Layla Zami · Dance and memory studies · transcript publishing, 2020 · English
How can movement remember? In Contemporary PerforMemory: Dancing through Spacetime, Historical Trauma, and Diaspora in the 21st Century, Layla Zami explores how contemporary choreographers engage with histories of violence and displacement while imagining different futures.
The book combines performance analysis, interviews, interdisciplinary scholarship, and personal storytelling. Its conversations include Oxana Chi and six other international artists, making room for distinct histories rather than a single account of diaspora.
Why we are reading it
For BGHRA readers, Zami’s work offers a way to think about memory beyond written records: through bodies, artistic practice, and encounters across generations. It is particularly relevant to readers interested in performance, archives, and the relationship between historical knowledge and lived experience.
BGHRA connection
Explore BGHRA’s page on Layla Zami and Oxana Chi for their artistic collaboration.
Find the book
Publisher and purchase information · ISBN 978-3-8376-5525-4.
Continue reading
Pair this book with Tina Campt’s Image Matters, which considers family photography and Black European belonging, and Lena Whooo’s un-fulfilled, a collection of poetry, prose, and drawings. Explore their separate spotlights in our reading collection.
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