Archive & Memory
On the Move: Dance Stories – Memory and Mapping Lives in Motion
Dr Deborah Williams
University of Malta Department of Dance Studies
- Date
- Time
- -
- Room
- A22
- Format
- Paper
- Chair
- Lucas Yufeng Wu
Presentation abstract
Abstract
This paper examines the intersections of identity, embodiment, and migration through On the Move: Dance Stories, a 2026 oral history project that documents the lived experiences of dancers across the United States. Grounded in ethnographic and oral history methodologies, the research addresses the topic of migration via the research methodology of traveling through the USA to gather the stories. In this way, the term refers not only to the pathways of the research journey but encompasses the relational voices and intertwined yet disparate experiences of practitioners from diverse cultural, generational, and gendered backgrounds, exploring how movement functions as a form of fluid locus relating identity, memory, and belonging.
Through narrative and embodied testimony, the project investigates how dance operates as a form of cultural continuity, exchange, and transformation. These stories stand, ‘As vital acts of transfer, transmitting social knowledge, memory, and a sense of identity’ (Hellier-Tonoco 2009:117). In this spirit, On the Move treats the interview encounter as an embodied ethnographic space, where memory is enacted through gesture, rhythm, and affect as much as through words.
The study contributes to contemporary ethnochoreological discussions on identity, heritage, and transmission by illuminating how nation and migration—both personal, physical, and cultural—functions and (re)shapes movement vocabularies and meanings. Ultimately, the project argues that dance serves as both map and memory of movement: an embodied archive through which people negotiate place, space, and continuity within a nation in motion.
Meet the presenter
About the presenter
Dr Deborah Williams
Deborah Williams is Senior Lecturer in Dance Studies at the University of Malta. She holds a BA in Dance with a focus on education and community partnerships from Five College Dance Department at Smith College, USA. From the University of Roehampton, London, Deborah received both an MA in Dance Anthropology and a PhD in Dance. Her research is rooted in the fields of dance anthropology, ethnography, and oral history, and centres around highlighting the voices of non-professional dancers. Research areas include dance/movement within digital game design, and investigating dance, social value, and representation.