lia Codrina CONȚIU - The Rhythm of Contrasts in “As You Like It” by W. Shakespeare (language of presentation: Romanian)
10.10- 10.25 – Discussion
10.25-10.40 – Coffee break
10.40-11.55 – Session 2, chair PATKÓ Éva
10.40-10.50: TOMPA Andrea - Lili Raubinek: Respect to the 23.000(language of presentation: Hungarian)
10.50-11.00: Anda CADARIU - "The Gala Experiment" - How to Do Things Without Words (language of presentation: English)
11.00-11.10: Raluca BLAGA - “DaDaDans” - a Unique Performance in the Romanian Theater Landscape of the 90s (language of presentation: Romanian)
11.10-11.20: ALBERT Mária - A Circle of Power. A Traditional Romanian Dance on a Hungarian Stage (language of presentation: English)
11.20-11.30: Laurențiu BLAGA - Gigi Căciuleanu and his Four Choreographic Theater Productions in Târgu Mureș (language of presentation: Romanian)
11.30-11.40: GYÖRGY Andrea: Júlia and Julieta. Mihai Măniuțiu: “Julieta” (language of presentation: Hungarian)
11.40-11.55 – Discussion
11.55-12.10 – Coffee break
12.10-13.25 – Session 3, chair Traian PENCIUC
12.10-12.20: Ricardo Moreno Garrido - La danse de l’acteur et actrice (language of presentation: French)
12.20-12.30: NAGY Imola - (Re)search in Movement (language of presentation: Hungarian)
12.30-12.40: ADAMOVICH Ferenc Tamás - Paradigm Shift in Dance: a Scientific Approach to Movement(language of presentation: Hungarian)
12.40-12.50: Andreea BELU - Body for Movement/ Movement for the Body within the Spectacle of the Social Present (language of presentation: English)
12.50-13.00: Cristina Maria OLAR - Body as Story: Dance as a Form of Emotional and Physical Narrative (language of presentation: Romanian)
13.00-13.10: GYÖRGYJAKAB Enikő - The Practice of Reorganization: Movement Composition (language of presentation: Hungarian)
13.10-13.25 – Discussion
13.25-14.40 – Lunch break
14.40-15.45 – Session 4, chair ALBERT Mária
14.40-14.50: Catalina Florina FLORESCU - “Classrooms like Open Spaces to Dance and Educate Freely” (language of presentation: English)
14.50-15.00: Marcela Livia DAN - Painting with the Body (language of presentation: Romanian)
15.00-15.10: Traian MOLDOVAN - Dynamic Convergence Photography. The Masks of Suffering (language of presentation: Romanian)
15.10-15.20: Cezar BULIGA - The dance between Photography and Dance (language of presentation: Romanian)
15.20-15.30: BEZSÁN Noémi - The Influence of the Avant-garde Theater on the Dramaturgy of Dance Theater - move to afternoon (language of presentation: Hungarian)
15.30-15.45 – Discussion
15.45- 16.00 – Coffee break
16.00-17.15 – Session 5, chair Raluca BLAGA
16.00-16.10: BOROS Csaba - The Philosophical Attributes of Dance Dramaturgy. Board Game with Sound and Movement Remnants (language of presentation: Hungarian)
16.10-16.20: SZILVESZTER László Szilárd - Movement, Dance, and Sacredness in Zsófia Balla's Pre-Regime Change Poetry (language of presentation: Hungarian)
16.20-16.30: ELEKES Márta-Adrienne - Following Schubert with The Journey company (language of presentation: Hungarian)
16.30-16.40: Adriana Ioana ISPAS - The Expression of Movement in the Performing Arts from the Perspective of Chinese Culture (language of presentation: Romanian)
16.40-16.50: Alexandra MAGAZIN - The Theatre of the Absurd and 20th-Century Music in “Krapp, ou La dernière bande” by Samuel Beckett and Marcel Mihalovici (language of presentation: Romanian)
16.50-17.05 – Discussion
19.00: Studio Theatre - Radio Nostalgia. Coreography: Fehér Ferenc. Dancers: Berencsy Martin, Dull Bence, Fazakas Hunor, Flór Máté Gellért, Jánosi Botond, Kitay Levent, Torner Anna (duration: 50 mins).
Ferenc Tamás ADAMOVICH
Hungarian Academy of Arts , Research Institute of Art Theory and Methodology
ferenc.adamovich@gmail.com
Paradigm Shift in Dance: A Scientific Approach to Movement
Abstract: In my presentation, I would like to briefly review the main historical periods of dance in the 20th century and the changes in the approach to the art of dance, from which I will conclude the definition of a new system approach. The paradigm shift is made possible by the existence of measurement tools that can be used to obtain information about properties of movements that cannot be seen with the naked eye, even during movement. By using the measurement results of technical devices, we can restructure the existing movements. We can call this process a paradigm shift because here the integration of technical tools helps the dancer, teacher and choreographer to understand the kinematic properties of the movement even more precisely, regardless of the dance form language, so that they can define and use the gestures and movements even more precisely. Such devices can be, for example, motion capture, electroencephalograph, electromyography and force bench. The scientific approach to movement can be effectively used in the development of several innovative directions, to which I will try to contribute by developing the system of affective movement pedagogy. Instrumental tests can not only help the understanding of the movement, but also the digitization of the movements, thus the more accurate preservation and recording of the movements, which was also attempted in the 20th century in the performing arts environment. The integration of the instrumental measurement of movement can promote the wide-ranging researchability of human movement, and with it the development of dance and theater science.
Keywords: affective, movement pedagogy, motion capture, AI, neural algorithm
Biography: Ferenc Adamovich is a dancer, teacher and researcher. In the research program, he examines the consequences of attention management on brain activity through movement execution. He works with mental pretension and is concerned with the activity and transfer effect of different motor representations. He developed a new procedure based on affective movement pedagogy on attention management. He extends the results and frameworks of his research to the examination of the possibilities of interaction between virtual reality and the user-avatar, thereby declaring the usability of artificial intelligence and large-sample movement databases for research and educational purposes.
Mária ALBERT
University of Arts Tg-Mureș
albertmartia.art@gmail.com
A Circle of Power. A Traditional Romanian Dance on a Hungarian Stage
Abstract: Dorota Maslovska’s A Couple of Poor, Polish-Speaking Romanians was directed by Theodor Cristian Popescu at the Tg-Mures National Theatre in 2011. The cast of Hungarian actors performed in a tight circular space, in a decadent atmosphere, with music and dance gestures that evoked rave parties. It was in this space that the traditional folk dance of Călușari released a surprising energy. What was the intention of the creators and the impact on the audience on this clash between ritualistic tradition and the present state of human interaction? The paper explores “what the movement’s doing does” (Kate Elswit).
Keywords: Călușarii, Malowska, Cristi Popescu, ritual dance, tradition
Biography: MARIA ALBERT, PhD (lecturer, University of Arts, Târgu-Mureș, Romania) has been teaching contemporary theatre, comparative literature, Romanian theatre, film analysis and translation techniques and has translated texts for the theatre. She has a doctoral degree in theatre from the I.L. Caragiale National University, București. She has contributed to theatre productions as a dramatic advisor. Publications include studies on contemporary theatre and dramatic writing and an English textbook for drama students (English Act, 2006). She participated in research projects with the themes: the history of Hungarian theatre in Romania, contemporary Hungarian theatre, otherness and applied theatre. She participated at several international drama-writing workshops and co-organized several editions of the International Playwriting Camp in Târgu-Mureș in cooperation with Lark Play Development Center and Peacedale Productions, New York.
Andreea BELU
Târgu Mureș University of Art
beluandreeaioana@gmail.com
Body for Movement/ Movement for the Body within the Spectacle of the Social Present
Abstract: This research focuses on the connection between somatic, proprioception and communication within artistic creative groups and groups of movement amateurs (people who want to deepen kinetic techniques in order to improve their movement abilities). The research has two directions: ”body for movement” – specifically, what is the path to be taken from amateur to professional in the performing arts (actor and/or dancer)? – and ”movement for the body”, meaning the study of the way movement causes significant changes at cognitive, proprioceptive, kinaesthetic, and neurological levels. The concern for this subject arose in the context of the 21st century social present, where, in Romania, there is no organisation or educational structure that ensures training and consistency in each performer's individual movement routine, which is necessary to meet the performative demands of a contemporary theatre production. Moreover, in national universities specialising in acting and choreography, from 2007 to 2023, there has been a significant number of admitted candidates who have no prior relevant studies (acting or choreography high school), and who do not have sufficiently developed body awareness and proprioception (reaction speed, movement accuracy, kinetic memory etc.), yet possess many or all of the skills needed to study and work in the field. And the dynamics of the performing arts field manifest within a broader social reality, where sedentary behaviour is considered one of the leading causes of death worldwide. In fact, this concern emerged as a need for perspectives, as a need for answers to the question: ”How do we ”ground” these people in their own bodies?” The focus on these two research directions emerged from this need four years ago and have materialised in the series of workshops called ”What the Body Am I Thinking?”, which continues to analyse possible approaches and relevant tools for the two directions, body for movement and movement for the body. The research has three levels: anatomical, neurological, and psychological. These levels are useful to the research as measuring criteria for the relevance of different movement techniques for the studied path and and the place occupied by the various studied techniques within this path.
