What Moves Them: A Global History of Modern Dance

Exchange Talks: Art in the Archives

What Moves Them: A Global History of Modern Dance

In this session, Dr Lucy Weir (Reader in History of Art, University of Edinburgh), charts the evolution of modern dance across the span of a century, focusing on the migrations and cultural exchanges that have shaped its story from the outset. Beginning in Japan, and concluding in Senegal, her presentation draws upon extensive archival and oral history research, presenting a radical retelling of the history of modern dance as an inherently global art form.

Lucy’s new book, What Moves Them: A Global History of Modern Dance, will be published by Allen Lane (Penguin) in 2025.

About the speaker:
Dr Lucy Weir is a specialist in dance and performance. She is the author of Pina Bausch’s Dance Theatre: Tracing the Evolution of Tanztheater (Edinburgh University Press, 2018), Performance, Masculinity, and Self-Injury (Routledge, 2024), and, with Laura Bissell, co-editor of Performance in a Pandemic (Routledge, 2021). She was awarded her PhD by the University of Glasgow, and went on to teach at Glasgow School of Art. She joined the University of Edinburgh in 2015, was appointed Chancellor’s Fellow in 2021, and promoted to Reader in History of Art in 2024. She was named an AHRC/BBC New Generation Thinker in 2020, and contributes to various programmes on BBC Radio 3. Her research for What Moves Them has been supported by a Leverhulme Trust Research Fellowship.

Image credit: Michio Ito in Shadowland

WEBINAR LINK: https://events.teams.microsoft.com/event/a0bd2f95-92e7-494f-a98a-9983b4c473b2@09ab91a8-e6d6-4fba-98da-63eac7ab3ce2