Search for a command to run...
Although the premises and methods of artistic research have become a common subject of interdisciplinary debate over the past decade, these discussions remain underdeveloped in the field of contemporary dance, particularly in urban dance, both in Lithuania and internationally. This article examines the annual urban dance festival City as Body in Vilnius as a case study to unfold the constitutive elements of urban dance and demonstrate how they function as instruments of artistic research. Urban dance, as both an artistic and a social practice, is closely interwoven with urban social contexts and their transformations: historically, hip-hop culture (as the foundation of urban dance) emerged from the lived experience and expressive practices of social groups positioned at the margins of the city. Once relocated to new cultural and urban environments, hip-hop culture inevitably undergoes transformations: its thematic range, movement dynamics and meanings, relationship to music, and the selection of urban spaces all shift. By integrating elements of hip-hop culture into the performing arts and into learning environments, urban dance maintains a connection with street culture as its generative source – one to which it consistently returns (including through initiatives such as City as Body). Drawing on the artistic and social practice of urban dance, the article examines how urban dance becomes a mode of inquiry into the spatial and social dynamics of non-central districts. By treating the district as both a material environment and a lived, affective context, urban dance as artistic research reveals the micro-conditions, rhythms, and tensions that shape everyday urban life. Urban dance initiatives in districts lacking cultural functions create spaces where local community members, especially young people, can collectively articulate their identities, experiences, and aspirations through movement; in this way, dance becomes a practice of social justice. In the context of the urban dance festival, dance practices engage diverse social groups and mobilise peripheral districts as spaces where new interactions, creativity, and community ties can develop.