The ephemeral is one of the core characteristics of dance. Dance happens in space and time, in a limited encounter between dancers and audience. When the dance has been danced, it lives on in the memory of the body and mind of the choreographer, the dancers, and the audience. Videos, films, and notes attempt to capture the movement, but the movement itself, in that space and that time, is gone until it is danced again.

In this panel discussion choreographers, dancers, and the director of Sweden’s Cullberg Ballet discuss the preservation and transferal of dance, addressing such questions as: When does contemporary movement become a tradition? How are approaches and practices transferred from one generation to the next? How to we relate to the heritage and legacy of movement?