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  3. Dr Kathrina Farrugia-Kriel

Dr Kathrina Farrugia-Kriel

Head of Research and Lead Academic Integrity Officer (Maternity Leave January-August 2019)

t: 020 7328 8078
e: kfarrugia-kriel@rad.org.uk

 

Qualifications

LRAD, BA (Hons), MA (Distinction), PhD

Background

I am a graduate of the Royal Academy of Dance, the Universities of Durham and Surrey and more recently London Metropolitan University, with a BA (Hons) Art and Teaching of Ballet (RAD/University of Durham), Masters in Dance Studies with Distinction (University of Surrey, 2005) and a doctoral thesis (PhD 2012). Following my Graduate Teaching Assistantship at the University of Surrey (2004-2005), I took up the position of Lecturer in Dance Studies at the Faculty of Education. Alongside my doctoral academic studies, I set up a dance company, three-fortyone dances in August 2003, touring fringe festivals of Edinburgh (2004) and Brighton (2007) as well as other European venues (2005, 2006). As a Senior Lecturer, I have also guest lectured at the University of Cape Town, Rhodes University (South Africa) and at the Dance Department at the University of Malta.

I am currently the External Examiner for the University of Winchester’s BA Choreography and Dance (2015-2019). I have examined PhD theses for the University of Melbourne and postgraduate dissertations for the University of Cape Town.

Teaching

  • BA (Hons) Dance Education (tutor)
  • BA (Hons) Ballet Education (tutor)
  • MA in Education (Dance Teaching) (tutor)

Research interests and projects

Transmodern dance practices: my doctoral thesis defined transmodernism in dance through analysing work by Angelin Preljocaj and Mauro Bigonzetti as well as their revisions of Les Noces (1923).

Contemporary Ballet: I am currently working with Dr Jill Nunes Jensen (Loyola Marymount University, Los Angeles) on a series of publications including editing Conversations Across the Field of Dance Studies (Published in 2015), a conference on contemporary ballet in New York City (May 2016) and a forthcoming anthology on contemporary ballet in the 21st century.
Lives of Otherness and balletic pedagogies: Since 2013, I have undertaken a series of research projects on the South African ballerina Yvonne Mounsey (1919 – 2012), Russian émigré Natalie Poutiatine (1904 – 1984) and more recently I have begun research on Keith Lester (1904 – 1993).

As part of the Poutiatine Project (2014-2019), I have created a blog that outlines information on the project, updates on the various stages of the project as well as the research outputs, including articles, conference papers and the forthcoming book.

Professional activities

Membership:

  • Co-Supervisor (second supervisor): PhD Candidate Fiona Wallis (University of Chichester)
  • Society of Dance History Scholars
  • European Association of Dance Historians
  • Dance Research Forum Ireland
  • National College for Teaching and Leadership

Selected Service to the Scholarly Community:

  • RAD conferences: London (2009), Sydney (2016), Brisbane (2018).
  • 2016-2017: Member of the Performing Historiographies working group at the School of Performing Arts (University of Malta)
  • 2012-2018 Board Member of the Executive Board of Directors of the Society of Dance History Scholars (now the Dance Studies Association)
  • 2018: Member of the Local Arrangements Committee (Malta 2018 conference)
  • 2016: Co-chair of the Special Topics Conference on Contemporary Ballet
  • 2015: Chair of the Selma Jean Cohen Graduate Writing Award Committee
  • 2013: Society of Dance History Scholars, Graduate Student Travel Grant Committee.
  • 2007-2012: Board Member of the European Association of Dance Historians, including service on committees of conferences: EADH London (2011) and EADH Paris (2012)

Research supervision

  • Approaches to analysing dance
  • Global forms of ballet (performance) histories (20th and 21st century)
  • Choreographic revisions and genre & style analyses
  • Ballet/choreography education and training
  • Dance, Education and Cultural Studies
  • Dance in Higher Education (UK, North America, Australia, South Africa)

Publications

Farrugia-Kriel, Kathrina and Jill Nunes Jensen, editors. The Oxford Handbook of Contemporary Ballet. London, New York: Oxford University Press (due in 2020).

Farrugia-Kriel, Kathrina. Princess Nathalie Poutiatine and the Art of Ballet in Malta, Valletta: Fondazzjoni Patrimonju Malti (Spring 2019).

Farrugia-Kriel, Kathrina. ‘Dancing her death: Dada Masilo’s The Bitter End of Rosemary (2011) as a South African contemporary rethinking of Hamlet’s Ophelia’. The Oxford Handbook of Shakespeare and Dance, editors Lynsey McCulloch and Brandon Shaw. Oxford University Press, (January 2020).

Farrugia-Kriel, Kathrina. ‘Waltzing Through a Golden Era of Ballet: Princess Nathalie Poutiatine (1904 – 1984) and her Russian Ballet productions (1930 – 1939)’, Treasures of Malta, December 2018 (forthcoming).