Keywords: social present, movement, body, movement techniques, profesionallisation
Biography: Andreea Belu is a former contemporary dance choreographer and performer, currently focusing on movement research. Her work is driven by her interest in educating individual and body awareness, developing the intelligence of the body by preparing it for the great diversity of movement patterns. She completed her Bachelor's and Master's studies at the choreography department of the Theater Faculty of U.N.A.T.C. "I. L. Caragiale" in Bucharest and the undergraduate program at the Faculty of Journalism and Communication Sciences, also in Bucharest. Between 2008 and 2020, she has collaborated as performer, teacher and student with the National Dance Center Bucharest, Gabriela Tudor Foundation, 4Culture Association, Fabrica de Pensule, The Workshop Foundation (Hungary), North Karelia College (Finland), Künstlerhaus Mousonturm (Germany), University of Arts of Târgu Mureș, CiNETic - International Center for Education and Research in Innovative Creative Technologies, Tangaj Dance Collective, German State Theater of Timișoara, Matei Vișniec Theater Suceava, Museum of Recent Art Bucharest. She was co-coordinator of the project +2017 [ about body, love and contemporary dance] and of the DanceCloud platform, curator and moderator of the public dialog series "Historii Presente in Spații Incomode" and co-founding member of the choreographic research space AREAL. She has created stage movement for plays, collaborating with institutions such as: Szigligeti Theater Oradea, National Theater Bucharest, National Theater Târgu Mureș, Comedy Theater Bucharest, Metropolis Theater, Matei Vișniec Theater Suceava, Țăndărică Theater. From 2019 until now she has been giving workshops in the series "What the Body am I Thinking?", which discuss the connection between somatics, proprioception and communication in artistic creation and amateur movement groups. She is currently a teacher in the educational programs of the National Dance Center Bucharest (Dance and Performance Academy and Performance School for Children). For her, movement is a direct and sincere way to reach people.
BEZSÁN Noémi
University of Arts Tîrgu-Mureș
noemi.bezsan@yahoo.com
The Influence of the Avant-garde Theater on the Dramaturgy of Dance Theater
Abstract: My study focuses on examining the dramaturgical structure of dance theater. In the practice of dance theater, I explore those characteristics that are related to the perspective of the avant-garde theater. Two aspects of the phenomenon of boundary crossing can be observed in the background of the emergence of dance theater. First, it is manifested from the perspective of dance: the shift from pure dance towards the realm of theater. At the same time, it can be observed in the ongoing proces within the art of theater, which, due to the questioning and breaking of the dominance of spoken theater, made space for focusing on the body. This body focus is seen as a consequence of moving away from verbal language and approaching nonverbal forms of expression. The avant-garde theater plays a defining role in the development of both dance and theater arts, with its interpretation of the body leading to a shift in conventions in both fields. Magdolna Jákfalvi links the new perception of the body in avant-garde theater practice to the duality of reception, as distinguished by Hans Robert Jauss: the modes of perception of voluptas (pleasure) and curiositas (curiosity). While the difference between the virtual body and the real body activates the pleasure of looking, as the experience of voluptas, the enjoyment in the unveiling of the difference between the two bodies lies in the identification of the body’s transformation. Dance theater is a genre that leads to a variety of directions, depending on the creator’s unique world, individual character, content, and mode of expression. This genre traverses a broad spectrum and represents different artistic worlds. The artists working in this field move away from classification, representing a space of boundary crossing. This also explains how, from the 1980s onwards, with the influence of dance movements reaching Europe, the dance theatre genre has expanded into various names such as movement theatre and physical theatre. Despite the different labels, the fundamental aesthetic connection remains among the three categories. We can point out key similarities along the lines of dance theater, and as the names suggest, theater—specifically theater as a common denominator—represents the most essential aspect here. This is the theater that provides space for the body as both the subject and object of the theatrical event. In the variation of dance theater, movement theater, and physical theater, a surface emerges that reveals how personal modes of movement, playing with virtuosity and theatricality, the display of genuine exhaustion and risk, expose the transitions between the real and the virtual body to the audience. In this study, I aim to demonstrate through practical examples the aesthetic characteristics—such as the Körper-Leib duality, the acceptance of effort, risky situations, nudity, and fragmented composition—that are linked to the avant-garde perspective, and how they sustain the play between the real and virtual body, outlining a distinct dramaturgy.
Keywords: dance theatre, Körper-Leib duality, effort, risk, nudity, fragmented composition
Biography: Bezsán Noémi is an independent dancer, choreographer and university lecturer. She graduated at the University of Arts Târgu-Mureș, where she studied choreography (BA, 2013), directing (MA, 2015), doctoral studies (PhD, 2023). In her doctoral studies she researched the Transylvanian Dance Theatre – a Network Investigation. She've had important professional experiences with international representatives of contemporary dance, by participating in continuous training programs, residencies (IDW, Agitart Workshop, V4 Young Dance Talents Workshop, Summer Intensive Dance Academy – Beyond Fronta, Gesture Blooming Camp etc.). She has created choreographies in different theatres from Romania and Hungary since 2013, she also experiments with own directions in the field of dance theater.
Raluca BLAGA
University of Arts Targu Mures
raluca.balan@gmail.com
“DaDaDans”: A Unique Performance in the Romanian Theater Landscape of the 90s
Abstract: “DaDaDans”, the third project initiated by the 777 Theater Company and developed in partnership with Nottara Theater was, for many reasons, a unique show in the Romanian theatrical landscape of the late 90s. Using both an unusual way of working for that period - "collective, non-hierarchical creation" (Popescu 2012, 117), and a distinct way of using the elements that make up a performance (a way rather specific to postdramatic theater than to the dramatic theatre), “DaDaDans” represented, indeed, a different theatrical solution in relation to the cultural style that dominated in 1999 the local performing arts landscape. The present lecture aims to develop the above-mentioned aspects, while at the same time trying to account for both the main ingredients used in the construction of this performance and the reaction of the environment in which this artistic challenge was launched.
Keywords: “DaDaDans”; postdramatic theatre; Theodor-Cristian Popescu; Florin Fieroiu; Vlad Rădescu
Biography: Raluca BLAGA read Theatre Studies at the University of Arts Târgu Mureș and Mathematics – Informatics at Petru Maior University Tirgu‐Mures between 2002 and 2007. Between 2006 and 2008, she was a part of Theatre 74’s team – an independent, alternative theatre. In 2012 she defended her doctoral thesis entitled Adaptations of Tragic in Contemporary Dramaturgy and joined the teaching staff of the University of Arts from Tirgu‐Mures. Her current research interests concern the relationship between performance and audience. Raluca Blaga is also the author of (Su)poziţii teatrale sau ancore împotriva nostalgiei confortului, Eikon Publishing, 2018.
Laurențiu BLAGA
Târgu Mureș National College of Art
laurentiublaga@gmail.com
Gigi Căciuleanu and his Four Choreographic Theater Productions in Târgu Mureș
Abstract: An emblematic figure of Romanian and international contemporary dance, Gigi Căciuleanu is recognized for his innovative contribution in choreography and, especially, in choreographic theatre. With a career that spans several decades, he has managed to combine tradition with modernity, creating a distinctive style that reflects not only local but also international influences. His artistic career has fortunately intersected with the theatre of Târgu Mureș, the relationship between Gigi Căciuleanu and the local cultural space materializing in the appearance of four choreographic theatre productions (Jungle X, Carmina Burana, Vivaldi and the Seasons, GGworld) which have been significant landmarks for the two producing institutions (Ariel Theatre and the Târgu Mureș National Theatre). Beyond the impact of these productions on the public, the critics and the local theatrical scene, we can say that the artist Gigi Căciuleanu found in Târgu Mureș the perfect conditions to create and put into practice his ideas about the philosophy of choreographic theater, the mechanisms of the dancers' functioning and, last but not least, about his unique spectacular aesthetics. The present paper aims to present the importance of these choreographic theater performances for the cultural history of Târgu Mureș as well as the impact that Gigi Căciuleanu's presence had on the acting companies he worked with.
Keywords: Gigi Căciuleanu, Choreographic Theatre, danceActor, Ariel Theatre, Targu Mures National Theatre
Biography: LAURENTIU BLAGA was born on the 29th of May 1979, in Reghin, Mures County, Romania. Theatre critic, stage director, and poet, Laurentiu Blaga read Psychology at Dimitrie Cantemir University, Tirgu-Mures (Bachelor of Arts - 2002), Theatre Studies at University of Arts Tirgu-Mures (Bachelor of Arts - 2014) and The Art of Stage-Directing in Contemporary Theatre (Master Degree – 2010). Since 2019 he is professor of the Târgu-Mureș National College of Art where he teaches Theater History and Aesthetics. He published the following poetry books: Occurrence Heaven, Withdrawal and The Only Available God. He was part of the following poetry anthologies: Thursday 5 p.m.; The last generation, the first wave; Three decades of poetry. In 2012 he published the monographic volume entitled Guga (UATPress). In 2014, together with Adi Iclenzan, he was the winner of the Dramaturgy Contest organized by National Theatre Tirgu-Mures - the winning play was entitled Brîncoveanu File or How I Became a Saint. He was nominated for the Best Piece of the Year 2018 national contest organized by UNITER, for the play THE RETURN. In 2020, THE RETURN is published by Liternet Publishing House. In June 2021, the play THE RETURN has its premiere at the National Theater Târgu-Mureș - Liviu Rebreanu Company, directed by Adi Iclenzan. For stage, he directed The King Lear. The first Scene, after William Shakespeare (exam, 2009), Dexter by Alexa Băcanu (exam, 2009), Confessions in three steps, co-directed with Mihai Pintilei and Cătălin Mândru - THEATRE 74 (2009), Dream 7.38 (exam, 2010), Three – poetry performance, Theatre’s 74 Coffee (2010), The Closed Door by Graham Reid – Studio Theatre (2010), The Worst Play in the World by John von Duffel – Theatre 74 (2011), Bye, bye America by Carmen Dominte – radio performance – Tirgu-Mures Radio (2011), Bye, bye America by Carmen Dominte Yorick Studio Tirgu-Mures (2011), The Good Thief by Connor McPherson, K’Arte Theatre (2012), Love and understanding by John Penhall - K’Arte Theatre (2013), 3 SAD LABUTE after Neil LaBute co-directed with Adi Iclenzan and Andi Gherghe - THEATRE 74 (2016), Loud voice thoughts - poems for home, poetry CD, script and directing, Independent Liga Theatre (2016), OUT(GOING) – Traverse Theatre Edinburg, Scotland, a PASS(OUT) Project (2017), NUMB CRESCENDO - Traverse Theatre Edinburg, Scotland, a PASS(OUT) Project (2018), OFFLINE – Trupa GUGA JR. National Theatre Targu-Mures (2018), The Land of Fary, co-directed with Kerestes Attila at Tompa Miklos Company, Targu-Mures National Theatre (2018).
