Sarma has a new mission as a discursive working place for criticism, dramaturgy & research in the field of dance and beyond.

English - Sarma is an artistic and discursive laboratory for criticism, dramaturgy and research in the field of dance and beyond. Sarma collects and organizes discursive practices. By compiling author based or thematically related text anthologies, published online on our website. But also by curating festivals, by providing dramaturgical assistance to performers, by organizing workshops, discussions, lectures, installations and research projects. Sarma is a breeding ground for artists and theoreticians to collaborate on shared problems and premises. Sarma aims for artistic work- and presentation formats that are inspiring to all.

NEDERLANDS - Sarma is een werkplaats voor kritiek, onderzoek, dramaturgie en creatie, aansluitend bij het veld van de hedendaagse dans en performance, maar met een grote openheid voor andere disciplines. Sarma verzamelt en organiseert discursieve praktijken. Enerzijds door het samenstellen en online publiceren van auteursanthologieën en/of thematische tekstcollecties. Anderzijds door op te treden als curator en door het faciliteren van performances, discussies, workshops, lezingen, installaties en onderzoeksprojecten. Sarma is een broedplaats waar kunstenaars en theoretici vanuit gedeelde vraagstellingen samenwerken.

History and former mission: Sarma as an online publication forum

One could call Sarma a database, an archive, a platform, but far and foremost Sarma is a project. Its aim is to collect texts that circulate in the discursive realms of pre-performance and post-performance. Its mission is to give these texts a new life by funneling them into new circuits of readership. To be an interface between writers and readers, to be a place of convergence rather than one of dispersion: such is the project of Sarma.

At the core of Sarma you will find Sarma-Reviews. This is a digital portal that leads to a group of about 17 professional dance critics from 11 countries. Each critic has through a password direct access to Sarma’s database, where he or she can deposit articles and reviews, whether old or freshly written. Thus Sarma is the driving editor behind the digital publication of at least 17 anthologies of criticism! This is a first.

The second portal, Sarma-Taz, highlights discourse that often eludes publication because it is wrapped up in the ephemerality of events. Included are lectures, workshop observations, transcripts of discussions, etc. The documents are listed under the name of the events of which they are a trace.

Both writings from Sarma-Reviews and documents from Sarma-Taz can be paged by the Search Form, a user’s friendly heuristic tool to search Sarma’s entire database. The Forum is open to your comments, questions, discussions, etc. Links offers links with a vast array of dance and performance related initiatives in the field of publishing and research.

Sarma was initiated in 2000 by Myriam Van Imschoot, a former Belgian dance critic and now a dance scholar, and Jeroen Peeters, a dance critic and a dramaturg. Caroline Derycke, Peter De Jonge, Lara Rogiers and Goran Proot have assisted them with the foundation of the structure. Today Peeters and Van Imschoot are Sarma’s editors and artistic direction, Kristien Van den Brande is Sarma’s daily coordinator.

Sarma is a project made possible by the generosity of the contributing writers as well as a large group of interns and volunteers: Marjolijn Barbier, Caroline Bauwens, Ariana Berendts, Marijke De Moor, Lieve Dierckx, Katelijne Goris, Sigrid Janssens, Eva Leemans, Karlien Meganck, Tom Janssens, Flore Opsomer, Marnix Rummens, Marie Schoovaerts, Emily Tepper, Erwin Van der Jeugt, Jessica Van der Sypt, Charlotte Vandevyver, Marlies Van Guyse, Vicky Van Keer, Wendy Van Peteghem, Frederik Verrote, Raf Vervecken and Staf Vos.

Financial help has come from a network of dance and art venues: Beursschouwburg, Vooruit, Dans in Kortrijk, wp Zimmer, Dans in Limburg, Kaaitheater, Klapstuk, Monty, Springdance. More information on these partners is available on the site Partners. Sarma welcomes other sponsors too so as to secure its future (please contact us - mail to contact.sarma@gmail.com). Since 2006, Sarma is supported by Kunst/Werk for a period of two years.

Sarma was launched in January 2003. This is just one moment in an ongoing process, for Sarma will keep on expanding and including more material so as to become an rhizomatic resource for dance discourse, a place where writers join their readers with respect of the polyphony of voices and opinions.