Farrugia-Kriel, Kathrina. ‘Angelin Preljocaj’s Empty Moves (2014) and Transmodern Dance History’, Dance Chronicle, Vol 40. Issue 1, 2017.

Farrugia-Kriel, Kathrina. ‘I used to dance down by the blue gum trees: On historiography, balletic otherness and global trajectories in retracing Yvonne Mounsey’s influences’. South African Dance Journal, Vol 3: 1-27. Print.

Conference presentations

2018
Presentation: ‘Contretemps: Ballet histories of Princess Nathalie Poutiatine (1904 – 1984) during Malta’s Self-Government abolition years (1933 – 1947)’ Dance Studies Association ‘Contra and Conflict’ (University of Malta, July 2018).

Presentation: ‘Dancing in the twilight of Empire: Princess Nathalie Poutiatine (1904 – 1984) and her ballet productions at the Royal Opera House in Valletta (1930-1939)’ SPA.

‘Performance and Culture’ 5th Annual Conference (University of Malta, March 2018):
Presentation: ‘(Re)Tracing the work of Princess Nathalie Poutiatine (1904 – 1984)’ RAD Brisbane Conference, Unravelling Repertoire: Histories, Pedagogies and Practices, January 2018.

Presentation: ‘Fragments of archives and forgotten ballets: (Re)Tracing the work of Princess Nathalie Poutiatine (1904 – 1984) in Malta in the 1930s’ DSA Transmissions and Traces: Rendering Dance, Ohio State University, October 2017.

2017
‘Fragments of archives and forgotten ballets: (Re)Tracing the work of Princess Natalie Poutiatine (1904 – 1984) in Malta in the 1930s’, Dance Studies Association Inaugural Conference, Ohio State University, November 2017.

‘Analysing performances, writing recent ballet histories: Insights into the choreographic cultures entwined into Mauro Bigonzetti’s contemporization of ballet in the 1990s. Annual Conference, University of Malta, March 2017.

2016
Paper: ‘Fragments of the past, buried amidst hidden archives: Insights into the diasporic connections of the Ballets Russes in the work of Princess Natalie Poutiatine (1904 – 1984) in 1930s Malta’. Society of Dance Research, Dance, Diaspora and the Role of the Archive, 17th September 2016.

Paper: ‘Theorizing contemporary ballet in a transmodern generation:
Insights into recent choreographic histories through an analysis of Cinderella (2015) by Mauro Bigonzetti’. University of Malta, March 2016.

2015
Organised Roundtable at the SDHS/CORD Joint Conference Dance and Austerity, Athens June 2015 (Presenters: Dr Ann Nugent, Julia Gleich and Dr Kathrina Farrugia-Kriel)

2014
‘DANCING/WRITING transmodernism:
Toward a theorisation of new choreographic histories through an analysis of Annonçiation (1994) by Angelin Preljocaj’. Conference paper at the Society of Dance History Scholars, University of Iowa, November 2014.

2013
Organised Panel at the SDHS/University of California (Riverside) conference Decentring Dance Studies: Moving in New Global Orders, California November 2013 (Presenters: Dr Farrugia, Dr Jill NunesJensen and Ms Samantha Parsons).

‘Angelin Preljocaj, transmodern dance practices and the impACT of writing recent dance histories’. Conference paper at the Society of Dance History Scholars, Trondheim Norway, June 2013.

2012
‘Dancing through the archives in Reggio Emilia: tracing the heritage of Aterballetto and William Forsythe within the Teatro Romolo Valli Archives’. Conference paper at the Society of Dance History Scholars, University of the Arts, Philadephia, June 2012.

2011
‘Transmodern Dance Practices: Transgressing across genre boundaries, and revisionist (dis)placement in Romeo and Juliet (Bigonzetti, 2006)’. Conference paper at Dance and Cinema Conference, European Association of Dance Historians, October 2011.

‘Crossing boundaries, negotiating physicalities: Tracing transnational and transcultural performance heritage in Haka (Preljocaj, 2007)’. Conference paper at Confluences 6, University of Cape Town, South Africa, July 2011.

‘Caravaggio, creative catalysts and choreographic dramaturgy: Reading performativity and theatricality in Mauro Bigonzetti’s Caravaggio (2008)’. Conference paper at the Society for Dance History Scholars, York University Toronto, Canada, June 2011.

2010
‘Improvising a tendu or two: Insights into journeying across imaginary boundaries between improvisation, ballet and choreography’. Conference paper at the 3rd Dance Research Forum Ireland biannual conference, Firkan Crane Cork, June 2010.

2009
‘Journeying through South African landscapes: geography, festivals and dance in the Eastern Cape’. Paper in contribution to the Faculty of Education’s celebration of Black History Month, Royal Academy of Dance, 28 October.