Lost in the Archive? An Exchange on Archival Attitudes and Methods in Dance

Miriam Althammer, Anna Chwialkowska, Nitsan Margaliot, Sasha Portyannikova and Thomas Thorausch give an excerpt from a discussion about archiving strategies and their complex power dynamics. What questions and problems arise when trying to draw a contemporary picture of dance history from today's perspective? What role can independent archive initiatives play here in this?

The paper shows current attitudes towards archiving dance and attempts to find an understanding between different approaches attitudes. It assumes that a common practice can be established through an imaginative approach, which makes it possible to expand archival material and thereby produce possible futures instead of representing a single past.