Alèn Martel
Positions
Sessional Instructor, Dance
Contact information
Web presence
Background
Educational Background
Master of Arts Ethnochoreology, First Class Honours, University of Limerick, 2014
Bachelor of Arts Dance with Distinction, University of Calgary, 2012
Diploma Advanced Ethnochoreology, Norwegian University of Science and Technology, 2013
Biography
Alèn Martel is a dancer, dance researcher, and dance educator. His research and pedagogy focuses on creative process and using tools to help bodies discover what they may not yet know they may be; looking at dance history and studies through parity and equity focussed lenses; digital accessibility in research-creation processes in dance; and, the use of computer science and dance in teaching, learning, and performing contexts.
Research
Areas of Research
In the intersection of dance and computer science, I focus on two primary areas:
- Interactive analysis of the history of dance and computer science from the 1960s to the present, including the work of Jeanne Beaman, Francisco Sagasti, etc., as well as 21st century work on generative art in dance specifically through Processing, p5.js, Kinectron, Python, TouchDesigner, Java, and Javascript.
- Creation and use of digital tools for dance-making where I work specifically with individuals who live in areas of the world where dance-making is either not possible or punishable, allowing them to take ownership in both a creative process and a performed work.
I focus on dance history primarily from before the 1900s with exception to the history of dance and computer science.
Main focusses include how we look at dance history through an equity-focussed lens, which includes assessing one's own biases when talking about, evaluating, or otherwise receiving a 'dance.' We also question this term - 'dance' - from both a global and historical perspectives. Additionally, within my research areas in Dance History and Dance Anthropology (or Ethnochoreology), I approach the philosophical area of 'appropriateness' and dissect how this differs among societies and cultures and through time and how what is appropriate is inconsistently applied.
Courses
| Course number | Course title | Semester |
|---|---|---|
| DNCE 347 | Modern Dance History | Winter 2024 |
| DNCE 231 | Introduction to Dance Theory and Practice | Fall 2023 |
| DNCE 341 | Early Dance History | Summer 2023 |
| DNCE 231 | Introduction to Dance Writing and Movement Analysis | Fall 2022 |
| DNCE 341 | Early Dance History | Summer 2022 |
| DNCE 231 | Introduction to Dance Writing and Movement Analysis | Fall 2021 |
| DNCE 341 | Early Dance History | Summer 2021 |
| DNCE 267 | Dance Aesthetics, Criticism and Analysis | Fall 2020 |
| DNCE 247 | Introduction to Creative Process | Fall 2020 |
| DNCE 341 | Early Dance History | Summer 2020 |
| DNCE 267 | Dance Aesthetics, Criticism and Analysis | Fall 2019 |
| DNCE 341 | Early Dance History | Summer 2019 |
| DNCE 341 | Early Dance History | Summer 2018 |
| DNCE 345 | 20th Century Dance History | Summer 2017 |
Projects
co-presented with Rufi Oswaldo
Dance Studies Association Conference
'Contra: Dance & Conflict'
University of Malta, Valletta Campus
Valletta, Malta
5-8 July 2018
Abstract
"Pizza-burgers. Dodgeball rollerblading. The Mexican Korean eatery around the corner. The world is no stranger to fusion. Yet, fusion is not simply the coming together of two wholes to create one greater whole. In dance, it is a process fraught with artistic and cultural conflict. In this lecture-demonstration fusion, the authors share five years of data from experimentally fusing Ballroom dance with Contemporary dance from a North American perspective. This demonstration will embody conflict within what the authors term a ‘theory of coalescence’ in order to highlight different strategies of transforming conflict into creativity in myriad contexts."
co-presented with Waverly Spratt
Centre for Imaginative Ethnography (CIE) Symposium and Graduate Program in Theatre & Performance Studies Conference
'Imagining Differently: Research-Creation Processes in Urgent Times'
York University
Online
26-27 March 2021
Abstract
"This is a live research exploration into how choreographer, performer, technology, and online users can work together in a collaborative creative process in order to create a live dance work.The inspiration for this research comes from longstanding conversations with individuals who have been interested in dance, but have not been able to partake in the live viewing, creation, and/or performance of it. This inability is a result of living in geographies and contexts where socio-economic access to such is not viable or where state religion or politics prohibits access to such. As such, while physical access to dance within these geographies has noted limitations, the online world has been noted by these individuals to be a window to a world that they wish to be part of. In pursuing this live research exploration, the researcher wishes to invite the online world, and especially those who live in geographies where physical access to dance is limited, to collaborate in the creative process of dance through the use of technology.
In this live research exploration, the coding software Processing, which is an open-source graphical library and integrated development environment (IDE), will be used by the choreographer/researcher in order to create a program where online users have the ability to input data into this online program based on particular constraints and instructions in order to generate particular outputs. These outputs will then be projected onto a screen and interpreted live by a performer in order to generate live choreography. Through this approach, the process of creation is collaborative, participatory, embodied, and improvisational in such a way that the process is jointly devised and owned by all involved. The goal of this research-creation process is to break down access barriers and to approach technology where it is an intermediary for collaboration."
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