Type: Intellectual Production · Lecture / Presentation
Date: 28 November 2023
Time-span: 14:00–15:00
Context: Dance Histories in Practice – Selected Aspects of Archiving and Historicization of Dance, CoFestival 2023
Location: Museum of Contemporary Art Metelkova (+MSUM), Ljubljana, Slovenia
Institution / Organisation: Nomad Dance Academy Slovenia / Museum of Contemporary Art Metelkova
Role: Lecturer / Presenter
Status: Historical Record — documented
Abstract
Dance, as a form of communication technology, depends on various other cultural technologies for its development, execution, and reception. Orality plays a significant role at various stages of these processes. The way the labor of dance is executed involves a delicate negotiation between physical bodies and cognitive aspects, encompassing both explicit information and implicit content and knowledge. Oral History can be instrumental in documenting implicit creative choices, personal and institutional factors, workplace conditions, legacies, and the expansion of embodied knowledge. This presentation will describe methodologies and strategies for creating insightful dance oral histories.
Record / Description
On 28 November 2023, Ricardo Viviani gave the lecture Methodologies and Functions of Oral History as part of the seminar Dance Histories in Practice – Selected Aspects of Archiving and Historicization of Dance, held at the Museum of Contemporary Art Metelkova (+MSUM) in Ljubljana within CoFestival 2023. The lecture was scheduled from 14:00 to 15:00.
The seminar was organised in partnership with the Museum of Contemporary Art Metelkova and Nomad Dance Academy Slovenia and addressed practices, methodologies and problems involved in archiving and historicizing dance. The programme considered the ways in which archival documentation records, historicizes and transforms different aspects of dance work, including studio, educational and stage practices. The official programme identifies Viviani as a choreographer, researcher and oral-history specialist; the Museum of Contemporary Art Metelkova additionally identifies him as a choreographer, archivist and oral-history specialist.
Activity / Event
The lecture formed part of the one-day seminar Dance Histories in Practice – Selected Aspects of Archiving and Historicization of Dance, held on Tuesday, 28 November 2023 from 10:00 to 18:00 at the Museum of Contemporary Art Metelkova. The seminar brought together presentations and discussions concerning dance archives, dance writing, reconstruction, curating dance histories and the documentation of less visible forms of dance labour.
The programme was organised in partnership with the Museum of Contemporary Art Metelkova, with which Nomad Dance Academy Slovenia had been creating the Temporary Slovenian Dance Archives since 2018. CoFestival describes the seminar as an exchange of established and innovative approaches to dance archiving and as an occasion to make archival working problems and developing methodologies available for further discussion.
Intellectual Production
Ricardo Viviani’s documented contribution was the lecture Methodologies and Functions of Oral History. The surviving festival and institutional programme documentation identifies the lecture as a contribution to the seminar’s examination of methods for archiving and historicizing dance.
The available programme documentation does not provide a full abstract or transcript of the lecture. The subject should therefore not be reconstructed beyond what the surviving documentation establishes. CoFestival describes Viviani as a choreographer, researcher and oral-history specialist who had been creating oral histories and researching historical methodologies in dance in recent years.
Primary Source / Documentation
The principal surviving documentary evidence currently identified consists of the published CoFestival 2023 programme page and the Museum of Contemporary Art Metelkova event page. Both independently identify the seminar, its date and location, and Ricardo Viviani’s lecture as Methodologies and Functions of Oral History, scheduled from 14:00 to 15:00.
The CoFestival programme identifies the event as part of its 2023 programme and describes Viviani as a choreographer, researcher and oral-history specialist. The Museum of Contemporary Art Metelkova page independently records the same lecture and identifies Viviani as a choreographer, archivist and oral-history specialist.
The supplied festival schedule uses the wording Methodologies and functions of the oral histories in dance. The official CoFestival and Museum of Contemporary Art Metelkova pages use Methodologies and Functions of Oral History. The latter wording is therefore used here as the principal documented title, while the variant wording is preserved as part of the source record rather than silently standardised.
Relationship
Ricardo Viviani presented Methodologies and Functions of Oral History within the seminar Dance Histories in Practice – Selected Aspects of Archiving and Historicization of Dance, organised as part of CoFestival 2023 at the Museum of Contemporary Art Metelkova in Ljubljana.
The record is therefore related to the CoFestival 2023 programme and to the seminar’s wider archival and historicization context. The available documentation establishes Viviani’s role as lecturer / presenter in this specific seminar; it does not by itself establish a broader organisational or professional relationship beyond this documented participation.
Place / Context
The seminar took place at the Museum of Contemporary Art Metelkova (+MSUM) in Ljubljana as part of CoFestival, the international festival of contemporary dance. The 2023 festival programme explicitly included a conference programme devoted to aspects of dance archiving and historicization. The seminar was connected to the Temporary Slovenian Dance Archives, a collaboration between Nomad Dance Academy Slovenia and the Museum of Contemporary Art Metelkova.
Archival Material
Published CoFestival 2023 programme page; Museum of Contemporary Art Metelkova event page; DO-PO-DO Pass On activity listing; Kino Šiška CoFestival 2023 festival documentation; supplied seminar programme / schedule. Further archival material such as photographs, lecture notes, recording, transcript, presentation slides or correspondence has not been independently established in the present record.
Contribution / Significance: The documented lecture forms part of Ricardo Viviani’s continuing professional work concerning oral history, dance research and the preservation and interpretation of dance histories. Its placement within a dedicated international seminar on dance archiving and historicization connects this intellectual production directly with contemporary discussions of how dance knowledge and experience can be documented, transmitted and historicized.
Assessment / Relevance: The record is significant as documentary evidence of Viviani’s participation in an international professional discussion devoted specifically to dance archives and historicization. It also provides an independently documented point within the development of his work with oral history and historical methodologies in dance.
Keywords: oral history; dance history; dance archives; archiving; historicization; dance research; CoFestival; Ljubljana; Museum of Contemporary Art Metelkova; Nomad Dance Academy Slovenia
External Links
CoFestival 2023 — Dance Histories in Practice
Museum of Contemporary Art Metelkova — Dance Histories in Practice
DO-PO-DO — Dance Histories in Practice Seminar
Kino Šiška — CoFestival 2023
Internal Links
Archival Note: This page forms part of an ongoing personal archive documenting Ricardo Viviani’s professional work and activities over more than four decades. Names and other personal information appear where relevant to the documented work or collaboration. If you believe that information concerning you has been published incorrectly or should be reconsidered, please contact me.