Univ.-Ass. Dr. Miriam Althammer
University Associate (Postdoc)
Universität Salzburg, Unipark Nonntal
Raum 2.128, Erzabt-Klotz-Straße 1, 5020 Salzburg
Tel.: +43 662 8044 – 4665
E-Mail:
Research Interests
- Transnational Dance History and Historiography with a focus on Central, Eastern and Southeastern Europe
- Archive as Practice, (P)-Re-Enactments and Oral History: critical memory culture and canon formation
- Circulations of Bodily Knowledge: mobility, cultural entanglements and epistemologies
- Artistic Research, Embodied Knowledge and Eco-Somatics
- Body Politics and Gender in dance, performance and modern body cultures
- Notation, Scores and (Digital) Documentation of dance and performance
Academic Functions
- Core Member, International Forum for Eco‑Embodied Arts ( IFEEA): Member of the international stewardship and research team; contributing to the development of transdisciplinary approaches to somatic practices, artistic research, and ecologically oriented body- and knowledge practices.
- Network Convenor, CEEPUS network Arts in Motion: Coordinating the transnational academic network dedicated to the advancement of teaching, research, and student mobility in the fields of dance and performance, with a particular focus on the intersection of practice and theory.
- Editorial Board Member, Dance Context Journal
- Co-editor of the journal Tanz&Archiv: ForschungsReisen
- General Secretary of the Association of Friends of the Derra de Moroda Dance Archives and Dance Studies/Salzburg
Doctoral Supervision
- Feng Liu: Claiming Identity Through Dance: A Comparative Study of Northern Chinese Shamanism and Central European Witchcraft Practices, Dance, and Rituals (the First Half of the 20th Century), Doctoral dissertation, University of Salzburg | Co-supervisor
- Christine Pichler: Hidden Variable. Embodied Archives: Historical and Artistic Research into the Rhythmus- und Tanzbewegung of the 1930s, Doctoral Programme Science and Art, Mozarteum University Salzburg | Co-supervisor
Biography
Miriam Althammer is a dance and performance studies scholar, author, and curator. Since 2023, she has been conducting research and teaching as a University Assistant (Postdoc) in the Department of Music and Dance Studies. She studied Theatre and Dance Studies, Art History, and Modern German Literature in Munich and Bern and completed the postgraduate programme Curating in the Performing Arts in Berlin and Salzburg. She previously worked as a research associate at the Chair of Theatre Studies at the University of Bayreuth and at the Centre for Contemporary Dance at the University of Music and Dance Cologne. For many years, she also taught at the Dance Theatre Institute in Bytom, part of the Theatre Academy in Kraków, at the Academy of Dance and Performance of the National Dance Center in Bucharest, the Academy of Performing Arts in Bratislava, and the Frankfurt University of Music and Performing Arts. In both her teaching and research, she combines historiographical and epistemological approaches with artistic practice and embodied methodologies.
At the core of her research is the question of how dance history can be written and canonised when its subject persists primarily through ephemeral bodily, movement and everyday practices. Taking Central, Eastern and Southeastern Europe as a point of departure, she approaches dance history as transnational and entangled history, tracing the circulation of bodily knowledge, practices and aesthetic concepts across political and geographical borders. Her work critically examines Western-centred genealogies of modern dance while addressing historiographical absences and the conditions under which bodily knowledge is produced. Her doctoral dissertation, Szenarien des Übergangs (Rombach Wissenschaft, 2024), examined the transformations of contemporary dance in post-socialist Southeastern Europe. Drawing on approximately fifty oral history interviews, she analysed how artistic works reflect how oral history functions simultaneously as a historical source and a critical performative method.
Building on this research, her habilitation project BODY MAPS examines the transnational circulation of bodily knowledge and of dance, life-reform and gymnastics practices since the early twentieth century. It examines how concepts of the body were transformed through migration, political ruptures and changing cultural contexts, tracing biographies and networks across Central and Southeastern Europe. Of particular interest to her are the histories of collections and objects. Through the biographies of female modern dancers and educators, she investigates how ideas of health, gender, and the environment became inscribed in bodies. A further focus of her work lies in critical approaches to archives and in connecting historiographical questions with contemporary debates on ecology, somatics, and care.
Alongside her academic work, she contributes to projects through curatorial and artistic research, including Performing the Memories | Unearthing Histories | Scoring Transtemporalities, developed as part of SCORES – Zwischen Dokumentation, Vermittlung und Kreation, 2021-2023, and RELIEF, 2026–2027. She has worked as a journalist for publications including the Süddeutsche Zeitung, tanz magazine, and Münchner Feuilleton, and as a blogger for various festivals and theatres. She was also a member of the editorial team of the online magazine tanznetz.de for fifteen years. Since 2018, she has served on the jury for independent dance artists at the Department of Arts and Culture of the City of Munich. Most recently, she co-organised the Society for Dance Research’s symposium (In-)Visibilities – Moderner Tanz Re-Visited, held at Folkwang University of the Arts in Essen in 2024. She is currently undertaking training in Breathwork and Somatic Experiencing.
Publications | Lectures | Artistic-Curatorial Activities Pure
Practice-based teaching formats and mediation
- Becoming Warriors. Female warrior figures in the context of artificial intelligence, embodiment and practice-led research (in collaboration with Fernanda Ermelindo, Lea Karnutsch and Anna Menslin) | Winter term 2024/2025
- The Basement Dances of Hilde Holger – Past/Present/Future (in collaboration with Claudia Kappenberg and Thomas Kampe) | Summer term 2025
- Blog on the Choreographic Platform Austria (CPA) – in collaboration with SZENE Salzburg and tanznetz.de | Winter term 2025/2026
- Metamodern Bodies and Virtual Sculptures. Dance between Imagination and Transformation (in collaboration with Hannah Schillinger) | Summer term 2026
- Inventing Rituals (in collaboration with Solène Weinachter and SOMMERSZENE Salzburg) | Summer term 2026
- on MIMETIC bodies (in collaboration with Lena Grossmann) | Winter term 2026/2027
- Performing the Memories – Oral History Project with movement research | in collaboration with Prof. Vera Sander | Centre for Contemporary Dance Cologne, Frankfurt University of Music and Performing Arts and National Dance Centre Bucharest
- Inside the field – a series of conversations with experts from the arts and culture scene (Natalie Broschat | dramaturg and curator at Theater Heidelberg, Julia Schwarzbach | choreographer and dance educator at SZENE Salzburg, Richard Siegal | choreographer and artistic director of Ballet of Difference at the Staatstheater Nürnberg)
Memberships
- Elite Network of Bavaria
- GTF – Society for Dance Research (member of the working group Modern Dance)
- DSA – Dance Studies Association
- GTW – Society for Theatre Studies (member of the working group Archives)
- IFTR – International Federation for Theatre Research (member of the working group Embodied Research)
- GKFD – Society for Artistic Research
- SIBMAS – International Association of Libraries, Museums, Archives and Documentation Centres of the Performing Arts
Awards and Scholarships
- Scholarship holder of the Max Weber Programme of the Free State of Bavaria for the promotion of highly gifted students according to the Bavarian Elite Promotion Act (2009-2012)
- Grant from the program of the Department of Art Studies (2012–2013)
- Marie Andeßner Scholarship of the gend-up programme of the University of Salzburg (2015-2016)
- Graduate Student Travel Award of the Dance Studies Association (2018)
- Mentee in the career development programme of the Universities of Linz, Salzburg, and Krems (2024-2025)
- Nomination for the Excellence in Teaching Award from the University of Salzburg (2025)
