Thirteenth International Conference on The Arts in Society

Abstract

Enmei, roughly translates to “long life” in Japanese. This interdisciplinary performance project was inspired by a desire to challenge some of the existing notions about aging and the female body - both within the contemporary dance world and the larger culture. Our research explores what it means and what it takes to continue dancing as older women, and how this differs between American and Japanese cultures, in particular. Mid- to late-career dance artists and scholars from the U.S. and Japan brought their varied life – and bodily – experiences together to explore how cultural ideas about aging and gender inform the lives and embodied experiences of female dancers (and, by extension, of non- dancers). For this Creative Practice Showcase we will share photo, video and audio documentation of the research process, as well as short movement research demonstrations to unpack our discoveries about ageist practices, and consider how this particular work has the potential to catalyze social change.