CALL FOR PAPERS on Textiles in Motion. Dress for Dance in the Ancient World to be published in Ancient Textiles Series, Oxbow Books.

Deadline for abstracts: 15th Oct. 2020. Contact: gouy@hum.ku.dk

Presentation

Dress is at the core of dance. It adorns dancers, defines various roles, and forms symbolic expressions that, for example, either binds people together or opposes them. It is a communicative tool that gives crucial information to understanding the dance as well as the culture and the sociological effects of a group of people. As such, dress transcends how it is seen visually to address what is being communicated. Nonetheless, studies in ancient dance have rarely taken clothing into consideration. Only recently, textiles studies have begun to investigate the movement possibilities offered by clothes. Indeed, the study of dress and costumes have primarily focused on their materiality, esthetical aspects, economy or value.

This publication aims to gather articles that give new perspectives and insights on ancient dances and their ancient textiles. Comprehension of ancient dance will benefit from investigations undertaken through the lens of dress. And research on ancient dress will be understood through its relation to body movement and performative rituals, thus reinforcing the progressive integration of an anthropological and sociological dimension into historical analysis of ancient textiles. For the first time, the two-way transfer of knowledge between dance studies and costume studies will be connected via an innovative approach.

The chronological range of the publication is limited to the Ancient World (3^rd millennium BC to 5^th century AD). In order to maintain a comparative approach and promote cross-cultural dialogue, as well as discourse between fields and disciplines, within this publication the Ancient World is intended in a broad geographical definition.

Among the issues that might be addressed, are the following:

• Movement design
  Were there specific clothes conceived for dance and movement? Did they improve or restrain mobility in dance? Was the conception of clothes adjusted to dance movements or was the dance adapted and impacted by the clothes? How did the body and the clothes interact together during the dance? What was the impact and significance of an exposed or over covered body in dance?
• Sensory experience
  What did dress produce in dance in a sensory perspective, thus in terms of smell, sound, touch, vision? Did movements of dress spread perfume or other odors, and how so? Was there colour coding in dresses designed for dance, and what was the impact? Were the colours chosen with the effects of natural/artificial lighting? What vision could have produced the twirling movements of clothes? What sounds could dresses and their adornment (pendants, jewels, etc.) have produced?
• Gender and Identity
  If there were gendered clothes in dance, what impact did they have? Was body mobility restrained or increased by clothes according to gender? How did clothes engage in highlighting gender fluidity or gender reinforcement in dance? How did clothes contribute to the definition of identity or on the contrary to challenge, sweep or blur identity? What specific rules were imposed in dance for covering and body exposure?
• Re-enactment and Reception
  What can experimental archaeology bring to the investigation of ancient dance and textiles? What are its benefits and limits? Is there a reception of ancient dance clothes in modern dancers? If so, how has this re-enactment impacted on our modern societies (cf. Isadora Duncan for example)?

Deadlines

Please submit a chapter proposal (max. 400 words) before October 15^th, 2020. Notifications of acceptance along with author guidelines will be sent by October 31^st, 2020. Full articles are expected to be received at the latest on April 30^th, 2021. The process of reviewing will take three months. The publication is planned to be released in December 2021. The language of publication will be English.

Send your proposals to gouy@hum.ku.dk

Scientific Committee

Editor: Audrey Gouy (Centre for Textile Research, University of Copenhagen).

Peer Review: Eva Andersson Strand (Director, Centre for Textile Research, University of Copenhagen); Elizabeth Barber (Occidental College, Los Angeles); Marie Louise Bech Nosch (Centre for Textile Research, University of Copenhagen, Director of Ancient Textiles Series, Oxbow Books); Lena Bjerregaard (Centre for Textile Research, University of Copenhagen); Cecilie Brøns (Ny Carlsberg Glyptotek, Copenhagen); Véronique Dasen (Université de Fribourg); Florence Gherchanoc (Université Paris Diderot); Margerita Gleba (Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München); Fiona MacIntosh (Director, Archive of Performance of Greek and Roman Drama, University of Oxford); Cécile Michel (UMR 7041 ArScAn); Rosie Wyles (University of Kent); Elsa Yvanez (Centre for Textile Research, University of Copenhagen).

24.06.2020. “The Sound of Dress in Etruscan Dance”. Centre for Textile Research Conferences.

Venue: Centre for Textile Research, Saxo Institute, University of Copenhagen, Denmark. ONLINE EVENT.

The aim of this conference is to understand differently the sound and communicative potential of adornment in Etruscan dance. For example, what could have been their sensory impact in dance? The belts and bracelets in particular, which were added to the male and female body, could create a rattling or tinkling sound, and highlight, shape and perform an identity and a status. The conference presents some of the questions that will be deepened with the TEXDANCE European project.

The video of the conference is available.

27.04.2020. “The Motion of Etruscan Dress”. The Columbia University Seminar on Studies in Dance.

Venue: Faculty House, Columbia University, New York, USA.

Audrey Gouy will present her MSCA research project and discuss her new article on the motion of Etruscan dress in dance. Indeed, it appears that Etruscan dress offers complementary information to the visual movements depicted, for example, in tomb paintings, allowing us to better understand the kind of dance movements represented and to identify specific moments of dance. The article will follow the 3D reconstruction of clothes’ movements planned in 2019-2020 at Copenhagen and Oxford Universities.

