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Session 8	Activisms and Histories
Kristi Faulkner	Women, Protest, and Dance: An Activist Art?
	As members of society, artists have historically served a dualistic purpose – to reflect the ideologies of the world in which they live, and to challenge those ideologies. By challenging ideologies, artists may enter into a world of social and political activism. However, can art be an effective form of protest? Furthermore, can dance serve to convey messages of social and political activism, and should it? This paper seeks to answer these questions by examining a brief history of social and political protest from a women-centered standpoint. I will look at the gender roles and social structure of the United States to determine how and whether it is possible for women to enter the arena of social and political activism, then direct my focus towards understanding how dance may function in this arena. Through this investigation, I hope to generate a better understanding of how female dancing bodies can be legitimized as sites of political activism.
Anne Fiskvik	Global Feminisms and Women’s Histories: Dance History and Women Artists: “Female representations in the Halling”
	This paper investigates female performance practices and representations in the Norwegian “Halling”. Halling has traditionally been a male solodance, danced to live fiddle music in various social and competitive settings. The dance has a long tradition; roots have been identified at least back to the 15th century, most likely it was danced already in the middle ages and possibly also earlier. The dancer performs difficult leaps, kicks, and other acrobatic stunts to demonstrate vigor and virility. The dance has always been put forward as genuinely male; a male icon of Norwegian society. Still, up thorough history women has also been dancing Halling, but often “in the back” and often criticized for not representing the dance in correctly. In this paper I will trace the women dancers in Halling; I will give a brief historical outline and look at how female performance practices, styles and ideals of the “female practice” of this dance can be placed and situated today.
Ojeya Cruz Banks	Katherine Dunham: Applied Dance Anthropology: Decolonizing Anthropology and the Body of the Researcher
	This paper will explore the work of Katherine Dunham, the late pioneer dancer/ anthropologist who conducted dance research in the Caribbean and brought this dance knowledge to African American communities in the USA (see Dunham, 1969; Redmond, 1978; Rose, 1990; Ashenbrenner, 2002), the American concert stage and film industry. She recorded her findings through ethnographic field notes and by learning dance: the techniques and cultural context; and disseminated the information through articles and books but also applied it to her pedagogy and choreography. Ashenbrenner (2002), Clark (1994), Cruz Banks (2008), Forsch (1999), Perperner (1999) and Ramsey (2000) all discuss how Dunham used her skills as a dancer to challenge objective criteria of anthropological research. Clark (1994) called Dunham’s system “the research to performance method”. Ramsey (2000) argues Dunham forged an African diasporic anthropology that emphasized participation and engagement. Following Ramsey’s lead, this paper seeks to further the discussion with a postcolonial theoretical lens and considers the way Dunham redefined ethnographic approaches, not by dismissing western scholarship but through identifying its limits and asserting different tenets for understanding humanity. This approach is later conceptualized and echoed in the work of contemporary qualitative researchers such as Daniels (2004), Denzin & Lincoln (2003), Pillow (2003) Tyson (2003). Using memoirs from two Dunham technique seminars, and a literature review, I will explore how Dunham’s seminal dance research instigates a critical methodological conversation about issues of epistemology, racism and methodology. Her dance anthropology directly challenged the colonial consequences that have underpinned western epistemologies of research.
	Kristi Faulkner currently attends The College at Brockport where she is earning her MFA in Dance Choreography and Performance. She graduated from Bowling Green State University where she obtained her B.S. in Dance Performance and B.A.C. in Theatre: Acting/Directing. While at BGSU, she performed as a member of the University Performing Dancers, in addition to her appearances in productions with the Dance Program, the Department of Theatre and Film, and the College of Musical Arts. Kristi enjoys working with film and multimedia as well as spoken and sung text in her work to explore issues of identity, human rights, and the political environment. Kristi recently taught at Trollwood Performing Arts School in Fargo, ND – an outdoor summer arts program affiliated with the Fargo Public School District that draws upon nature as a source of creative inspiration. She is also an active member of The College at Brockport's student chapter of the National Dance Education Association, serving as the chapter’s co-chair. Ms. Faulkner's creative interest in identity, human rights, and the political environment finds alternate avenues of expression through her work as a Women's Center Ambassador at The College at Brockport.
	Anne Fiskvik holds a position at the Department of Musicology, Program for Dance-Studies at the University of Science and Technology (NTNU) in Trondheim, Norway. Alongside her career as a dancer and choreographer, her main research areas are the relationship between theatre dance and music, and the history of Norwegian theatre dance.
	Ojeya Cruz Banks (Ph.D) is a dancer, choreographer and dance anthropologist whose research interests include dance pedagogy, the postcolonial dance context and contemporary fusion technique, and choreography. She has studied dance in Kenya, Uganda, Ethiopia, Eritrea, Tanzania, Zanzibar, Mali, Guinea and Cuba. Her influential teachers include renowned dancers such as Katherine Dunham, Ron Brown, Moustapha Bangoura and Eno Washington. She has taught at the University of Arizona, the University of Michigan, and she worked as visiting scholar at the University of Makerere in Uganda. Her dance work as been commissioned by Michigan State University, Eastern Michigan University, the ZUZI dance company, the People Dancing Company, Makerere University. She works as a lecturer of Dance Studies at the University of Otago in Dunedin, New Zealand.
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