About PA:PER

Issue 2: Intersections

This second issue looks at “intersections” within/beyond performing arts disciplines and asks how practitioners and scholars explore and experiment with ideas and frameworks of intersections within their practice, teaching, and research. Cambridge Dictionary defines intersection[s] as “a point where two things come together and have an [affect] on each other”1. It further explains that if two things intersect, they are connected and influence each other, usually by having some of the same parts, features, etc.2, while the term “intersectionality” was coined in 1989 by Professor Kimberlé Crenshaw to describe how race, class, gender, and other individual characteristics intersect with one another and overlap. As a historic intersection between “East” and “West”, Hong Kong provides a point of reference to the encounters of/with cross-ing(s) and meet-ing(s) of multiplicities of cultures that simultaneously interact and overlap. But what are the perimeters of encounters and how do these spaces of encounters occur and being addressed within performing arts disciplines?

There is a long history of intersections within and at the edges of the practices of the performing arts, and artists have explored intersections as spaces of in-betweenness, the liminal, from shamanistic ritual performances to Wagnerian gesamtkunstwerk to contemporary cyborgean multimedia VR. These loci for exploration and cross-fertilisation have spurred changes both within and outside of the performing arts and simultaneously, provided spaces for understanding how these intersections converge and impact individuals and groups.

“Intersections” reflect how artists, scholars, practitioner-researchers, and educators exist within the spaces of meet-ing(s) and cross-ing(s) and the fruition of these encounters. This issue acknowledges that everyone has their own unique experiences; thus, this call invites contributions that explore how the production of performance, teaching, and research can examine and articulate the cross-ing(s) of, over, within, and beyond the performing arts, spawning developments across teaching, learning, research, and practice.

This issue aims to offer a broader practical, aesthetic, historical, and theoretical outlet to those interested in recent developments in performing arts cross-ing(s) national and disciplinary boundaries. We invite submissions that respond to thinking, doing, and writing around the theme of “intersections”, reflecting on practices, research, performing arts education, practices of dramaturgy, interdisciplinarity, transcultural and intersectional approaches, and digitalisation of communication in performing arts.

Issue 1 :  Innovation in performance, education and research in the performing arts

Editorial 

Innovation in performance, education and research in the performing arts is our first issue, showcasing our faculty, collaborators, and students' research in performing arts. This first issue traces a line of enquiry from training through to the creation and performance of works. It provides a snapshot of the recent period within the Academy capturing the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic and cultural zeitgeist, including gender, mental health, and the increasing importance of technology within the arts. Given the location of the Academy, a space in which East meets West, the papers also reflect the interests of practitioners from diverse cultural practices. One of the current trends affecting the performing arts is using scientific approaches and new technology to examine what performing artists do and then applying the findings to improve training.   We hope that by presenting the papers in this first issue, we can broaden the discourse around practice-as-research and articulate new questions surrounding the practice of performing arts. Reflecting on how we as educators, researchers, practitioners and industry partners might further contribute to the field. The Editorial Team.