Dance Practices as Research: Approaches to the Safeguarding and Transmission of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Dance

This book contributes to the growing scientific literature on ’intangible cultural heritage’ - determined by UNESCO to be particularly worthy of safeguarding and transmission - by advancing a theoretical-analytical framework for the (in)tangible cultural heritage of dance. By exploring the potential of the ’intangible materiality’ of dance practice the book argues that implementing the concept of a ’performative dance-archive’ creates a new analytic field: research in praxis.

The concept of the ’performative dance-archive’ draws out the potential for safeguarding and transmission of dance heritage, but also the challenges of the opposition between living heritage and the codifying of cultural inventories. This book uses the formal and contextual transformation of Argentine tango and German modern dance to discuss this ambiguity of intangible heritage and how the ＂performative dance-archive＂ creates a cognitive, empractical approach to determine, archive, and distribute dance knowledge.

This is a timely methodological intervention in the context of the increasing importance of the intangible cultural heritage. It enables us to re-revise the concept of (im)materiality and the specific knowledges within cultural practice as a necessary fundamental category for research-processes and societal growth. This book is directed both to researchers in the field of intangible cultural heritage and to practitioners and researchers searching for new ways of investigating methods and perspectives to understand ’immaterial materialities’.

Vicky Kämpfe studied Applied Cultural Sciences at the University of Lüneburg. Early on in her studies, she became involved with the topic of her investigation while interning with the German UNESCO-Commission in Bonn and at the Municipal Culture Department of the City of Córdoba, Argentina. After graduating with an M.A., she worked for several years as a project coordinator, in artist management, and also as a dancer. Within the scope of her doctoral studies at Leuphana University Lüneburg, she dedicated herself to the scientific study of cultural practices, specifically dance and movement practices. The successful completion of her PhD, along with her experiences in the field help enable her to realize her vision of a ’society in movement’ through a dance and movement project by using theoretical and practical ways to implement it.

The doctorate was completed at Leuphana University Lüneburg, in the faculty of Humanities and Sciences. Her research is focused on discovering how cultural practices, such as intangible heritage, are recognized by institutions including UNESCO and how this recognition modifies their value and function within social structures. She aims to find out which implications cause these potential changes to both cultural heritage and even the practices themselves. Using the Tango as a case study, she is able to find out about the indications of such institutional praxes of recognition. Her investigation is based on Pierre Bourdieu’s praxeological approach, which allows her to find out specific concepts referring to intangible cultural heritage and practices of movement. Within the framework of her investigation, Vicky Kämpfe succeeds in re-interpreting constituting terms and concepts of the Convention such as the ’value of the intangible’ and ’movement knowledge’ and indicates how they could be implemented into practice.

Her intention of investigation and practical implementation work is to realize various forms of intangible cultural heritage in projects and concepts of the intangible, paying particular attention to the specific value of movement knowledge. With this background, she now applies her findings both in the field of practice as well as in seminars and lectures in academic settings. She initiates and realises movement projects, seminars and dance workshops in cooperation with public institutions and outside of them. As a lecturer at Leuphana University Lüneburg, she implements and further develops the concept of living dance archive as a performative method within the approach of research in praxis with students.

Her research interests focus on the determinability of knowledge of, in and through dance, on the quality of movement practices, on archival conceptions, the significance of cultural heritage and associated institutionalisation processes within the theoretic as well as praxis sphere, finally on performative methods of science (research in praxis).

The following are selected publications of the authors: Performative Tanzarchive. Ein Zugang zu tänzerischen Praktiken inmitten von (Im)Materialitäten. [Performative dance archives. An approach to dance practices within of (im)materialities] In: Jahrbuch für Tanzforschung. transcript Verlag Bielefeld 2020

Kulturerbe Tango. Tanz, Politik und Kulturindustrie. [Cultural heritage dance. Dance, politics and cultural industries] transcript Verlag Bielefeld 2018.