Day 2 - Département de danse - UQAM

Day 2: Sunday, June 2
9:00am-12:15pm
a) The Ethical Challenges of Performance History George
Seminar Organizer: Stephen Johnson (University of Toronto). Participants: Paul Babiak (University of
Toronto), Roberta Barker (Dalhousie University), Seika Boye (University of Toronto), Jenn Cole
(University of Toronto), Madeleine Copp (University of Calgary), Selena Couture (Selena Couture
(University of British Columbia), Heather Davis-Fisch (University of the Fraser Valley), Moira Day
(University of Saskatchewan), Steve Espey (University of Saskatchewan), Heather Fitzsimmons Frey
(University of Toronto), Mary Isbell (University of Connecticut), Rhona Justice-Malloy (University of
Mississippi), Joanna Mansbridge (Simon Fraser University, 2013 CATR Theatre and performance
in French award winner), Jocelyn Pitsch (University of British Columbia), Dani Phillipson (Royal
Holloway, University of London), Jessica Riley (University of Guelph), Grace Smith (University of
Toronto), Caitlin Thompson (University of Toronto)
This seminar will explore the challenges of performance history, and the relationship between the historian of performance and
documentary evidence. It will also encourage participants to raise more general questions concerning provenance, disciplinary
and cross-disciplinary benefits and challenges, and other issues that have arisen while conducting their research. The focus
this year is on the ethical 'edges' of performance history, including: the extent to which historians should be advocates or
'mythbusters' regarding their subjects; the challenges of representing oppressed individuals and groups of all kinds in the
study of history; the blessings and temptations of filling in gaps in the evidence with imaginative speculation; among many
other challenges. For this seminar, participants have submitted ‘working papers’, along with documents if appropriate, which
have been posted to a website for comment by other seminar participants. The session will begin with smaller groups
discussing issues arising from the on-line discussion, after which the whole group will discuss more general issues. The
seminar is open to anyone attending the conference, to sit in on the small group and more general discussion. The website is
open for your viewing at http://performancehistoryworkshop.wordpress.com .
b) Performance Studies and Contemporary Sports McIntyre
Seminar Organizer: Peter Kuling (Wilfrid Laurier University). Participants: Natalie Alvarez (Brock
University), Kelsey Blair (University of British Columbia), Daniel Evans (York University), Reina Green
(Mount Saint Vincent University), Kellen Hoxworth (Stanford University), Kathleen Jerome (University of
Victoria), Carla Lever (University of Sydney), Juan Miranda (University of California, Davis), Kristi
Tredway (University of Maryland), Keren Zaiontz (Queen Mary, University of London)
All contemporary sports participants (athletes, coaches, commentators, referees, and fans) confront many different levels of
appearances, facts, and performance strategies during competition. Athletes are often confronted with the task of
premeditating competitors’ athletic skills, preparation, and coaching in real time. Referees (without the aid of video review)
adjudicate player performances’ of rules and regulations. Audiences attend events to witness athletes perform super-human
feats that defy physical limitations. Furthermore, spectators are invited to participate in pre- and post-athletic celebratory
performances. Fans embody affiliations focused on local, political, and confrontational identity politics, which in turn
perpetuates popular ideas of contemporary sports as a regressive identity arena.
While the results of sporting competitions appear to be rooted in facts and statistics, athletes and spectators are
increasingly confronted by a higher degree of initiated performance strategies during competition. Professional sports provide
a complicated forum of performance strategies regulating skill, ability, desire, performance, participation, and celebrity; all of
these “appearances” exist as part of the history of the sporting event, despite not always being adequately reflected in the final
results or scores. Oscillations and interactions between these different performed identities will be a key point of investigation
of this seminar.
9:30am-10:15am
Phoenix Theatre Lobby
A Tour of the Phoenix Theatre, by Bert Timmermans (Acting Theatre Manager and Production
Manger for the Phoenix Theatre).
10:30am — break (featuring an excerpt from Clayton Jeven’s Moscow Stations in the Circular Plaza)
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