Contributing to The dance anthropology research project:

“Waters and Embodied Connection in Southern England”

Hello! This page gives you information about participating in a graduate research project where the purpose is to document, analyze and interpret movement and dance practices from all over the world. Below you’ll find information about this project’s purpose and your participation.

Purpose of the project
Choreomundus (choreomundus.org) is a graduate program that focuses on fieldwork, documentation, and formal analysis of movement, and engages with a variety of theoretical and methodological frameworks. Each student implements her own fieldwork project in this MA. The aim of the fieldwork is to collect material for a Master's thesis.

About the Student/Researcher
Stephanie Ellison is a Pilates and movement educator of twenty-three years who embodies her belief in interdisciplinary approaches. She is a graduate of Illinois State University with a degree in Mass Communications and concentrations in Japanese and political science. She is a student of the Choreomundus International Master’s in Dance Knowledge, Practice, and Heritage, and is interested in rhythms, both the everyday and the extraordinary, that foster healing and transformation, and connection to the environment.

About this project
This project, Waters and Embodied Connection in Southern England, considers how we move and what is perceived in the body when relating to and connecting with the natural environment in local landscapes and communities. More specifically this project researches movement practices, such as ritual, dance, and everyday activities, in site-specific relationships with holy wells, sacred springs, and other bodies of water. This is a multi-sited fieldwork project that takes place in several locations throughout the South of Great Britain.

Research of embodied practices is conducted through the collection of materials in observation, interviews, photos, video and sound recordings, and questionnaires. Kinesthetic analysis of movement will also be employed, which considers how movements are executed both in the body and within a particular context. The fieldwork will take place during the spring and summer of 2022, at both events and celebrations and in everyday interactions with these sites. 

Questions to be explored include: Through dance, ritual, and everyday activities, what is the embodied experience of connection? How do bodies and sensorial experiences connect people within a culture to themselves, to a place, and to a greater collective? What is the reciprocal exchange that takes place between inhabitants and the local landscape both on an individual and community level? 

The goal of this project is to better comprehend means of physical, sensory knowing, and embodied connection with the environment within specific locations and resources.  Deeper phenomenological understanding could lead to modern applications in environmental and embodied education and in concepts surrounding intangible cultural heritage.

Who is responsible for the research project?

Norwegian University of Science and Technology is the institution responsible for the project.

Choreomundus is Erasmus Mundus Joint Master Degree (EMJMD). It investigates dance and other movement systems (ritual practices, martial arts, games and physical theatre) as Intangible Cultural Heritage within the broader contexts of Ethnochoreology, the Anthropology of Dance, Dance Studies, and Heritage Studies.

The program is offered by a consortium of four universities internationally recognized for their leadership in the development of innovative curricula for the analysis of dance and other movement practices: University of Clermont Auvergne (UCA, coordinator), Clermont-Ferrand, France; Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU), Trondheim, Norway; University of Szeged (SZTE), Hungary; University of Roehampton, London (RU), United Kingdom.

Why are you being asked to participate?

You have been asked to join this project because you are participating in activities connected with these particular water sites.

What does participation involve for you?

For this research, information about your background relating to the project might be collected through commonly used methods for anthropological research and data collection. In this case, it includes observation, interviews, photography, video and sound recording, and a paper-based and complimentary online version of a survey. Only one person, the graduate student herself, will be involved in this project.

The background collected might include information regarding your connection to the local area and community, movement, dance, and other activities related to the water sites and environment. As this research considers embodied knowledge around ritual and religious activities and environmental issues, religious background, philosophical ideas, political opinions, and other ideological backgrounds might be collected as well. Video and sound recording, and

photography of special events and everyday activities in conjunction with the water sites will be collected. Interviews are a key component of the research data and might also be recorded by video, sound, and photography. Observation will also be employed. And finally, a brief in-person paper survey and a complimentary online questionnaire will be used in gathering information about movement practices related to the environment.

Participation is voluntary

Your participation in this project is 100% voluntary. If you chose to participate, you can withdraw your consent at any time without giving a reason. All information about you will be made anonymous. There are no negative consequences for you if you chose not to participate or later decide to withdraw.

Your privacy – how we will store and use your personal data

We only use your personal data for this movement research project, as specified in this letter. Norway has strict data protection laws and we process your personal information confidentially and in accordance with data protection legislation (the General Data Protection Regulation and Personal Data Act). Only the project supervisor, the Choreomundus students, and the staff of the archive managed by the Norwegian centre for traditional music and dance will have access to the personal data. We will store the list of names and contact details separately from the rest of the collected data such as interviews, sound, and video recordings on a research server, locked in a room. Your personal data will be processed in OneDrive cloud according to the agreement between Microsoft and NTNU. A participant of the project will not be recognizable in publications unless the participant gives explicit consent and specifies what type of personal information might be published.

What will happen to your personal data at the end of the research project?

The project is scheduled to end on 31 December 2024. At the end of the project, all of your data will be deleted from the servers.

Your rights to your data

So long as you can be identified in the collected data, you have the right to:

  • -  access the personal data that is being processed about you

  • -  request that your personal data is deleted

  • -  request that incorrect personal data about you is corrected/rectified

  • -  receive a copy of your personal data (data portability), and

  • -  send a complaint to the Data Protection Officer or The Norwegian Data Protection Authority regarding the processing of your personal data

    What gives us the right to process your personal data?

    Only you can. We will process your personal data based on your consent.
    Based on an agreement with the Norwegian University of Science and Technology, NSD – The Norwegian Centre for Research Data AS has assessed that the processing of personal data in this project is in accordance with data protection legislation.

Where can I find out more?

If you have questions about the project or want to exercise your rights, contact:

●  Norwegian University of Science and Technology via the project supervisor Prof. Dr. Gediminas Karoblis: gediminas.karoblis@ntnu.no.

●  Our Data Protection Officer: Thomas Helgesen thomas.helgesen@ntnu.no

●  NSD – The Norwegian Centre for Research Data AS, by email: personverntjenester@nsd.no or by telephone: +47 55 58 21 17.

●  The Norwegian Centre for Traditional Music and Dance: postmottak@fmfd.no.

Yours sincerely,

Stephanie L. Ellison

Project supervisor Prof. Dr. Gediminas Karoblis

(electronically signed)

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Please consider giving your consent to all or one of the following:

I have received and understood information about the project “Choreomundus fieldwork 2022 – Waters and Embodied Connection in Southern England”, and have been given the opportunity to ask questions. I give consent:

  • ◻  to participate in an interview

  • ◻  to participate in a video and sound recording

  • ◻  to particpate in photography

  • ◻  to participate in a survey, either online or paper.

  • ◻  for my personal data to be stored until the end of the project

    I give consent for my personal data to be processed until the end date of the project, approx. 31, December 2024.

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THANK YOU FOR YOUR PARTICIPATION!