Towards Documentary Choreography
Intermedial Approaches When Working with Extra-Aesthetic Materials
Arkadi Zaides’ doctoral research project 'Towards Documentary Choreography – Intermedial Approaches when Working with Extra-Aesthetic Materials' explored how choreography might respond to today’s societal urgencies and topical issues. It developed a documentary approach to dance and embodied practices, where, unlike in theatre, film, or the visual arts, the use of historical facts and documentary sources is only now beginning to emerge. More specifically, it examined how, through various formats, documents can be reimagined choreographically to reveal divergent, and at times conflicting, ways of engaging with society and the arts—particularly in times of crisis.
The research unfolds through three major projects: 'Necropolis', 'Necropolis-United' (later updated to Shu-Ha-Da), and 'The Cloud', each exemplifying distinct strategies of societal engagement and intermedial experimentation. Necropolis confronts the deadly consequences of migration through choreographic and cartographic protocols that trace grave locations of people dying on migration routes while cooperating with communities and institutions to bring dignity to these dead. This work extends into 'Necropolis-United: Integrated Data-Platform of Dead and Missing Migrants in Europe' (I005522N, 2022–2026), an interdisciplinary project supported by the Research Foundation—Flanders (FWO). Under its updated title 'Shu-Ha-Da', this project convenes artists, scholars, technologists, and activists in the collaborative construction of commemorative information systems honoring dead migrant people and questioning the dissemination of sensitive data in an ethical and sustainable way. 'The Cloud' expands the migration topic to environmental terrains, investigating the pervasive algorithmic “cloud” of Artificial Intelligence within the context of ecological crisis, focusing specifically on the Chernobyl catastrophe, and exploring the entanglement of human and non-human actors as well as material and immaterial infrastructures.
Supervisors: Prof. Dr. Timmy De Laet (supervisor, University of Antwerp); Dr. Jelena Jureša (supervisor, KASK & Conservatorium, HOGENT - Howest); Annouk Van Moorsel (supervisor, Royal Conservatoire Antwerp); Prof. Dr. Christel Stalpaert (supervisor, Ghent University)
Image: The Cloud (2024) by Arkadi Zaides, photo: Giuseppe Follacchio, courtesy: Orbita | Spellbound
Update: November 2025
