Heike Roms, Jon McKenzie and C.J. W.-L. Wee in their introduction to Contesting Performance – global sites of research are questioning the “’nested’ structure of the imperialism of performance studies”, the “combined American and British dominance of the field: ‘US/UK PS’”, but also the “West-Rest or center-periphery set of binary oppositions”. Their conclusion seems worth to be considered: “… the concerns of performance research scholars working around the world are not inevitably focused on disputing the global center’s hegemonic status. (…) the goal may be less to eliminate these binaries than to multiply and complicate them in order to reveal a more complex analytic field.”

Are we – the PSi – ready to ask ourselves whether the lower case “i” in “PS inter-national” has also served as an alibi that was helping the PSi to avoid more strict questioning of its “West” in relation to the “decapitalized” – “rest”?

PSi Board of Directors is taking efforts to make PSi geography more diverse, whether by moving its annual conferences to the new regions or by supporting initiatives for regional research clusters. The International Committee is a place where all PSi members and conference delegates are welcomed to share their ideas with respect to the further internationalization of PSi and address them to the Board.

By convening this year’s HOW PSi THINKS? event the International Committee would like to restore discussions on the inter- as well as intra- and trans- national or cultural dynamics in PSi.

Heike Roms, Jon McKenzie and C.J. W.-L. Wee in their introduction to Contesting Performance – global sites of research are questioning the “’nested’ structure of the imperialism of performance studies”, the “combined American and British dominance of the field: ‘US/UK PS’”, but also the “West-Rest or center-periphery set of binary oppositions”. Their conclusion seems worth to be considered: “… the concerns of performance research scholars working around the world are not inevitably focused on disputing the global center’s hegemonic status. (…) the goal may be less to eliminate these binaries than to multiply and complicate them in order to reveal a more complex analytic field.”

Are we – the PSi – ready to ask ourselves whether the lower case “i” in “PS inter-national” has also served as an alibi that was helping the PSi to avoid more strict questioning of its “West” in relation to the “decapitalized” – “rest”?

PSi Board of Directors is taking efforts to make PSi geography more diverse, whether by moving its annual conferences to the new regions or by supporting initiatives for regional research clusters. The International Committee is a place where all PSi members and conference delegates are welcomed to share their ideas with respect to the further internationalization of PSi and address them to the Board.

Alterity compels Asian artists to negotiate whiteness as praxis, and as theories of performance.  However, even as our writings valorize resistance and interventions in performance, are our writings in fact controlling channels of access?[i] Is the dancer-as-subaltern[ii] always to be the data that validates western theory and theorizing–regardless of the origin and commitments of the writer? How may she, or he, the other, redefine herself, to whom, and still be heard?

This paper attends to the discomforts of participant-observation with conceptual consturctins of performance; to the discomforts produced by dichotomous gazes on bodies that must perform nationality; to the performance of pluralities of Asianness from within the glass walls of the hothouse located in Euro-American dance discourse. I propose it is necessary to re-consider theories of performance as an interrogation of tacit knowledge and [iii] the way that tacit knowledge informs cultural identity as in the example of the epistemologies of perception of say the Natya Shastra discourses. This paper asks how do we write non-violently so that identities can travel amidst moving spaces, cultural, personal, theoretical, performative spaces.

[ii] The dancers of whom I speak in this paper, are not strictly subalterns. However, the point of this essay is to show that othering structures of knowledge limit the agency of the Asian dancer.  See Spivak, Gayatri Chakravorty. ” Can the Subaltern Speak?” in Marxism and the Interpretation of Culture. Eds. Cary Nelson and Lawrence Grossberg. Urbana, IL: University of Illinois Press, 1988: 271-313.

[iii] This is not to valorize culturally significant groups as  either “pure” and uninflected by the pervasive influence of  technologies, or wholly resistant to dominant discourses.   See Escobar, Arturo, 1992. 12;

We strongly recommend booking your accommodations well in advance of the conference due to high demand. June is the height of Toronto’s tourist season, and the conference is being held during a popular international festival, so hotels will fill up quickly. A number of good hotel options in Toronto are listed on the PSi 16 website.

The booking deadline for accommodations at the Sheraton Centre Toronto is April 23, 2010.

We have put aside a limited number of rooms at discounted rates for conference participants. We strongly recommend booking your accommodations well in advance of the conference due to high demand. June is the height of Toronto’s tourist season, and the conference is being held during a popular international festival, so hotels will fill up quickly.

Information about discounted hotel rates for conference participants can be found at our website at: http://psi16.com/travel/accommodations/

Tickets for evening performances at Buddies in Bad Times Theatre are available for purchase on the registration form. There are a limited number of tickets reserved for conference participants, so make sure to book when you register. Information about tickets for performances at the Luminato Festival will be available in the spring.

Who Can Apply?
The Dwight Conquergood Award will be given to an artist, an activist or an emerging academic conducting research or working on projects with disenfranchised communities. The award will be open to graduate students and early career researchers (three years since PhD) as well as to practitioners and community members themselves who might be working outside of educational or institutional structures. Only applicants who have already had their proposal for a presentation accepted by the organisers of the 2010 Psi#16 Conference are eligible to receive the award.

How to Apply?
Application for the DCA consists of a one page CV and a brief accompanying letter outlining your reasons for application and suitability for the award and the contact details of two referees.If the applicant is studying for a higher degree, please supply a letter from your supervisor about progress to date. If the applicant is a practitioner please supply a letter of support from someone who knows your previous work.
Applications for an award for 2010 should be sent to Joe Kelleher at: j.kelleher@roehampton.ac.uk

When to apply?
Deadline for applications is March 1, 2010. Any applications received after this date will not be considered.

What does the Award consist of?
If an airfare is involved, the award will only cover the cost of an economy airfare. Accommodation costs will be covered at a hotel to be agreed between the applicant and the board of PSi and only for the duration of the conference. The award covers the full cost of registration.