Dance, Architecture, and Engineering

This book was born out of my Theatrum Mundi Fellowship. I undertook activity in the form of exchanges of movement ideas generated in cross-practice conversations and workshops with dancers, musicians, architects, and engineers. Events took place at key cultural institutions such as the Royal Academy of Arts, London, and The Lowry, Salford, as well as on-site at architectural firms and on the streets of London. I engage with dance’s offer of perspectives on being in place: how the ‘ordinary person’ is facilitated in experiencing the ‘dance’ of the city, while also looking at shared interdisciplinary questions and (spatial practices) understandings in and about the body, weight, and rhythm. I prioritize discussing how embodied knowledges across dance, architecture, and engineering can contribute to decolonizing the production of place – in particular, how dance and city-making cultures engage with female bodies and non-white bodies in the era of #MeToo and #BlackLivesMatter. I conclude the book with four in response conversations about ideas raised in the book with Urban Designer John Bingham-Hall, choreographer Liz Lerman, choreographer Dianne McIntyer, and sociologist Richard Sennett. The book aims to be a resource for those drawn to spatial practices from dance to design to construction.
Link to publisher – In Conversation Series, Society for Dance Research
“This book’s graceful articulation and detail enriches our understanding of dance. Akinleye’s curiosity, expertise and sensibilities as a dancer and choreographer flow through her writing. I love the different tones of theory, experiential, description, and conversation that she uses to paint a portrait of the making process. A fascinating and inspiring read.”
– Rosemary Lee, choreographer
“This brilliant book brings together seemingly unconnected subjects, and conducts an exciting exploration of how our bodies experience movement and space in these contrasting contexts. It has made me think deeply about my own person and how I interact on a micro and macro scale with the world around me.”
Roma Agrawal MBE,
Engineer and Author of BUILT
Related to this publication:
Embodied, Built, and Fluid: Review of Dance, Architecture, and Engineering (2023)
Review of the book in The Architectural Theory Review 2023 Vol 27, No 2 317-319
MIT Summer Reading list 2021
Dance, Architecture and Engineering (dance in Dialogue) selected for the MIT Summer Reading list
Morning Conversations at MIT podcast series
This set of eight podcasts were created as part of my residency at MIT. They can introduce or accompany the book as we discuss ideas introduced in the book with inspirational artists and scholars across a range of practices.
Black Females in Architects (BFA) DANCE DIALOGUES
Instagram Live conversations hosted by choreographer and artist-scholar Dr Adesola Akinleye with BFA Members. Topics include using movement as a Black woman to claim space or express yourself, being in transit, making Black spaces or decolonial spaces and more!