BOROS Csaba, PhD
University of Arts Tîrgu-Mureș, Music Department
borosg.csaba@yahoo.com
The Philosophical Attributes of Dance Dramaturgy. Board Game with Sound and Movement Remnants
Abstract: The joy of play permeates universal human culture. However, when observing the cultural habits and value dynamics that have become identities in post-human, post-colonial societies, many may feel a sense of loss in this regard. Our well-established concepts often encounter obstacles, and this is no different when it comes to play. For instance, there is play as competition, manifesting in combat and defeating one another, and play (play) as a sacred action, involving acts of depiction, revelation, sharing, and participation. Johan Huizinga's inspiring thoughts in "Homo Ludens" highlight the distinctive and extraordinary quality of play, and the renowned cultural historian and philosopher posits the startling paradox that play can only become part of culture through its seriousness.
In this study, I explore the meaning of the concept of play through aesthetic observations of music and dance dramaturgy, delving into details of some emblematic dance works from the late 20th century to outline the social and aesthetic role of play from new perspectives, serving as a caesura among the philosophical attributes of contemporary dance dramaturgy.
Keywords: philosophy of art, play, dance, dance-dramaturgy, musical esthetics, NDT, PetitMort, Kammerballett
Biography: Csaba Boros (1989) is a composer and assistant professor (PhD) at the Music Department of the University of Arts in Târgu Mureș. He began his composition studies under the guidance of Boldizsár Csíky. Between 2018 and 2021, he was a doctoral student at the Doctoral School of the University of Arts in Târgu Mureș, obtaining his PhD degree in 2021 with Summa cum Laude honors. He has composed numerous applied music pieces for theater and contemporary dance performances, as well as films, with some of his works being presented at contemporary music and art festivals. Since 2010, he has been an active participant in contemporary theater, a regular guest artist at theaters in Romania and abroad, and an active member of professional organizations. In 2019, he was awarded the Złota Maska (Golden Mask) by the Silesian Association of Theatres in Poland for the best theater music. In 2023, he received a similar award for the best theater music from the Ministry of Culture and Innovation at the Festival of Hungarian Theaters Beyond Borders. Since 2019, he has been a lecturer at the Music Department of the University of Arts in Târgu Mureș. In 2022, he published his book "The Hermeneutics of Applied Music." Both his creative and pedagogical work emphasize the interdisciplinary dialogue between music and science, with a focus on the influence of minimalism in his compositions.
Cezar BULIGA, PhD
University of Arts Targu Mures
office@cezarbuliga.ro
Dance Between Photography and Dance
Abstract: Dance photography in theater performances represents a distinct approach that interconnects two forms of artistic expression: dance and photography. This act of motion capture can add a new dimension to the artistic experience, having a significant influence on audience perception and how dance is consumed and performed. The characteristics of the act of photographing the dance are manifested both technically, but also through the impact it has on the audience and the dancers. In the contemporary space, visual communication leaves its mark more and more intensively on the viewer, who is more cultured in interpreting and decoding images. One of the main roles of dance photography is to freeze the ephemeral movements of dance in time. Dance, by its very nature, is an ephemeral art form, and movements are lost the moment they are performed. Photographing them gives them a form of continuous existence, a concrete object that can be studied, appreciated and interpreted over time. In this context, photography becomes a depository of an ephemeral art form, offering the possibility of preserving the essential moments of a performance. The documentary character of photography is deeply intertwined with the artistic one. On the other hand, dance gives photography essence, consistency and possibilities for artistic expression, as well as a means of research and self-research. The two mediums merge and enhance each other, enter into a subtle dance, like two dancers on stage.
Keywords: dance, theatre, photography, movement, interactions
Biography: Cezar Buliga is a photography artist and teacher, who studied visual arts at the University of Arts and Design in Cluj-Napoca. In 2022 he defended his doctoral thesis entitled Microexpression in Portrait Photography and in 2023 joined the teaching staff of the University of Arts from Tirgu‐Mures. Since joining the University of Arts from Târgu Mureș he increased his research interests involving the relations established between all kind of imagery and performing arts.
Anda CADARIU PhD
University of Arts in Târgu-Mureș
anda.cadariu@yahoo.com
"The Gala Experiment" - How to Do Things Without Words
Abstract: The hereby paper aims to dissect the way humans do things with - and especially without - words, onstage and off it, artistically and routinely, thus celebrating meaning and connection in the aesthetical, celebratory realm, as well as in the territory of the mundane, daily life. The analysis is undergone by means of isolating the verbal and the nonverbal manner of conveying emotion, starting from Jérôme Bel's 2015 highly-rated performance, Gala. Since a gala is a festive event, and people either dance or simply move in a ceremonial manner at most celebrations, there could have been no better title for Jérôme Bel's world-renowned experimental project that draws on connection, inclusion and diversity. While shedding the verbal element, Gala bathes the spectators in a candid spirit of emulation and glorification of the human condition. The performance (the inner dramaturgy of which relies heavily on the Aristotelian notion of "situation" and on "ludus" - as analyzed by Johann Huizinga) uses a simple, yet efficient device to entertain and to make sense of the entire onstage parade of different (but essentially similar) individuals from all walks of life: it holds up a mirror (generating, thus, a synechdoche) to the audience (hyperbolically enhanced as the whole of society) in a celebratory manner. The concept and structure, two key-elements in the inner dramaturgy of "the Gala experiment", serve as "food for thought" when it comes to an essential question: "What are the languages all humans speak, the languages that wordlessly render meaning?"
The research method is based mostly on the one entailed by dialectics and the classical Hegelian trinome: thesis-anthithesis-synthesis (art-humanity-emotion), while the research methodology includes elements of cultural anthropology, behavioral science, sociology, theatre studies, semantics, semiology, and aesthetics.
Keywords: dance, dramaturgy, movement, language, nonverbal
Biography: Anda CADARIU is a writer, a translator, a lecturer at the University of Arts in Târgu-Mureș, Romania and a member of AICT.ro. She holds a BA in Romanian and English Language and Literature (UBB Cluj-Napoca), an MA in Cultural Anthropology (University of Bucharest) and a PhD in Theatre Studies (University of Arts in Târgu-Mureș). Her thesis, Poetical versus Political – Alternative Theatre in Poland during Communism, was issued in 2021 by Eikon publishing house with the support of the Polish Institute in Bucharest. She won several research and visiting scholarships at prestigious international universities (Jagiellonian University in Cracow, University of Warsaw, University of Castilla-La Mancha, University of Miskolc.) Her debut, Poveste despre Banjaluka/A Story of Banjaluka, was published in Echinox, a well-known Romanian journal. She continued to publish essays, fiction, reviews and interviews in Echinox, Vatra, Bucureştiul Cultural (the supplement of 22 magazine), Observator Cultural, Respiro, Cultura etc. In 2019, she was selected as a participant in the Summer Scriptwriting Base residency, which took place in Bulgaria (Sofia and Bozhentsi). Anda Cadariu coordinated the translation into Romanian and publication of several plays, among which the 2018 Obie-winner Describe the Night by Rajiv Joseph and the same-year Pulitzer-winner Cost of Living, by Martyna Majok.
Lia Codrina CONȚIU
University of Arts of Târgu-Mureș
liacodrina@gmail.com
The Rhythm of Contrasts in "As You Like It" by W. Shakespeare
Abstract: Peter Brook noted that much of the spirit in a successful production of As You Like It „comes from the juxtaposing of scenes written in different keys.” This juxtaposition can be interpreted metaphorically as a dance, in which each change in tone, rhythm, and energy contributes to the overall dynamics of the play. The movement of the characters in space and time is fundamental to the unfolding of the action and the exploration of central themes. The change of space and the flow of time give the characters the opportunity to reinvent themselves, heal, and reach a harmonious and celebratory ending specific to Shakespearean comedies. In this play, Shakespeare also plays with identity, with masks being a symbol of transformation, identity, and ambiguity. And the central question is: How does illusion interact with reality? Is identity a fixed point or a fluid chain of ideas? In this paper, we will try to explore the play As You Like It from the perspective of a theatrical choreography of emotions, ideas and relationships, in which the „dance of personalities” creates a vibrant performance, in which each character contributes with their own „rhythm” to the overall harmony.
Keywords: rhythm, contrasts, identity, ideas, personality
Biography: Bachelor degree in Arts (Faculty of Letters - 1995) at “Babeş-Bolyai” University of Cluj-Napoca and in Business Administration (2011) at “Petru Maior” University of Târgu-Mureș, as well as a Master degree in Business Administration (2005) at the same university. PhD degree in Management (2010) at “Babeş-Bolyai” University of Cluj-Napoca, and a Ph.D. degree in theatre and performing arts at “George Enescu” University of Arts - Iași (2020). Associate Professor at University of Arts of Târgu-Mureș. She has published more than 50 scientific articles on teaching methods, theatre, communication, entrepreneurial education, organisational culture and Human Resources Management. She has been involved in national and EU projects as coordinator/member and she contributed to the elaboration of more than 10 books.
