International Symposium Competing!?

While the Paris Olympic and Paralympic games are set to begin in 2024, this international sym-posium wishes to interrogate the history and practice of dance competitions, in connection to competitive sports events. Bringing together the knowledge of different fields in the humanities and the practical experi-ence of dance-makers, this conference aims to outline a history of competing in dance. and to highlight individual and collective stakes as moments where effort, innovation, emulation, dis-tinction and confrontation are combined and encoded. The symposium shows a great diversity of points of view and experiences from contributors, and we hope to mobilize both micro- and macro-readings of several historical, social, economic, political and cultural con-texts, as well as multiple fields of study, from dance and sports research to movement analysis, medicine, anthropology, praxeology, philosophy as well as socio-cultural history and sociology.

The 3-day conference will feature 22 papers and 2 inaugural conferences, as well as performances, battle, films and workshops given by over 40 specialists and artists selected by a scientific committee made up equally of academics and artists.