Lean Back I: Intelligent Movement
Day and time: Thursday (March 19) · 13:15–14:45
Location: Coop Himmelb(l)au
Format: Talks
Frameworks of Play: Arts-Based Research and Embodied Knowledge in Hip Hop Studies
Presented by: Friederike Frost
This lecture-performance explores the interrelations between arts-based research as a research method within Hip Hop-studies, aiming to foster interdisciplinary dialogue and artistic exchange. It presents two arts-based research projects as case-studies: “Echoes in Motion”, a collaboration between dance and beatmaking conducted by Hip Hop scholars Jason Ng and Friederike Frost between Cologne and Bangkok. Guided by the principle of call&response, the project is situated at the intersection of dance, music, and cultural studies. The second, “Motions on the Floor”, centers on dance and investigates identity and authenticity in urban dance theater, reflecting on movement, inspiration, creative choices and choreographic practice through experimental practice and observation.
Both case studies explore how arts-based research can center embodied knowledge and artistic creation as sources of theory in Hip Hop studies, and how theoretical and methodological frameworks can both initiate and inform the analysis of artistic processes.
The lecture aims to cultivate curiosity and understanding towards arts-based research and artistic practice as mediums and methods of reflection, research, and knowledge production. It also considers how such approaches can foster interdisciplinary collaboration across Hip Hop disciplines and academic research, illuminate underexplored entanglements such as the music-movement connection in Hip Hop; and foreground the artistic knowledge and practice of Hip Hop scholars as vital and meaningful contributions to the continued development of Hip Hop studies as research field.
Dancing epistemic refusal: Hip Hop and embodied ways of knowing among Rotterdam's dancers
Presented by: Jelena Beocanin
This paper explores Hip Hop dance in Rotterdam as a reflexive and critical engagement with both Hip Hop culture and the condition of postcoloniality. It positions dancing bodies as sites of discursive formation as well as autonomy and resistance. The study approaches dance as an intellectual yet embodied practice that generates multiple forms of knowledge: (1) knowledge of self, (2) collective-historical knowledge-urban, diasporic, oral, and written, (3) embodied knowledge of form, style, technique, emotion, and movement, and (4) lived or inherited understandings of socio-political inequality, joy, spirituality, creativity, and resistance.
Framed within the context of postcoloniality, the paper calls for renewed ways of understanding resistance and critical oppositionality in Hip Hop culture. It challenges logocentric approaches by centering the body, movement, and dance as epistemological sites where ways of knowing are negotiated. Drawing on ethnographic research and biographical oral history interviews with Rotterdam based dancers, the study foregrounds the embodied nature of both dance and research practice. In doing so, it extends existing conversations in Hip Hop dance scholarship (Fogarty and Johnson 2023; Park 2023) while bridging insights from dance (see for example Akinleye and Kindred 2018; Candelario and Henley, 2023) and postcolonial studies.
“The Intelligent Movement": Cultural Embodiment, Cognitive Intelligence and Physical Expression in Hip Hop Dance
Presented by: Jacopo Ferri
This abstract presents Jacopo Ferri's research exploring the deep connection between cultural embodiment, physical expression and cognitive intelligence within the world of hip-hop dance. Drawing from years of field observation and personal experience in the global breaking community, the work offers a ground breaking thesis: movement is not merely a physical act but a complex form of thought, creativity, and cultural communication.The research synthesizes knowledge from various disciplines—ranging from philosophy and anthropology to dance studies and neuroscience—to analyze how dancers embody intelligence through rhythm, adaptation, and improvisation. By investigating the mechanisms through which knowledge is transmitted and processed from the body, The Intelligent Movement challenges traditional notions of learning, positioning hip-hop dance as an educational instrument and living thinking art form.The conference presentation will highlight the key insights of this research, opening a vital dialogue between academic inquiry and lived practice, rooted with historical facts. It aims to inspire educators and scholars to recognize movement as a crucial form of intelligence that continues to shape contemporary culture.
