Dance, Architecture and Engineering

Formed from a number of conversations and experiences, the book draws on contributors' site visits to architectural and engineering organizations involved with city-scale projects. These include events where dancers and musicians worked alongside engineers and architects, including Theatrum Mundi director, John Binham-Hall, and director of UCL STEaAPP City Leadership Lab, Lecturer in Urban Innovation and Policy, Ellie Cosgrave, to exchange movement ideas generated from the initial cross-practice conversations with architects and engineers. Events took places at key cultural institutions such as Whitechapel Art Gallery, London; Royal Academy of Art, London; and The Lowry, Salford. Focusing principally on 3 shared aspects - stillness, dwelling and emplacement - the book is comprised of chapters from scholars and artists alongside images of choreography. There is a prioritizing of how an embodied knowledge within dance can bring voice to decolonizing the city space - in particular, how dance and city making cultures engage with female bodies and non-white bodies in today's era of #MeToo and #BlackLivesMatter. By forging these new ideas and connections, we see the possibilities of who can move within the city space, when and how. Furthermore, the significance of both the activity of city-building and the arts' response to living in cities are increasingly common themes in the 21st century as we try to improve the lived experience in the urban space.