Centre for the Philosophy of History to Host Guest Lecture

The Centre for the Philosophy of History at St Mary's University College, Twickenham is to host a free guest lecture exploring history and theory through the art of dance on Wednesday 29th January. Entitled Dance as Historical Discourse: Forsythe, Foucault, Brecht, and the BBC, Dr Helena Hammond, who is the Senior Lecturer in Dance at the University of Roehampton, will deliver the public lecture. The seminar is an extension of a paper Hammond recently wrote of the same name, which examines the Royal Ballet performance of William Forsthe’s Steptext. Hammond proposes that, “the performance and televisual adaptation of Steptext as a portal into new and arguably more self-reflexive modes of reading post-war British lyric theatre as subjugated, or effective, history.” Dr Hammond has published numerous works including “Dancing Against History: (The Royal) Ballet, Forsythe, Foucault, Brecht and the BBC,” Dance Research, 2013 and “Spectacular Histories”, her essay on the Ballets Russess and French Romanticism’s drive to history (as contribution to the Ballets Russess centenary exhibition catalogue, National Gallery of Australia, 2010), which received the Fulbright Associations ‘Selma Jeanne Cohen Award’ for dance research. The seminar starts at 2pm on Wednesday 29th January in the Waldegrave Drawing Room at St Mary’s Strawberry Hill Campus, followed by a discussion with hot drinks and refreshments. For more information please contact Dr Claire Norton on claire.norton@stmarys.ac.uk or Dr Mark Donnelly on mark.donnelly@stmarys.ac.uk