Dance & Science: 'Dance Epidemic - Panpapanpalya' (2018). International Dance Congress.

This short video summarises a major site-specific event at the South Australian Health and Bio-medical Research precinct titled ‘Dance Epidemic’, a one-off performative output from a research project that spanned seven months over three phases and brought together a transdisciplinary team from health science, education and creative industries. The research tracked the process of the site-specific event as a feature of the Creative Gatherings artistic program for the Panpapanpalya 2018 International Dance Congress held in Adelaide (8-13 July 2018) and hosted at UniSA.
The research project focused on dance leaders, their multi-age community and congress participants who were involved in a choreographic process to create 12 site specific dance works in various locations at the SA Health and Bio-medical Research precinct, including the new Royal Adelaide Hospital (RAH) building and SA Health and Medical Research Institute (SAHMRI).
The project brought together local and international artists, over 300 Panpapanpalya delegates from 26 different countries, RAH hospital staff, patients and community members with the dance artists. The process focused on creating dance in a supportive social environment that enabled risk taking, creative learning, resilience and problem solving. With focused workshops during the congress week to prepare participants, ‘Dance Epidemic’ took place on the final afternoon for two hours, infecting public spaces as contact zones between dancers, patients and staff.
Michelle Cripps, Director of RAH Centre for Creative Health, outlined the direct consequences of the Creative Gatherings practice-lead research project, where “People still talk about the day the hospital danced and this certainly opened staff eyes to what was possible".
Credits
Choreography and dramaturgy coordinated by Madalena Victorino and Giacomo Scalesi with Jo Clancy, Gavin Clarke, Molly Flanagan, Carol Wellman Kelly, Lisa Lanzi, Katrina Lazaroff, Alice Lee Holland, Adrianne Semmens, Tanya Voges, David Williams.
Performers included participants of Panpapanpalya 2018 international dance congress with guest appearances by Eileen Kramer with Patrick Harding-Irmer.
Videography: Jen Brown,
Music: Sascha Budimski
Partners:
University of South Australia, Dance and the Child international (daCi), World Dance Alliance (WDA), Arts South Australia, Ausdance SA, Centre for Creative Health at the Royal Adelaide Hospital, South Australian Health and Medical Research Institute (SAHMRI), Australian Dance Theatre, Royal Academy of Dance, University of Auckland, Queensland University of Technology.