Marcela Livia DAN
University of Arts Târgu-Mureș
dnliv@yahoo.com
Painting with the Body
Abstract: One of the most expressive art forms to date is dance. Dance continues to expand its horizons every year, with new modern and contemporary forms captivating people from all over the world. A character who changed the classical paradigm of ballet and dance is Shahar Binyamini. He managed to revolutionize and break away from the rigid norms created over the centuries, reaching amazing languages and forms of bodily expression, so that dance became more than the perfect execution of classical movement phrases. Israeli artist and choreographer Shahar Binyamini was born in 1988 in Lod, Israel. He danced in the Batsheva Dance Company from 2007-2013, where he performed extensively in the repertoire of choreographers Ohad Naharin and Sharon Eyal. At Batsheva, he was the choreographic assistant of artistic director Ohad Naharin. There he began to teach the distinctive language of the Gaga movement. Gaga promotes the importance of the body as a means of expression that connects with the mind. Dancers are encouraged to explore their bodies in the most unbiased way possible and connect with their inner experience through movement. Gaga increases awareness of physical weaknesses, awakens numb areas, exposes physical fixations and offers ways to eliminate them, enhances instinctive movement and connects conscious and unconscious movement, allows an experience of freedom and pleasure in a simple way, in a pleasant space, in comfortable clothes, accompanied by music and each person with himself and others. He was artistic director of intensive Gaga courses in Tel Aviv, Italy, Los Angeles, New-York and Japan. There is a strong Naharin influence in Binyamini's choreography, which has the same lush embodiment, as if there were worlds pulsing in each body. After leaving the Batsheva dance company, (now a freelancer), Shahar began his international choreographic journey in 2016 in Singapore, where he created his choreographic work FLAT for Frontier DanceLand. Throughout his career, Shahar has been tapped by many international dance companies and dance institutions to create new pieces, including Mensch (2016) for Saarländische Staattheater, Lungs (2016) for UCLA, Empty3 (2017) for Ate9 and Gauthier Dance Company, Paradiso (2018) for Frontier DanceLand, Vulner (2018) for Norrdans, Ballroom (2019) for St. Festtenpielhaus. and I am (2019) for Ballet du Rhin, Hard to tell (2023) for Sao Paulo Dance Company, Bolero X (2023) for Ballet BC Vancouver, More than (2023) Tel Aviv Company.
Keywords: Shahar Binyamini, choreography, Gaga, Tnuda, body.
Biography: Marcela DAN - Graduate in Theatrical Art and Theatre Studies (1999) from Târgu-Mureș University of Arts, Master’s Degree in Speaking and Language in Performing Arts (2006) from Târgu-Mureș University of Arts. Doctoral degree in Theatre (2012) at the same institution. Scientific researcher III at the Theatrical Research and Multimedia Institution Târgu-Mureș. Member of UNITER (since 2008). Research areas: history of theatre in Romania, theatrical aesthetics.
Márta-Adrienne ELEKES
University of Arts Târgu Mureș
elekes_marta@yahoo.com
Following Schubert with The Journey company
Abstract: “ Winter journey in song and dance. An extraordinary and particularly impressive interpretation of Schubert's master cycle in many respects: Juliane Banse sings and dances. The Winter Journey in dialogue with dancer István Simon - a dense and intense evening that, according to Andreas Heise, allows for a different musical approach, taking the audience on a multidimensional journey of sound and image," we read in the 2022 advertisement of the Wilhelma Theater in Stuttgart. Schubert's song cycle Winter Journey was presented by The Journey company in Târgu Mureș on March 18, 2023, in the Big hall of the Palace of Culture. The production promoted a fusion of dance, music, and singing, but knowing the musical work, the question rightly arises: how can abstract ideas in dance be represented through body contact and dance technique? The choreographer of The Journey's Schubert performance may have encountered a similar question. In his approach, he probably shared the opinion of Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau. The baritone singer speaks of a terrifying intensity, given the expression of suffering. This intensity forms the basis of Andreas Heise's choreographic realization, which ultimately turned out to be brilliant.
Keywords: Winterreise, a multidimensional journey, dance-music-singing fusion, terrifying intensity, expression of suffering
Biography: Márta-Adrienne ELEKES finished her university studies at the Bucharest Music Academy’s musicology and musical interpretation department (piano section). She studied music science one more year in post university education, held her Ph.D. dissertation in 2001 at the National University of Music Bucharest and received her scientific degree after presenting the thesis: Polimodal Chromatic Principles in Lendvai Ernő’s Analytical Theory Regarding the Romantic Music. The topic of her habilitation thesis, Musical Art as Tradition and Contemporary Existence - an Ever-Present Field in Unraveling Meanings and Exploring the Perpetual Dynamics of Life, presented at the Gheorghe Dima National Music Academy in Cluj-Napoca in 2023, reflects upon her career so far. Since 1995 she is employed as a teacher at the Targu Mures Music High School, since 1999 she collaborates as music secretary with the Targu Mures State Philharmonic Orchestra, since 2004 she is teaching at the Targu Mures Arts University’s Music department, being in the same time the head of this department. Books of hers were published: Music Turned Into Words – Contribution to the Music Chronicle of Targu Mures; The Secrets of the Romantic Composition in the Light of Lendvai Ernő’s Analytical Theory; Between Glass Stains - Aniversary Book Szabó Csaba; Past and Present. Studies on Music; At the Confluence of the Organization of Musical Life and the Cultivation of Talent from a Musicologist’s Perspective.
Catalina Florina FLORESCU
Pace University, New York
fflorescu@pace.edu
Classrooms like Open Spaces to Dance and Educate Freely
Abstract: As a girl, my mom introduced my older sister and me to the arts via her love for painting, classical music and dance. She wanted to be an artist, but living in a dictatorship communist country where her body was heavily silenced and regulated made my late mom defer her dream. But I came along and picked it up. I never wanted to be an academic or an author. But here I am. This whole presentation relies on sharing the benefits of writing for the stage and classrooms. For the former, I will share images and clips from “Cancer, Choreographed” (https://www.broadwayworld.com/off-off-broadway/regional/CancerChoreographed-3802825) that was performed in the States (New York and Jersey City) and has continued to be performed in Romania (Bucharest, Cluj-Napoca, Brasov, Baia-Mare). I will also talk about the original version of the script that is part of the only breast cancer trilogy in the world (https://www.harvard.com/book/9781667161334); I will then move into explaining the changes that I had to made when I was in a residency at AREAL and reimagined the text alongside Cosmin and Cristina, the performers, choreographers, and heart of the piece. The last point that I’d like to make is to show that dancing is not without merits and benefits. We have scientific studies to back up what we knew instinctively and behaviorally a long time ago (https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0149763423001665) The question that remains is: Now that we have all this documented proof that the brain is stimulated immensely by movement/dancing, how could we use that information into creating more integrated spaces in classrooms and beyond (i.e., workplaces) where we soar from our seated, disciplined positions into an ad-hoc dance of life and joy?
Keywords: Dance; education; curriculum; neuroscience; medicalhumanities
Biography: Catalina Florina Florescu is a Romanian-born American author and educator. She holds a PhD in Comparative Literature with a focus on Medical Humanities conferred by Purdue University. She is the author of 13 books. She teaches diasporic literature, comparative theater, cinema and composition to undergraduate students at Pace University. She is a person with an invisible disability, and she researches and writes heavily at the intersection between the arts and sciences, with a focus on the former’s (consistent) palliative nature and the latter’s backup (ongoing) discoveries.
GYÖRGY Andrea
gyorgy.andrea@theatre-research.ro
Júlia and Julieta. Mihai Măniuțiu: "Julieta"
Abstract: András Visky's play, Júlia was first staged by Gábor Tompa in 2002, with Enikő Szilágyi portraying the main character, Júlia in a minimalist and static performance, including closed-eye acting. This was a joint production of the Hungarian State Theatre of Cluj and Thália Theatre from Budapest. In contrast, the 2005 staging, titled Julieta, directed by Mihai Măniuțiu at the National Theatre of Cluj, featured Vava Ștefănescu in a dynamic, physical theatre. My analysis delves into how these two theatrical interpretations complement each other by showcasing contrasting approaches to the same dramatic text.
Keywords: Mihai Măniuțiu, postdramatic theatre, physical theatre, suffering, pain
Biography: GYÖRGY Andrea, Ph.D., scientific researcher at the Theatre and Multimedia Research Institute, University of Arts, Târgu-Mureș, theatre and literature critic, editor of the theatre periodical Játéktér (PLAYING AREA), has graduated from the Faculty of Letters, Babes-Bolyai University, Cluj-Napoca (BA in Hungarian – English Literature and Culture). She holds an MA in Hungarian literature (in the programme Literature and Society) from the same university and a Ph.D in Aesthetics from Eötvös Loránd University, Budapest.
