Science & Research

Department 7/ZZT is an interdisciplinary center for dance research, benefiting on the one hand from direct cooperation with the German Dance Archive Cologne and on the other hand from close links with the artistic degree programs. It therefore promotes both dance-historical research and decidedly praxeological approaches and theory-practice transfer in its degree programs and research projects. In addition to the master's program in dance studies, since 2009 it has also been the only institution in Germany to offer the possibility of a doctorate (Dr. phil.) in dance studies.

In doing so, a broad spectrum of research in terms of content and methodology is promoted. In FB 7/ZZT, dance studies is understood as a form of knowledge production that is researched interdisciplinarily and critically using cultural or social science methods. Research perspectives include body, media, science, postcolonial and institutional critical theories and aesthetics of dance as well as praxeological approaches and practice as research projects. The broad spectrum of methods leads, for example, from critical historiography and discourse analysis as well as methods of qualitative empirical social research to dance-immanent, semiotic, sociological, phenomenological and performative procedures for researching movement, dance and the body. Furthermore, the development of innovative and subject-related approaches is encouraged.

A critical and constructive feedback culture is one of the pioneering visions of dance studies in the FB7/ZZT, which is cultivated in the regular doctoral and research colloquia as well as conferences and workshops.

The research context in FB 7/ZZT also includes the Forschungskolleg Tanzwissenschaft, which since 2015 has provided an institutional and content-related connection for international researchers in cooperation with the Deutsches Tanzarchiv Köln, as well as individual (third-party funded) research projects of the teaching staff.