Researchers Elswit and Bench Commissioned to Lead Dance Data Project for The Whitney Museum of American Art

Central’s Professor Kate Elswit (Professor of Performance and Technology) and collaborator Harmony Bench (The Ohio State University) are leading a dance data project on choreographer Alvin Ailey, commissioned by the Whitney Museum of American Art as part of a major exhibition. Curated by Adrienne Edwards (Engell Speyer Family Curator and Director of Curatorial Affairs), Edges of Ailey will open in September 2024, focusing on Ailey’s life, work and legacy.

Bench and Elswit’s work transforms archival materials into data-driven designs that make visible the interconnections of performance history across time, space, and bodies. As they explain: “We believe that intentional data curation and visualization can reveal human aspects of ephemeral experiences by giving shape to the past and, with it, constructing a framework for historical imagination.” 

The researchers previously collaborated on the AHRC-funded project Dunham’s Data: Digital Methods for Dance Historical Inquiry, partly exploring methodologies for dance historical data curation and visualization. The new Whitney Commision not only on builds this exploration, but reunites the international team, including Antonio Jimenez-Mavillard and Tia-Monique Uzor (Lecturer, Contemporary African and Caribbean Diasporic Performance).

Alongside the funding from the Whitney Museum, the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater is providing in-kind support for the project, with further research and development funding coming from the AHRC Research Development and Engagement Fellowship Visceral Histories, Visual Arguments: Dance-Based Approaches to Data. Additional support is provided by Central’s Impact Acceleration Account and SPW Knowledge Exchange Funds, and The Ohio State University’s Arts Initiative and Global Arts and Humanities Discovery Theme.

For more information about the ‘Edges of Ailey’ exhibition, visit the Whitney Museum of American Art’s website. A longer statement from Elswit and Bench can be read on the Dunham’s Data project website.