GYÖRGYJAKAB Enikő
Babeș-Bolyai University, Faculty of Theatre and Film
eniko.gyorgyjakab@ubbcluj.ro
The Practice of Reorganization: Movement Composition
Abstract: My presentation emerges from the core theme of my doctoral research—the exploration of the actor’s conscious body—and examines the practice of organizing and structuring the actor’s movement material, particularly from a pedagogical perspective. Movement composition involves the organization and repetition of conscious movement materials, a fundamental element of the pedagogical system I have been applying for over 15 years at the Faculty of Theatre and Film at Babeș-Bolyai University. Although rooted in movement training, movement composition extends far beyond it. It is interpreted as a physical, experiential acting technique that organizes the actor’s entire toolkit and approaches the arts as a practice of organization, reflecting Meyerhold’s perspective. Through embodied physical experiences, movement composition highlights the perspective that the texture of the actor's presence constitutes a distinct layer within theatrical performance. This layer is built upon a far more expansive toolkit than the classical theatre’s traditional foundation: the dramatic text. It fosters deep awareness of the actor’s relationship with space, time, and movement, exploring its potential within the creative process. While the movement score created during movement composition may not constitute a theatrical scene on its own, it holds that potential. Even in the initial stages of training, it offers participants the experience of theatrical creation, a cornerstone for organic actor training. At the start of the training, fixed movement patterns learned during the program are used to explore their theatrical potential. This ensures that these techniques are not isolated elements but are organically connected to the actor's development. During movement composition, students create potential theatrical material unintentionally. Observing their peers' performances helps them discern what works theatrically and what does not. Feedback sessions reveal that students experience themselves as creators in this practice.
In this system, movement composition functions as a core practice, present throughout the training process alongside the teaching of movement techniques and skill development. It integrates seamlessly with these elements. Viewed through Csíkszentmihályi’s flow theory, movement composition decomposes theatrical creation (scene building) into manageable sub-tasks and ensures the basis for a state of flow. This makes it particularly suitable for the early stages of actor training compared to the more complex organization of a classical situational scene. This practice supports the idea that the actor is a co-creator, not merely an executor, in the creative process. It empowers actors to represent their artistic intentions and take responsibility for various aspects of theatrical creation. Fundamentally, movement composition is about understanding and practicing the act of organization, mastering the management of kinetic energy and movement material. This approach utilizes movement techniques learned during training and creates an ecosystem where their theatrical potential can be fully realized.
Keywords: Movement composition, Actor training, Pedagogy of theatre, Kinetic energy, Art as reorganisation
Biography: Enikő Györgyjakab is a lecturer at the Faculty of Theatre and Film at Babeș-Bolyai University, a member of the ensemble at the Hungarian State Theatre of Cluj, and a founding member and co-leader of the Shoshin Theatre Association. As an actress, she has collaborated with renowned directors such as Andrei Șerban, Robert Woodruff, Gábor Tompa, Silviu Purcărete, Mihai Măniuțiu, and many others. She also worked for several years with the M Studio, a physical theatre company based in Sfântu Gheorghe. Over the past decade, she has performed in nearly 50 roles, many of them leading roles. Among other awards, she was honored with the prestigious UNITER Award in 2013. As an educator, her primary focus is on training the creative actor’s body and exploring the stage and performative potential of movement and dance. As a leader of the Shoshin Theatre Association, she works on various artistic, pedagogical, and social projects. She regularly participates in independent theatre projects, creates her own choreography, and conducts physical theatre workshops both in Romania and internationally.
Adriana Ioana ISPAS
University Lucian Blaga Sibiu- Theater Art Department- Choreography
ioana_ispas28@yahoo.com
The Expression of Movement in the Performing Arts from the Perspective of Chinese Culture
Abstract: The conquests of modern art reveal the exceptional power of understanding of man. All over the world, every moment, millions of people are moving, dancing. We study history to understand the past, but it is extremely useful for deciphering the present. History is the remaking of more or less explicit route of the completion of some answers, ours, and why not of our artistic interiority. Looking at the atlas map, the curiosity to discover the inner world of the Chinese dancer through the sum of Chinese arts, fascinated me and the desire to analyze the possible similarities but also differences between European and Chinese dancers, sent me to analysis the art of dance from China and its expressiveness in the context of performing arts. Fabulous and fantastic, dance and the art of movement have been immersed in the mist of the arts since the time of the Han Dynasty, the place where part of the art of movement was born and became interpretative techniques. What are forms of the expression of Chinese dance? What does the art of dance makeup hide? What is the role of hands in the expressiveness of Chinese arts? These are questions that make an article the goal, from the point of view of the analysis and research of the movement.
Keywords: Art, art of China, man, culture, society, human, dance, philosophy, neuroscience.
Biography: Adriana Ioana ISPAS - choreographer and ballet-teacher for the Lucian Blaga University Sibiu since 2022. She has collaborated with some of the most prestigious dancers and teachers in Romania and Europe (world champions: Mirona Gliga-Romania, Catia Vanone-Italy, Karina Rubio-Spain) , Ballet Theatre Of Sibiu etc. having important roles in world dance competitions and shows of sport-dance, ballroom dance and ballet arts. She has participated in numerous national and international dance festivals and contests in Bulgaria, Greece, Russia, Germany etc.
KÖLLŐ Csongor
Assistant professor PhD
Babeș-Bolyai University, Faculty of Theatre and Film, Hungarian Theatre Department
csongor.kollo@ubbcluj.ro
The Bodymind Connection: Asian Practices and the Transformation of Western Theatre
Abstract: This paper explores the profound influence of Asian theatrical traditions on 20th-century Western theatre, focusing on the contributions of Antonin Artaud, Jerzy Grotowski, Eugenio Barba, Peter Brook, and Ariane Mnouchkine. The study begins with Artaud’s seminal encounter with Balinese theatre, which inspired his concept of a "physical language" beyond words. It examines how this notion catalyzed a broader Western turn towards Eastern practices, emphasizing the actor's body as a primary medium for performance.
The discussion highlights the divergent applications of Asian techniques among practitioners. Mnouchkine adapted classical forms to unify style and performance, while Brook utilized them as tools for exploration and understanding, incorporating martial arts and traditional theatre techniques into his actor training. Grotowski and Barba, similarly inspired by Asian philosophies, integrated rigorous physical disciplines into their methods, emphasizing a "pre-expressive" level of performance that transcends cultural boundaries. Barba’s establishment of the International School of Theatre Anthropology underscores the enduring legacy of Asian traditions in shaping a universal actor's craft.
Central to this analysis is the evolution of the psychophysical actor—a concept rooted in Stanislavski’s late work, further developed through contemporary neuroscience and psychology. This paradigm posits a seamless integration of body and mind, enabling actors to cultivate an "inner improvisation" that transcends textual interpretation. Drawing on practices like tai chi, kalarippayattu, and yoga, practitioners refine their somatic awareness, fostering a state of heightened presence and responsiveness, or "bodymind." Exercises by figures such as Yoshi Oida exemplify this shift, showing how minimal physical movements can elicit profound emotional and psychological effects.
The paper argues that the integration of Asian techniques not only enriched the technical repertoire of Western actors but also redefined the ontology of acting itself. By prioritizing the actor’s embodied experience and dissolving the dichotomy between text and performance, these innovations laid the groundwork for contemporary devised theatre and the actor-as-creator paradigm. Ultimately, this study underscores the transformative potential of cross-cultural exchange in theatre, demonstrating how Eastern practices continue to inspire new possibilities for presence, expression, and creativity in performance.
Keywords: Psychophysical Acting; Asian Theatrical Traditions; Embodied Performance; Cross-Cultural Exchange; Actor Training
Biography: Csongor Köllő is an actor, director, cultural manager and teaches acting at the Faculty of Theatre and Film of Babeș-Bolyai University in Cluj-Napoca, Romania. Between 2008-2013 he was a member of the Hungarian State Theatre in Cluj-Napoca, working with directors such as Matthias Langhoff, Gábor Tompa, Mihai Măniuțiu and others. Throughout the years he has placed emphasis on developing his craft, thereby meeting people (through workshops and training) such as Yoshi Oida, Eugenio Barba and members of Odin Teatret, Rena Mirecka, Gregorz Ziółkowski, Raul Iaiza and others. He is co-founder of Shoshin Theatre Association (f. 2014) and co-founder of ZIZ - Art and Social Area (f. 2020). He obtained a PhD degree in 2018.
Alexandra MAGAZIN
Assistant Professor PhD
"Gheorghe Dima” National Academy of Music, Cluj-Napoca
alexandra.magazin@amgd.ro, alexandra.magazin.amgd@gmail.com
The Theatre of the Absurd and 20th-Century Music in "Krapp, ou La dernière bande" by Samuel Beckett and Marcel Mihalovici
Abstract: The work Krapp, ou La dernière bande by Samuel Beckett is an iconic example of the Theatre of the Absurd, a movement that explores the limitations and existential confusion of the individual when faced with an uncertain and often incomprehensible reality. In this context, Beckett’s play reflects themes of time, memory, and self-reflection, with a particular focus on the isolation and alienation of the main character, Krapp, who confronts his own audio recordings of the past while listening to fragments from earlier stages of his life. The music composed by Marcel Mihalovici for this play deepens its emotional and philosophical significance, adding a sonic dimension that complements Krapp’s monologues and theatrical actions. The interaction between Beckett’s text and Mihalovici’s contemporary music underscores human contradictions and complexity, blending the absurd with modern music that resonates with a profound sense of melancholy and transience. This interdisciplinary analysis examines how the Theatre of the Absurd intersects with 20th-century music, focusing on how these two seemingly distinct art forms influence one another to convey an integrated vision of the human condition. The study explores the theatrical and musical techniques specific to their respective periods, emphasizing the connection between Beckett’s theatrical expression and Mihalovici’s musical language. This symbiosis challenges the audience to reflect on the nature of subjectivity and on how time and memory shape human identity.
Keywords: contemporary music, Samuel Beckett, Marcel Mihalovici, theatre of the absurd, interdisciplinarity.
