Oxford Handbook of Dance and Memory

This Handbook invites readers to approach dance memoriography as a vibrant field of knowledge that explore dance studies at the intersection with historiography, memory studies, performance studies, cultural studies, anthropology, and cognitive sciences. Dance memoriography also examines how epistemological tools introduced by critical theory can provide new insights into the functioning of memory-whether embodied, archived or transmitted-and the dynamic interplay between memory and history. In this process, artists and historians collaborate to activate and explore new ways of remembering and participate in shaping cultural memory. The Handbook highlights the potential of dance studies in investigating how memory has been conceptualised and practiced over time in and through dance. The chapters of this Handbook explore different forms of existence of dance and dancing while addressing key questions: How do the dancers embody the memory of dancing? How is the memory of dance imprinted on the spectator? How do individual and collective memory influence each other in and through dance? Is the presumed immateriality of dance works a fundamental aspect of their identity or a sign of the inability of those who perceive and study them to grasp their traces? How do mnemonic techniques, notation systems, and recording devices contribute to the transmission of a choreographic heritage? What role do archives play in preserving, erasing, or concealing the experiences of dancers and scholars who have created, organised, or engaged with them? How do memory, oblivion, and repression interact in the construction and reception of historical narratives on dance? To whom do dances belong, how are their heirs designated and how do they engage with dance legacies? What does it mean to forget a particular dance practice or tradition? Finally, how is memory implicated in the transmission of experiences and knowledge within dance practices and discourses?

Susanne Franco is Associate Professor in Dance and Theatre Studies at Ca' Foscari University of Venice and Rector's Delegate for Theatre Activities, and curator. Her principal research interests are modern and contemporary dance history and research methodologies. She has recently edited (with C. Baldacci) On Reenactment: Concepts, Methodologies, Tools (2022); (with G. Giannachi) Moving Spaces. Enacting Dance, Performance, and the Digital in the Museum (2021); and (with F. Tamisari) Performing Memory Through Dance. Anthropological Perspectives (2024). She was the coordinator for Ca' Foscari's contribution to Dancing Museums-The Democracy of Beings (2018-2021, Creative Europe), and the PI of the international research project Memory in Motion: Re-Membering Dance History (Mnemedance; Università Ca' Foscari Venezia, 2019-2023). Marina Nordera is a dancer, historian, Full Professor at Université Côte d'Azur, and vice-Director of the Centre Transdisciplinaire d'Épistémologie de la littérature et des Arts Vivants (CTELA), for which she serves also as coordinator of the PhD students' program. Her research and teaching focus on dance history in Early Modern Europe, and on transdisciplinary research methodologies in the performing arts. She recently co-edited (with M. Del Valle, B. Maurmayr, C. Paillet, A. Sini) Pratiques de la pensée en danse (2020), and (with S. Andrieu) Danses Traversées (2025). She has curated the exhibitions La construction de la féminité dans la danse (2004) and Déplier baroque (2022) at the Centre national de la danse. She is coordinator of the research programs Pratiques de l'entretien en danse (Interviewing practices in dance, 2019-) and Éditer la danse du passé (Editing the dance of the past)-PROTODANCE (2022-) at the Université Côte d'Azur.