Dena Devida
Curator
Dena Davida is an elder artivist dance curator, contact improvisor, educator, and researcher. She completed her MA in the Movement Studies Program at Wesleyan University (1995) and the Laban Movement Analysis Certification program (1996). Co-founder/curator for Montréal’s Tangente performance venue (1980-2019) and the Festival international de la nouvelle danse (1985-2001), she taught in UQÀM’s Dance Department (1979-2010) where she researched her doctorate (2006), on artistic dance ethnography. Publishing widely on dance and culture, she edited seminal anthologies on dance ethnography and curation, and she now manages Turba: The Journal for Global Practices in Live Arts Curation.
Curatorial Statement
In the field of the live arts, the term “curation” is largely but not entirely analogous to its use in the visual arts. The Latin root of the word “curation” is curare, meaning “to take care of” or “to heal.” Live arts curators mediate the intellectual, societal, and aesthetic contexts as well as the presentational models which support the development, dissemination, and reception of artistic work.
They negotiate relationships between artists, artistic works, administrators, the media, audiences, archives, and society. With Turba, we aim to foster a community of critical discourse about curation across traditions, genres, communities, generations, cultures, disciplines, artistic expressions and aesthetics.