Biography: Alexandra Magazin graduated from the Bachelor’s and Master’s programs (specialization in Musicology) at the Gheorghe Dima National Academy of Music under the guidance of the late Associate Professor Dr. Bianca Țiplea-Temeș. In October 2023, she earned the title of "Doctor in Music" after defending her dissertation titled Marcel Mihalovici’s Work Reflected in Unpublished Documents: Correspondence, Interviews, Articles. Stylistic Aspects in the Piano Works, supervised by Professor Dr. habil. Anca-Daniela Mihuț. Since 2019, she has been a teaching staff member at the Gheorghe Dima National Academy of Music, Piatra Neamț Extension. Alexandra Magazin's research focuses on contemporary music, particularly as reflected in 20th-century French culture. Within this framework, she has investigated collections of unpublished documents, correspondence, manuscripts, and interviews of composer Marcel Mihalovici and the École de Paris. Another significant achievement in her musicological career was her Erasmus+ internship (March 2018 – July 2018) at the Conservatoire National Supérieur de Musique et de Danse de Paris (France). Throughout her academic training, Alexandra Magazin actively participated in national and international conferences, as well as workshops and masterclasses organized by prestigious universities. She is a founding member and the artistic secretary of the A Tribute to György Ligeti in his Native Transylvania Festival, held in Cluj-Napoca since 2016 and coordinated by internationally renowned musicologist Bianca Țiplea-Temeș. Starting in 2024, she holds the position of Artistic Director of the SymphOpera Festival in Suceava.
Maria MANOLESCU
Associate lecturer PhD
University of Arts Târgu-Mureș
mariapursisimplu@yahoo.com
The Making and Unmaking of the Liminal Collective-person – "Toi, moi, Tituba", by Dorothée Munyaneza
Abstract: Step 1: During the Salem witchcraft trials of the 17th century, the black slave Tituba – best known in the performing arts world as the eponymous character in Arthur Miller's play The Crucible – admitted that she practiced witchcraft. Step 2: In Maryse Condé's 1986 novel I, Tituba: Black Witch of Salem, Tituba became a symbol of black women's resistance to oppression. Step 3: In a 2021 article, feminist philosophy scholar Elsa Dorlin reads Condé's novel as a "manifesto and a method, a weapon and a tool" that helps her reconfigure her relationship to archives and to her own genealogy. Reading the novel becomes a map for her journey in the footsteps of Isabelle, her own Guyanese great-grandmother who was trafficked into the slave trade. Step 4: choreographer Dorothée Munyaneza takes Elsa Dorlin's article as a starting point in the creation of Toi, moi, Tituba, a collective solo in which the Rwandan-born artist uses her own body, dance, sound, light and a whole sound archive interwoven with Khyam Allami's live music to embody fragments of destinies that have suffered historical erasure (in Dorlin's terms). Step 5: watching Dorothée Munyaneza's performance during Iridescent, the contemporary dance festival organized by CNDB in Bucharest in November 2024, helped me discover my own liminal genealogy. I am the descendant of a shepherd witch whose practices were condemned by the community and whose descendants changed their place and name. I am interested in marginal existences and I use insights from the theory of the dramaturgy of liminality developed in my doctoral thesis, as well as insights from Elsa Dorlin's article and from writings by Saidyia Hartman, Silvia Federici and VK Preston to show the making of the witch – the making of the image of the cunning woman who uses her craft to do evil –, and then to show how Dorothée Munyaneza has succeeded in the dramaturgical act of undoing this image. Toi, moi, Tituba is the choreographic, dramaturgical and magical act by which Tituba, witch-slave-woman and liminal collective-person is unravelled, step by step, into the true, oppressed, sensual, gifted and luminous existences that have been hidden, intentionally or unintentionally, into her character.
Keywords: Moi, Toi, Tituba by Dorothée Munyaneza, Elsa Dorlin, Salem witch trials, dramaturgy of liminality, collective-person
Biography: Maria MANOLESCU, born 1980, is a Romanian playwright, writer and associate lecturer at the University of Arts Târgu-Mureș. In her writing she`s mixing irony, empathy and metaphors to explore themes like marginality, failure, modern slavery and burnout. Her latest play is a cabaret about addiction (The Great A`s – a cabaret about addiction, produced by Stația Theatre/Musical, Cluj-Napoca, 2024). She is also very interested in rewritings, which she explores both in her writing (for example The Bacchae (no masks), produced in 2020 at Teatrul de Nord Satu-Mare) as well as in her doctoral thesis, called The dramaturgy of liminality: from rewriting the ritual to rewriting the play.
Traian MOLDOVAN
University of Arts from Târgu Mureș
traianmol@yahoo.com
Dynamic Convergence Photography. The Masks of Suffering
Abstract: Dynamic convergence photography represents a surreal imaginative exercise in which multiple emotions capturing volatile and very fluid affective states are explored in a single photograph. The fluidity of emotional states is invoked through the transition from one emotion to another, whether we discuss a gradual change or a sudden shift in emotional state. The emotional experiences of the characters are very intense, involving conflict, rebellion against authority, turmoil and stress, but also rebirth, resilience, and optimism. Thus, the image can be compared to a psychological construct perceived as a structural whole, with the elements of the structure being perfectly integrated and convergent. This photographic technique involves not only an efficient control of time exposure, but also a special attention in framing the photos. Therefore, increasing the exposure time must also be accompanied by movements of the camera and the people in the frame, in order to produce a meaningful image. By effectively controlling space and time, it was possible to capture emotions from their onset to their extinction. Moreover, this type of photography makes possible the existence in the same frame of some successions of emotional states, and certain transient elements between emotional discharges can also be captured. I named this photographic endeavor "Dynamic Convergence Photography". Exploring the transition zones between emotions, reveals ambiguous and ghostly structures, which precede basic emotions. Such structures, mobilized by the impulses of the self, are released into the field of consciousness, through this photographic technique being possible to capture them in a volatile and very fluid form.
Keywords: photography, psychological constructs, emotions, performing arts.
Biography: Born in 1969, Traian Moldovan holds a degree in Psychology and Special Educational Psychology, with a master's degree in Clinical psychology and intervention techniques through counseling and psychotherapy and a PhD in Psychology at the University of Bucharest. Since 2000, he has been a university lecturer, currently at the University of Arts from Târgu Mureș and an Associate Faculty Teacher at the University of Medicine, Pharmacy, Sciences, and Technology "George Emil Palade" from the same city. He is member of the Romanian Association of Psychologists, member of the College of Psychologists from Romania (Principal psychologist in the field of Special Educational Psychology, Specialist psychologist in Educational Counseling), supervisor, and member of the board of the College of Psychologists, branch from Mureș County. He is the president of the Scientific Association "Equilibrium," an association accredited by College of Psychologists. Additionally, he is a member of the American Psychological Association and a member of the Private network of evaluators for structural funds within the Ministry of Finance from Romania. At the University of Arts in Târgu Mureș, he is the director of the Career Counseling and Guidance Center, member of the University Senate, and a member of the Educational Quality Assurance Committee. Starting this year, he is a PhD student in the field of Performing Arts at the University of Arts from Târgu Mureș.
His artistic creation includes six personal exhibitions and over 20 collective exhibitions in the field of photography. He is a member of the Marx Jozsef Photoclub from Târgu Mureș.
NAGY Imola
University of Arts
imolanagy@gmail.com
(Re)search in Movement
Abstract: Hans-Thies Lehmann's concept of chora-graphy is not only a last attempt to describe the post-dramatic theater, but also inevitably refers back to the beginnings that can be recalled in our memory. The actuality of performances that can be read as chora-graphies is also due to the fact that the chora was evoked as a place of pathfinding, experimentation, and dreamlike, feverish creativity. In the present thesis, a less emphasized side of the concept of chora-graphy arises in addition to its spatial and linguistic references, that of its kinetic reference. Chora-graphy brings to mind the search for a form of movement, which brings us face to face with our own affective unconscious. Gilles Deleuze referred affects and percepts to the field of the arts. When applied to the theater, affects and percepts cannot be produced with traditional, text-centered staging. From the perspective of affect theory, the affect detached from the subject overwrites the ordinary (primary) emotions connected to the subject, thereby preventing emotional identification, and at the same time interrupting the performance text built on the basis of narrative memory. As a result, the viewer finds himself "for a moment in a space and time - freed by the imagination - that is outside the historical time that can be narrated and imagined along the lines of stories of destiny, social norms and stereotypes of groups", claims Zsolt Benedek. In principle, any of the theatrical sign systems can generate or trigger affects, but this is mostly related to the actor's work, especially the actor's voice and movement, and especially the actor's tone of voice, and in the case of movement, unexpected, undecidable movements that are not part of choreography in the traditional sense. The struggle of finding language (movement, tone of voice, facial expressions, gestures, etc.) is manifested here, the inner work that the actor does on himself in order to present the character. We can gain insight into the negotiation interface between the figure and one's own body and language. This thesis analyzes the performance The River at the End of the Road, realized in the framework of the University of Arts Tîrgu-Mureș, especially from the point of view of movement.
Keywords: chora-graphy vs. choreography; Deleuzian affect; searching for language
Biography: Dr. Imola Nagy is a lecturer at the University of Arts Târgu-Mureş, Faculty of Arts in Hungarian, Department Tîrgu-Mureș of Theatre, Visual Arts and Communication. Her area of research includes: postdramatic theatre, theories of reception, mechanisms of perception, processes of subjectivation. Her doctoral thesis, entitled Becoming spectator was published in 2021. She has been publishing articles, papers and translations in reputed periodicals like Theatron, Symbolon, Korunk, Játéktér, Látó, etc. She is a member of the Theatrical Sciences Committee of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences, Regional Committee from Romania, Cluj. Alongside her scholarly activity she is a translator.
