‘Fieldwork in the Body’ was formed by anthropologist Mette Terp Høybye and dance artist Marie Hallager Andersen in 2018. It is an experimental project that explores new modes of knowing by combing Marie’s expertise as a mover with Mette’s expertise as an anthropologist. Questions we ask:
Through regular, shared investigations we are working in dance studios and public spaces, rotating between creative/physical tasks from the movement improvisation tradition and reading and discussing anthropological and dance related texts, to open a reciprocity between anthropological work and experiential movement. We are equally interested in how somatic movement can inform ethnographic work and how working with anthropological terminology can inform movement vocabulary and uncover new methods for exploring bodily expression.
Our project aspires to move into an actual empirical investigation through methods of artistic movement practices, setting out to rethink anthropological methods. We do this by engaging with groups of both artistic, anthropological and interdisciplinary practices and have created audio tracks for ethnographers exploring movement for Somatics Toolkit, developed workshops bridging the gap between art and academia and we further envisage participatory choreographic events directed by anthropological findings.
