Ethnochoreology in the Time of Social / Physical Distancing: Performing,Transmitting and Researching Dance in Conditions of Physical Separation

Сажетак

Since it was impossible to hold the thirty-first regular symposium at the Lithuanian Academy of Music and Theatre in the city of Klaipeda, the large number of dance researchers from all over the world gathered within the Study Group for Ethnochoreology of the International Council for Traditional Music (ICTM), assembled in virtual space on July 20 and 21 with special energy because direct communication and physical contact were impossible. The organiser of this historical meeting, which marked the beginning of a new era in ethnochoreological and anthropological research on dance, and which rallied 94 dance researchers from 34 countries from all over the world from Hawaii to Australia, was a Serbian institution, the Department of Ethnomusicology at the Faculty of Music in Belgrade. The aim of the program co-chairs, Selena Rakočević (Serbia) and Anne von Bibra Wharton (USA), was for the virtual symposium to fully resonate with the current pandemic events in the world. This was the reason why they decided to dedicate it to considering the various aspects of performing, transmitting and researching dance in the global conditions of social distancing and physical separation caused by the virus Covid 19. Therefore, the thematic focus of the meeting was succinctly expressed in the title “Ethnochoreology in a time of social and physical distancing”.