Cristina Maria OLAR
University of Arts Tîrgu-Mureș
cristinamariaiusan@gmail.com
Body as Story: Dance as a Form of Emotional and Physical Narrative
Abstract: Body as Story explores how dance transforms movement into a narrative language as a way of exploring and conveying human experiences. The aesthetic function of dance transcends beyond the bodily barriers and transforms into a form of emotional communication in which the body becomes the protagonist of the narrative, narrating through movement the same conflicts, emotions and situations that are usually expressed in words. Performances by choreographers such as Pina Bausch, Merce Cunningham, William Forsythe, Anna Teresa De Keersmaeker, Sidri Larbi Cherkaoui, Gigi Căciuleanu, etc. have shown how movement can create an atmosphere of introspection, where time, space and rhythm are used to reflect the inner realities of the characters. Thus dance becomes not just a physical act, but a narrative device that opens up new ways of understanding the human experience, where the body is both the messenger and the story. Choreographers create characters and stories through the dancer's body, and each movement says something about their inner feelings. In both choreographic and theatrical performances dance plays an important role in exploring the psychological exploration of the characters, building conflicts, resolving them or intensifying the message to the audience. Through movement, the body becomes a fundamental element in the construction of dramaturgy, sometimes even with a textual function.
Keywords: body dramaturgy; narrative language; emotion; introspection; interaction
Biography: Choreographer, dancer and teacher Cristina Olar graduated the University of Arts from Tîrgu-Mureș with a bachelor's degree specializing in theatre and a master's degree specializing in acting. She also attended the University of Theatre and Cinematography I.L.Caragial Bucharest with a bachelor's and master's degree in choreography and a PhD in performing arts. She worked with several directors and choreographers like Ducu Darie, Sorin Misirianțu, Erwin Șimsenshon, Gigi Caciuleanu, Vava Stefanescu, Mihai Manutiu, Valentina del Piante, Alina Nelega, Traian Savinescu, Liviu Pancu, Georgeta Lozinca, Daniela Lemnaru, Răzvan Mazilu etc. She worked, trained and graduated classes with Mirva Makinen, Hilde Rustad, Ivonne Ramos, Igor Kacaaev, Massimo Gerardi, Brice Moussete, Vava Stefanescu, Gigi Caciulenau, Milan Maurer. We mention some performance like Folklorica, The land of dreams, Game without a User's Manual, Cabaret, Love Triangle, Oxygen, Orpheus and Eurydice, Zorba Grecu, The Gaiters, Cinderella, Utopia, Crisis, Don Quixote, Carmina Burana, The Nameless Star, Vivaldi and the Seasons, Christmas Story, Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown, A Letter Too Much Talked About, Broken Column, Avatar, Ipostaze etc. Currently a lecturer at the University of Arts in Tîrgu-Mureș, her interests also lie in the field of applied performing arts research in general and practical work with student actors and dancers.
PATKÓ Éva
University of Arts Targu-Mures
patkoeva@gmail.com
Onnagata Role Within Kabuki Theatre - Movement, Grace, Precision
Abstract: It is a fascinating journey to discover the world's most famous kabuki actors preparing techniques. Banto Tamasaburo the 5th was able to bring innovation in kabuki theatre within rigorously defined forms of expression that the average western-educated European actor hardly knows about. By writing about Tamasaburo I wish to give a perspective on the preparing strategies for a role of an actor socialized in the Eastern theatre tradition, to investigate the possibilities of expression for a kabuki actor (specifically the onnagata role) on the stage and to have a look inside the direct environment of a contemporary kabuki actor observing the traditions that define this form of theatrical art.
Keywords: kabuki, onnagata, Tamasaburo, movement, gestures
Biography: Éva Patkó PhD is theatre director and teaches directing and acting at the bilingual University of Arts in Targu Mures situated in the heart of Transylvania. She works with both classical and contemporary dramaturgy. Artistic director of HD contemporary drama series, Fulbright alumna of UCBerkeley California, her main artistic focuses are the power structures in theatre making and otherness.
Traian PENCIUC
Associate professor PhD
University of Arts Targu Mures
penciuctraian@gmail.com
Dancing Deities: Hierophany and the Creation of Transformative Spaces in Tibetan Cham Dance
Abstract: This presentation examines Tibetan Cham dance as a sacred performance in which hierophany creates transformative spaces through the convergence of the divine with the human. Cham, deeply rooted in Tibetan Buddhist cosmology, is not merely a ritual spectacle but an embodiment of purification and cosmic renewal. Through elaborate choreography, symbolic gestures (mudrās), impressive masks, and narrative structures, the dancers embody enlightened figures (Buddhas, bodhisattvas) and protective deities of the Dharma, inviting divine presence into the performance space. This theophanic interaction facilitates the purification of samsaric suffering, aligning the audience and community with the ideal of spiritual liberation. Drawing on personal observations and footage, and anthropological theories of ritual, performance, and liminality, the presentation explores how Cham constructs spaces where the sacred becomes tangible, allowing participants to transcend everyday existence and contribute to cosmic balance.
Keywords: Gar, Hierophany in Buddhism, Sacred Performance, liminal space
Biography: Traian Penciuc is associate professor PhD at the University of Arts Târgu-Mureş, and stage director. He obtained his licence in Theatrical Arts with a major in Stage directing (five-year university degree – MA equivalent) at the University of Arts Târgu-Mureş and received Teaching Qualification (rank II and rank I) at the Technical University of Cluj Napoca. His PhD in music was at “Gheorghe Dima” Music Academy, Cluj Napoca. He also attended a research methodology course at SOAS – University of London. Traian Penciuc has staged in Romania and Serbia. His repertoire includes Beckett, Shakespeare, Moliere, Neil LaBute, Mrozek, but also Romanian playwrights as Lucian Blaga. All his productions were invited to festivals and some were awarded. Since 2020 is a member of the University of Arts Târgu-Mureş Senate, director of the Music Department in the same university, associate editor in chief at Symbolon - Journal of Theatre and Art Studies and director of the UArtPress Publishing House. He also lectured at ASC and in the postgraduate course at the School of Arts and Esthetics in Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi, India. His main research interest is in phantasmatic communication in theatre and opera, with extensions in culture and religion, materialized in his PhD thesis, papers and workshops. In connection, he is researching Mircea Eliade’s conceptions about theatre and his Indian biography. In the last years he dedicated a part of his research interests to solutions of enhancing independent artists and companies’ creativity and production capabilities through web platforms (UAT-Next Project – https://uatnext.ro) and co-creation (Make a Move Project - https://makeamoveproject.eu/). In 2021 he organised the Music and Art in Pandemic international conference (http://uartpress.ro/journals/index.php/symbolon/pages/MAP21), aiming to record the artistic, social, managerial and educational experience of the COVID pandemic year.
Angela PRECUP
University of Arts Târgu-Mureș
precupangela@yahoo.com
A Journalistic Incursion into the Musical and Choreographic Tradition of Târgu Mureș
Abstract: The study proposes an imaginary incursion into the atmosphere of Târgu Mureș during the interwar period. This time travel reveals a city full of music and dance, with diverse rhythms and instruments, for all tastes, in an artistic environment marked by the multicultural diversity of the area. The main source for this incursion into the musical and choreographic past of Târgu Mureș is represented by the local Romanian newspaper of the period, which kept intact testimonies about the forms taken back then by the music and the dance in the everyday life of the public. Two complementary directions of their manifestation emerge from the study of the old newspapers. On one hand, there are the official cultural events concentrated around traditional music and dances, often held in the Palace of Culture – the artistic heart of the city during the interwar period. On the other hand, we have the cultural entertaining events, such as the dancing parties, with local musicians, organized in the numerous restaurants and coffee shops of the city, which brought along the modern rhythms and influences from the western music and dance. The evolution of these two directions of development into the public’s preferences reflects a process of mentalities changing, visible also in the offer of the Municipal Conservatory of Târgu Mureș, which extended its educational services during this time with choreography and theatre courses for children, added to the initial courses of musical studies, transforming this institution into a veritable cultural nursery.
Keywords: Transylvanian cultural history; dance tradition; musical tradition; press history.
Biography: Angela Precup is TV Senior Journalist within the regional studio of the national television, TVR Târgu Mureș, where she produces mostly cultural shows (Cult@art, Memory of the Print, Urbane Sketches). Since 2018, she activates as associated lecturer within the University of Arts Târgu Mureș - the specialization of Audiovisual Communication: Screenwriting, media publicity. Her media experience cumulates her activity within media institutions such as BBC Romania, Radio Contact Târgu Mureș, Antena 1 Targu Mureș, Radio Romania Târgu-Mureș, Știi TV Târgu Mureș, Radio Gaga, to which she added ten years experience in organizational communication. She is licensed in Journalism and in Public Relations, having as research field the history of the press, which she also addressed in her doctoral degree, The Memory of the Print. The Mureș press during the XXth century, published in two volumes, in 2015 (vol. I 1900-1947) and 2020 (vol. II 1948 - 2000). She is the author of the poetry and short prose volume Journal (1998) and of the exhibitions A short story of the Mureș advertising in images (2011) and Romanians and Hungarians. Journalistic picks (2012).
