Grand Gestures: A Somatic Ethnography

This is a 'Plain English' report on the Arts and Humanities Research Council funded project 'A Somatic Ethnography of Grand Gestures Elders Dance Group'. It is written for the communities of practice around elders dance and participatory arts more generally

Welcoming the Unknown Territory

Dance Artist Paula Turner and ethnographer Dr Trish Winter have been collaborating on an ethnographic research project with Grand Gestures Elders Dance Group in the north east of England. They write about what the collaboration has brought to Paula's practice

A Somatic Ethnography of Grand Gestures Elders Dance Group

Report for the AHRC Cultural Value Project

Englishness as a Beleaguered Identity and Contemporary English Folk

In England in the opening decade of the 21st century there has been a resurgence of interest in English folk and traditional music and dance. A number of different constructions of Englishness circulate around these contemporary English folk arts, and one of these is the notion of Englishness as a beleaguered identity. The paper identifies this idea of Englishness as beleaguered, and traces some of its manifestations within and around the cultures of English folk, before going on to reflect on its significance in a wider cultural and political context and with specific reference to tourism. The research on which it draws was primarily conducted within an ethnographic research project, 'Performing Englishness in New English Folk Music and Dance', supported by the Arts and Humanities Research Council and conduced in 2007-2009 at the Centre for Research in Media and Cultural Studies, University of Sunderland