Diane Oatley
poet
Diane Oatley
Expressions of the body represent an ongoing focus in Oatley's dance practice and writings, the latter in the form of essays, criticism and poetry published in a wide range of newspapers, periodicals and anthologies in Norway, USA and Great Britain. Recent projects take this focus into the theme of cultural hybridity, in explorations through poetry, dance and other visual media of boundaries and migrations between artistic genres, cultures and identities.
She began working in a cross-disciplinary fashion immediately subsequent to the completion of her studies – applying feminist literary theory on the body and writing to dance and the performing arts. She began writing texts, experimenting with voices and exploring the boundaries between literary and performance genres, sound vs. sense, body vs. mind, movement vs. language. In conjunction with this work Ms. Oatley developed a dance practice within the field of Oriental (Middle Eastern/North African) Dance, based on the need to ground dance and movement theory in practice in such a way as to allow practice to reveal unexpected theoretic openings and connections. This coupling has been of enormous significance to the ongoing development of her academic work.
Current projects involve continued explorations and writings on the influences and practice of Oriental Dance, studies in Flamenco in Jerez de la Frontera, and performance works combining own text with own movement.
Website links:
“Fragments of a Body in Movement”
Diane Oatly