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INVOLUNTARY DANCES RESEARCH PROJECTRita Marcalo/Instant Dissidence

1. The projectInvoluntary Dances looks at conceptual and physical interfaces between

dance, movement and epilepsy, and it investigates the scientific and artisticcurrency of creating an artefact that places itself simultaneously in the fields of artistic and scientific research.

Involuntary Dances is the first stage of what is expected to be a major internationally funded collaborative research project taking place in 2010. Atthis stage the objective is to undertake preliminary conceptual research andresearch into future potential partners and funding, in order to facilitate itsrealisation.

2. Funding securedInteract awardThe INTERACT initiative from the Arts Council of England allows artists tofurther their research within a collaborative industry setting. INTERACT is theresult of an identified need for increased investment in research anddevelopment opportunities for artists. The aim is to broker otherwiseunavailable opportunities for artists to carry out research and develop skillsand expertise within innovative industry. Mine is one of just 28 INTERACTplacements awarded nationally.

Yorkshire Dance residencyThe National Dance Agency Yorkshire Dance has offered the project studiospace and marketing and press support.

Essexdance logistical supportThe National Dance Agency Essexdance will be providing logistical supportfor the project, comprising administration and national promotion.

York St John University

The university is a fifth partner with the project, providing me with researchleave to undertake it, and additional space if necessary.

3. The rationale for the project

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I often think of how (before the tendency for a fragmentation of knowledge intotiny little pockets of specialism) people such as da Vinci would simultaneouslyuse their creativity in creating artistic artefacts and scientific artefacts. Theywould not understand themselves as artist or scientist, but both. This is one of the things I am interested in: to understand the world not by sticking to one

point of view (artistic discourses), but by placing artistic and scientificdiscourses side by side, and by asking questions about where they convergeand/or diverge. Hence my previous research work that sought to link thephilosophy of science and the practice of choreography.

The particular scientific area that Involuntary Dances focuses on is researchinto anti-convulsion (epilepsy) drugs. Why? Because I know it. Because mybody (my muscles, my nervous system, my brain) knows it. Because, as adancer, an epileptic seizure is everything that my dancing body is not. It islack of control, it is lack of consciousness, it is lack of body image. It is my‘other’ body. It is my ‘other’ identity as a disabled person. It is my ‘other’repertoire of (involuntary) dances: the one no one ever spectates.

4. MethodologyThe first stage of Involuntary Dances is a residency at GlaxoSmithKline (inHarlow Town), during which I will familiarise myself with the environment of scientific research at what is the largest pharmaceutical research facility inEurope. During this residency I will interview staff about current researchprojects in anti-convulsion drugs, and I will undertake guided study andreading in and around epilepsy as a condition. This will result in writing aliterature review. It is also during this stage of the research that a survey of potential future partners and funding bodies will be conducted.

A second stage of the project will involve studio/laboratory interrogation of questions arising from the previous stage of the project, in collaboration with amusician and a filmmaker.

A final stage involves the bringing together of the results of the previous twostages into the following research outputs:• a series of live or film performance sketches (sharing of work in progress);• a research proposal for a major internationally funded collaborative

research project, detailing possible international funding avenues and

partners.

5. Time ScheduleJanuary 2008• Residency at GlaxoSmithKline.• Conducting interviews, literature review, funding and partners research.

February 2008• Studio/laboratory research at Yorkshire Dance (two weeks).

March 2008• Showing of work in progress.• Writing up the research proposal and funding proposals.

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