SZILVESZTER László Szilárd
Babeș–Bolyai University, Cluj
laszlo.szilveszter@ubbcluj.ro
Movement, Dance, and Sacredness in Zsófia Balla's Pre-Regime Change Poetry
Abstract: While in generation that debuted in the 1960s and 1970s in Transylvanian Hungarian poetry, rhythmic movement or dance often serves as a metaphor for the increasingly oppressive and unbearable atmosphere of the communist regime, in Zsófia Balla's pre-regime change poetry, these elements transform into symbols of survival and freedom. Alongside a tragic-ironic tone, her radically individual-centered poetry boldly incorporates playfulness, the joy of song and movement, the liberating and tension-relieving effects of instinctive expression and frankness, as well as the lightness of rhyme and musicality. Movement holds an important place in Balla's poetry, starting with her first volume, A dolgok emlékezete (The Memory of Things), published in 1968. For instance, in Futónövény (Creeper), it is associated with carefree childhood play but later evokes images of a fear of heights and vertigo. In the closing lines of Pengetés (Plucking), movement signifies the soul's yearning for the sacrality, while in the later poem, Pater Noster, it juxtaposes the destructive, inhuman workings of machinery with the deeply personal nature of memory and prayer. By the 1980s, music, dance, and connections to the sacred became unifying formal motifs in Balla's poetry. The volume Kolozsvári táncok (Kolozsvár Dances) represents an attempt to dialogue, addressing an enigmatic, unknown individual – a mysterious dance partner, perhaps God – whose presence is only perceptible in traces but profoundly influences lyrical self-reflection and the perception of reality. "Dance and movement," Zsófia Balla remarked in a later interview, "are acts of resistance against immobility and enforced silence. Where speech is impossible, there is music and dance." The presentation seeks how rhythm, movement, music, and dance function as metaphors for freedom, life-affirmation, and dialogue with the sacred in Zsófia Balla's poetry before the regime change in Romania. It focuses on poetic gestures where artistic forms serve as tools of resistance, survival, and protest against the identity- and personality-destroying manifestations of the communist dictatorship.
Keywords: movement, freedom, dance, sacrality, poetry, communist regime.
Biography: László Szilárd SZILVESZTER (PhD), associate professor at Babeș–Bolyai University, author of 5 monographs and numerous scientific articles in the domain of cultural sciences and especially modern and contemporary East-European (Hungarian) literature. Member of the Romanian Writers`Union, and International Association of Hungarian Studies.
TOMPA Andrea
Babes-Bolyai University Cluj-Napoca, Faculty of Theatre and Film
andrea.tompa@ubbcluj.ro
The touch - twice Lili Raubinek: Respect to the 23.000
Abstract: Is it possible to develop a language for unnarratable and seemingly hopeless human anger, powerlessness, and pain that not only performatively represents the experiences of those directly affected – individuals who have been in state care – but also consciously attempts to manage its impact on the audience? This presentation explores and analyzes Lili Raubinek's recently Lábán Rudolf Award-winning performance Respect to the 23.000 (Trafó, 2023) from the perspectives of dance, movement, and touch. Drawing inspiration from the movement language of Brazilian jiu-jitsu martial arts, the performance represents an experimental attempt to kinetically capture sensations of powerlessness, violence, confinement, and destruction—depicting an ultimate, unresolvable struggle. The performance strategically addresses the potentially traumatizing audience experience through a post-performance "decompression" phase: the negative, destructive physical interactions are ultimately dissolved by soft, reciprocal relaxation practices. This approach represents a genuinely political theatrical intervention. Initiated with a lecture performance format and featuring five dancers, the work contemplates the world of a marginalized youth demographic rendered invisible within social spaces—young individuals who have been systematically abandoned and traumatized, not only by their families but continuously by state institutions. All of this occurs against a backdrop of societal indifference.
Keywords: Lili Raubinek, jiu jitsu, lecture performance, children in state care, decompression
Biography: Andrea Tompa, Associate Professor, Writer. Member of the Academy Committee of Cluj-Napoca and of the Széchenyi Academy of Literature and Arts. Her theatrical interests focus on the history and women's history of Hungarian theatre in Romania; in recent years she has published studies on the theatrical representation of the Holocaust and the theatre politics of Jenő Janovics. She is the author of five novels.
Andrei-Călin ZAMFIRESCU
Scientific Researcher (grade R2)
Institute of Theatre and Multimedia Research, Târgu-Mureș University of Arts.
andreiczamfirescu@gmail.com
Om Namah Shivaya. The choreographic, aesthetic and cosmological attributes of the Hindu god Shiva as Nataraja or Lord of Dance
Abstract: From his earliest mentions in Vedic writings, where his name is rendered as an adjectival construct suggestive of cosmic bliss and goodwill, to his placement, in our present age, in various focal points of Hindu liturgical and devotional practices, the importance held by the god Shiva for pan-Indian spirituality and its mythological systems remains unquestionable. In terms of the strictly historical processes that led to his emergence as a fully individualized figure, the convergent roots of speculative syncretism that ultimately fueled his emergence precede even his nominal invocations from the Rig Veda, pushing back his temporal origin as a mahadeva into the inscrutable rifts of the Indian Mesolithic Period. His multiple predecessors, both heterogeneous at the level of their iconic morphism and animated by contradictory axiological valences, may have contributed, throughout the protracted process of their hieratic amalgamation, to the summing up, in the figure of Shiva, of a plethora of theophanic and kratophanic attributes. Aggregated from this sum, numerous sets of complementary axiological valences pertaining to the forebears of Shiva ended up being unified under the effigial form of various epicleses of the god. For anthropologists such as Jean-Pierre Vernant, transplanting the term epiclesis from the Hellenic semantic basin to the Hindu one would entail a certain degree of methodological risk. On the other hand, other theorists and mythologists, predominantly of the sort specialized in the study of endogenous Indian religions, such as Ananda Coomaraswamy or Heinrich Zimmer, seem to have been more open to the possibility of seeing in the particularized kratophanic representations of a deity such as Shiva a tenable counterpart of their analogues from Greco-Cretan mythology - namely, other (albeit less familiar) forms of epicleses, understood in their normative academic sense, as formulated by 19th century European classical studies. In recounting the epicleses of Shiva, one of the most impressive, complex and archaic of their host remains that of Shiva Nataraja or Shiva represented as the lord of dance. To this day, the elements of Vedic cosmography inherent in this hypostasis are harmoniously interwoven not only with the rudiments of the pre-modern kinetic arts of India, but also with the sacred dances (such as tandava and bharatanatyam) that retain a considerable significance across the cultural landscape of the entire subcontinent. The exploration of the contemporary expressions and the archaic phylogenies of these diachronic lines of convergence will constitute the nodal objective of our present study.
Keywords: Shiva Nataraja, Hinduism, sacred dance, Tandava, Bharatanatya
Biography: Andrei-Călin Zamfirescu is a Doctor of Letters and graduate of the Doctoral School of Linguistic and Literary Studies at the University of Babeș-Bolyai, Cluj-Napoca, Romania. His main academic interests are concerned with comparative literature, comparative mythology, the history of religions, media studies and film history. His doctoral thesis aimed to combine elements of the aforementioned fields in a case study of multiple authors of transgressive, postmodern and fantasy fiction active at the turn of the 21st Century. Currently, he is a researcher affiliated with the Institute of Theatre and Multimedia Research attached to the Târgu-Mureș University of Arts.
CALL FOR PARTICIPATION
to the
25th International Conference of Theatre Studies
at the
University of Arts Târgu-Mureș
Dramaturgy of Dance and Movement
The presence of the human body on stage, the relationship and contact between bodies, time and space structured by movement are all phenomena worth studying and nowadays the research topic of choice in new dramaturgy as well as other artistic and scientific domains.
Various sacred forms of movement, ritual and social dances, or the ones created for entertainment can tell us much about the culture and values of a community as well as the written or unwritten rules of behaviour governing it. The evolution and history of movement and dance and their relationship with arts and society are fertile grounds of study for various scientific fields such as anthropology, aesthetics, sociology, psychology, history of art, history of theatre, theatre studies and many more. In all its forms, starting from folk dances, through social dances, the more artistically elaborate classical ballet or contemporary dance, as well as works of dance theatre or events that are not so easily categorized (such as those initiated by Jérôme Bel), dance is not just performance or part of a performance, but it seems to be an elementary human need. Alongside its traditional performative forms, such as ballet, dance can be an organic part of other forms of performance like theatre, opera, operetta or film. The power of expression of a body in motion, be it solo dance, in a pair or a group can transcend cultural, social or linguistic barriers, communicating emotional content that would be difficult to convey in any other form.
The dramaturgy of movement and dance is a distinct field of creation and research that sheds light on the history of the human body in our culture and its role in today’s world. The philosophical dimension of dance and movement has been intensely studied by both classical and contemporary theorists such as Friedrich Nietzsche, Maurice Merleau-Ponty or Gilles Deleuze. New dramaturgy, heralded by practitioners and thinkers like Marianne Van Kerkhoven, proposes the creative exploration of the possibilities of expression through movement and the analysis of its meanings.
In the Anthropocene era, in the context of an ever-increasing alienation from nature and the natural, dance is a form of communication and interaction which can connect us to the basis of our bodily existence in the unique physicality of movement loaded with sentiment.
Dance, movement and their new dramaturgy are the central concepts of the 23rd International Conference of Theatre Studies of the University of Arts in Târgu-Mureș. We invite researchers, creators, academics and students to participate in the discussion about this fertile subject. How is movement integrated into present-day performing arts? What new forms of expression can it generate on the stage? What is the artistic motivation of creators who have been exploring the dramaturgy of dance and movement in their theatrical events? Who are the artists that over time have placed the dramaturgy of dance and movement in a pivotal position?
The conference will take place between December 13-14, 2024 at the University of Arts in Târgu Mureș, with direct or online participation and will be held, in sections, in Romanian, Hungarian, English and French. Papers accepted through the peer-review system will be published in Symbolon magazine (symbolon.ro), indexed by ERIH PLUS, CEEOL, DOAJ, Crossref, and Google Scholar and classified in category B by CNCS.
We invite you to send abstracts of papers (maximum 400 words) in Romanian, Hungarian, English or French, together with the institutional affiliation of the authors, by e-mail (in Microsoft Word compatible format) to conference@uat.ro by of December 8, 2024.
Website: http://uartpress.ro/journals/index.php/symbolon/pages/ICTS24.