See http://universityseminars.columbia.edu/seminars/dance/

POSTPONED

 

20.11.2019. “Sensory Rituals: Textiles and Adornment in Ancient Dance”. Classics and Ancient History Research Seminars.

Venue: School of History, Classics and Archaeology, Newcastle University, UK.

This conference focuses on textiles motion, acoustics and visuality through Etruscan iconography and more specifically through representations of dance. Focusing on hearing, sound, body movement, and visuality invite to think about the question of the senses in Antiquity and to look at sensory anthropology, otherwise known as anthropology of the senses. For twenty years, the study of the senses is experiencing a major development in human sciences and is part of a new research dynamic called “sensory anthropology”. In this context, dance is considered as a poly-sensory experience, and it was possibly part of the funerary ritual in Etruria. It created a sensory environment around the dead, and around the tomb, and stimulated the sensory perceptions of the participants.

07.11.2019. “Etruscan Textiles Tour”

Venue: Ny Carlsberg Glyptotek, Copenhagen, Denmark.

The Ny Carlsberg Glyptotek’s collection is particularly strong in the extensive collection of art and archaeological objects from the culture of the Etruscans – one of the many peoples who dominated pre-Roman Italy. The Tour was dedicated to the presentation of textiles tools, production and representations in Etruscan art and society. Finds, particularly from tombs and shrines, tell a story of the use and production of textiles in religion, rituals and death and thus provide a close look at the religious and everyday life in Etruria. The Tour focused on objects from different time periods, from the 9^th century BC to the domination of Rome. It included weaving tools, bronzes, reliefs from Chiusi, terracotta sculptures, sarcophagi, and the large 1:1 scale copies of wall paintings from Etruscan funerary chambers, especially from Tarquinia, and among them the extraordinary reconstitution of the Tomb of the Leopards.

07.11.2019. “Iconic Textiles. The Visual Representation of Etruscan Dresses (8^th-5^th BCE)”. Centre for Textile Research Seminars

Venue: Centre for Textile Research, Saxo Institute, University of Copenhagen, Denmark.

Iconography is not a new source in clothing research. As archaeological remains are very few, it is the only reliable source we have. Thus, knowledge of Etruscan clothing is primarily derived from many visual sources. Etruscan clothing depicted on figurines, statues, vases and tomb paintings has been extensively studied by Larissa Bonfante in her book Etruscan Dress, published in 1975, and reedited in 2003, as well as in her numerous articles. Her work has been completed by Margarita Gleba’s which focuses on textile production. This conference aims at presenting the Etruscan visual sources and the different form of costumes and textiles found in iconography.

23.10.2019. “Textiles in Etruscan Dance: A New Research Project”. Centre for Textile Research Cenferences

Venue: Centre for Textile Research Conference. Saxo Institute, University of Copenhagen, Denmark.

The conference aims at presenting the new Marie Skłodowska-Curie research project entitled TEXDANCE. Textiles in Etruscan Dance (8^th-5^th cent. BC) conducted at the Centre for Textiles Research, University of Copenhagen. This project builds on the results that have emerged from investigations undertaken during my PhD, completed in December 2017, on visual evidences of Etruscan dance and body movements. The study of Etruscan dress in representations of dance gives complementary information, and permits to better understand the king of dance and the kind of movement represented in pictures, and eventually to draw phases of movement.

26-27.09.2019. “Figure-Decorated Textiles in Classical Etruscan Art”. Conference at the International Workshop on Textiles in Art in the Graeco-Roman World.

Venue:  Classical Art Research Centre (CARC), University of Oxford, UK.

In Etruscan art, representations of textiles show numerous kinds of patterns. They often allows us to distinguish the material of which the textile was made. This conference focuses on representations of complex figural scenes on garments. The only example known until today is the figures on the mantle of Vel Sathies in the 4th century BC François Tomb in Vulci. It is an extraordinary case study regarding the complexity of the patterns and the visual program of the tomb in which it is inserted. Thus, the conference proposes answers to the following questions: what is the pattern of the Vel Saties’ mantle? what kind of mantle is it and what does it tell us about the Etruscan ritual practices? what social and symbolical status does the mantle indicate? and how can we understand this mantle in the entire decoration-program of the famous François Tomb in Vulci?

12-13.09.2019. “Gendered Adornment in Archaic and Classical Etruria”. Conference at International Workshop on Adornment as Expression of Everyday Identity in Ancient and Medieval Life.

Venue: Istituto di Norvegia in Roma, Università di Oslo, Italy.

Etruscan jewellery has always been interpreted as luxury good or aristocratic item. A new study of Etruscan dress and jewels from visual imagery of ritual practices and performances contributes to understand differently how adornment was used to express various aspects of identity in Etruria. The conference focuses on tomb paintings from Tarquinia and funerary reliefs from Chiusi. It aims at defining the types of adornment, the expression of a gendered identity and the possible gendered adornment’s political and religious role in the community organisation.

TO BE PUBLISHED