New ways of working with dance are produced, ever more enthusiastically, with the technological mobilization and hybridization of the performing arts. In the Nordic countries, questions about how to create productive networks, find ways of collaborating across art forms and other disciplines and to implement pedagogy as an artistic practice are vitally addressed in different arenas. Likewise augmenting practice-based knowledge of dance as well as its societal applications are timely concerns.
The practical papers of Nordic Journal of Dance 3 (2) pay tribute to this questioning. The first paper by dramaturge Christine Fentz addresses these themes by discussing a search for new ways of facilitating dance practice and collaboration in the recent meeting of the Nordic- Baltic network keðja. In turn, choreographer Kasper Daugaard and MA in Music and Arts History Amalie Ørum reflect on choreographic processes based on the everyday activity of cooking, preparing food as an example in which theory and practice inform each other.
The 20th century saw the Nordic countries being influenced by different forms of and developments in dance deriving from
other geographic regions. The research papers published in the Nordic Journal of Dance 3 (2) pay particular attention to two influences: circus and American modern dance. The first paper, written by Stine Degerbøl introduces contemporary circus as a counterculture and reflects upon its pedagogical practice. Contemporary circus is an area in the performing arts that is increasingly actively pursued and forwarded in the Nordic countries, especially Denmark, Finland and Sweden. The second paper, by Riikka Korppi- Tommola instead looks back some 50 years in time and introduces Merce Cunningham Dance Company’s visit to Helsinki with its immediate and mixed impact on the Finnish audience.
The two reviews of the Nordic Journal of Dance 3 (2) introduce the potentials and applications of dance pedagogy in school contexts, not only in teaching dance but other subject areas as well. The editorial board hopes the Nordic Journal of Dance 3 (2) meets the interest of a mix of dance practitioners, professionals and scholars.
Leena Rouhiainen
Issue Editor