Bridging Dance and Ecology

Dr. Melanie Kloetzel, professor and Dance Division Lead at the School of Creative and Performing Arts, recently returned from a trip to Paris, where she engaged in a series of performances, presentations and teaching engagements, organized through a research group she has been involved with for the past five years. The trip was made possible through a collaboration with colleagues and funding secured by the group in Paris. The group, called In Situ: International Site Dance Research, brings together artists and scholars from France, New Zealand, the UK and Canada to explore the intersection of dance and place. 

Dr. Kloetzel presented at a conference on Ecosomatics, a field that examines bodily practices in relation to broader ecological issues. She participated in a roundtable discussion about the connection between dance and place, drawing from her SSHRC project, Landscape in Motion, created in collaboration with Enrica Dall’Ara, as well as her work with Cree artist Sandra Lamouche. Her presentation emphasized how human practices and interpretations shape our understanding of landscapes and their hidden histories, particularly through the impacts of colonialism.

Dr. Kloetzel’s artistic contributions extended to the Entre Cour et Jardins Festival in Burgundy, one of the oldest site-specific dance festivals in France. She performed in a ‘Choreographic Hike,’ a piece that drew attention to the rural landscape and its historical connections to contemporary dance. Her own contribution to the hike drew from a previous work Kloetzel had created in Ponteix, SK (Windblown/Rafales) while also shedding light on the MMIWG (Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls) movement in Canada. Hanging red clothing in a line of trees - a specific reference to and honouring of the REDress Project created by Jaime Black - Kloetzel aimed to merge art with activism and raise awareness about MMIWG with a new audience.

In addition to these performances and presentations, Dr. Kloetzel was invited to teach a graduate research methods class at Université Paris 8, where she worked with master’s students in dance. “It was an amazing experience,” she reflected, “and it helped deepen international connections for the University of Calgary, particularly in the areas of dance, ecology and place-based practices.”

Through her work, Dr. Kloetzel continues to broaden the scope of how we think about dance, place, and the body’s relationship to the environment.