Stefanie Gabriele Sachsenmaier is Associate Professor in Contemporary Performance. She holds the roles of Research Degrees Co-ordinator for the Faculty of Arts and Creative Industries, Programme Leader of BA Theatre (Performance) and co-chairs the Faculty Ethics Committee.
Her research interests and publications relate to the processual in creative practice. Over ten years she worked closely with British choreographer Rosemary Butcher and has published a series of writings in this context. Further research areas include collaborative practices in performance-making including cross-cultural collaborations and the ways that performance practices extend into the socio-political context. Recent and forthcoming publications relate to solidarity practices and the politics of process in performance.
She forms part of the editorial team for Interventions (Contemporary Theatre Review) and sits on the editorial advisory board of Choreographic Practices Journal. At the Faculty of Creative Arts and Industries/Mdx University she co-facilitates the Politicised Artistic Practices Research Initiative. With a background as a performer, she is also an experienced tai chi practitioner and instructor.
Ongoing PhD supervision in the areas of cross-cultural performance practices, performance and politics, dance and digital technology, performance and martial arts, practice research. I welcome new research proposals in these areas - feel free to contact me via email!
Teaching specialisms include experimental practices, performer training, critical theory, performance and philosophy, performance and politics, performance across cultures, practice research.
List of Publications
Book publications
Sachsenmaier, Stefanie. Politics of Process in Performance [working title], London: Bloomsbury, forthcoming 2024 (under contract)
Edited books and journal issues
Colin, Noyale and Sachsenmaier, Stefanie (eds.), Performance Research ‘On Solidarity’, forthcoming 2023
Argyropoulou, Gigi and Sachsenmaier, Stefanie (eds). Critical Stages Special Issue: ‘Unstable Grounds: Reconfigurations of Performance and Politics’, 2021; URL: https://www.critical-stages.org/23/category/special-topic/
Colin, Noyale and Sachsenmaier, Stefanie (eds.), Collaboration in Performance Practice – Premises, Workings and Failures, Palgrave Macmillan, 2016, ISBN 978-1-137-46245-9
Ongoing co-editing of Contemporary Theatre Review: Interventions (since 2020), URL: https://www.contemporarytheatrereview.org/interventions/
Articles and chapters in edited collections
Sachsenmaier, Stefanie. ‘Retaining and Reframing: Notes on Processes of Remembering in Rosemary Butcher’s Choreography-Making’ in: Arntzen, Knut Ove and Keefe, John (eds.) Staging and Re-cycling: Retrieving, Reflecting and Re-framing the Archive, Advances in Theatre and Performance Studies Series, Routledge, 2020, ISBN 978-0-367-85939-8
Butcher, R. and Sachsenmaier, S. 'Rosemary Butcher: After Kaprow – A Visual Journey', in: Nick Kaye, Simon Jones, Johanna Linsley, and Paul Clarke (eds.) Artists in the Archive, Routledge 2018
'Silent Transformations in Choreography-Making over Time: Rosemary Butcher’s Practice of ‘Looking Back and Ahead’' in: Main, Lesley (ed.) Transmissions in Dance, Palgrave Macmillan, 2017
‘Productive misapprehensions– ArtsCross as a cross-cultural collaborative zone of contestation of dance practice’ in: Colin, Noyale and Sachsenmaier, Stefanie (eds.), Collaboration in Performance Practice – Premises, Workings and Failures, Palgrave Macmillan, 2016
‘Studio Mind, The Empty Place; Gary Wragg’s Approach to Painting: An Interview by Stefanie Sachsenmaier’ in: Constant Within The Change: Gary Wragg – Five Decades of Paintings: A Comprehensive Catalogue, Bristol: Sansom and Company, 2014, ISBN – 978-1-908326-55-3
Contribution to Laban Sourcebook, ed. Dick McCaw, Oxon: Routledge, 2011 - preface to and selection of excerpts from Laban's The World of the Dancer; translation (with Dick McCaw) of excerpts from four of Laban's published books: The World of the Dancer, Gymnastics and Dance for Children, Gymnastics and Dance, Choreography, ISBN – 10: 0415543320, ISBN-13: 978-0415543323
Journal articles
Sachsenmaier, Stefanie. ‘Solidarity in Performance: Considering Activist Processes in Neoliberal Times’, Performance Research, forthcoming 2023
Sachsenmaier, Stefanie. ‘‘Critical Pathways’ – Training and Investigating the Art of Choreography-Making with Rosemary Butcher’ in: Theatre, Dance and Performance Training Journal, 2021
Melrose, Susan with Sachsenmaier, Stefanie. ‘Writing 'Practice'/Practising 'Writing' (in the doctoral research context)’ in: Researching (in/as) Motion: A Resource Collection, e-publication by Artistic Doctorates in Europe, UniArts Helsinki, Nivel series - https://nivel.teak.fi/, 2019
‘Ways of Doing; Ways of Thinking; Ways of Moving Together: Considerations for Cross-Cultural Encounters and Exchanges in and through Dance Practice’, Choreographic Practices Journal, 2016
Melrose, S., Sachsenmaier, S. and Bucther, R. ‘Just in Time: Rosemary Butcher, Making Memories and Marks’, Performance Research Journal On An/Notations, 2015
‘Answer the Question: ‘How do you know when training is working?’’, Theatre, Dance and Performance Training, 2014 – edited interview by Dick McCaw 5:1, pp. 76-84, doi: 10.1080/19443927.2014.894384
‘Reinventing the Past: Rosemary Butcher encounters Allan Kaprow’s 18 Happenings in 6 Parts’, Choreographic Practices Journal, Vol. 4 No. 2, 2013, pp. 223-244, doi: 10.1386/chor.4.2.223_1
‘Beyond Allan Kaprow: An interview with Rosemary Butcher’, Journal of Dance & Somatic Practices 4: 2, pp. 267–281, doi: 10.1386/jdsp.4.2.267_1, 2012
”Vom Archiv zur Neuerfindung – Fragen zur künstlerischen Handschrift im kreativen Schaffensprozess zeitgenössischer Performance“ ["From the archive to a reinvention – questions on the artistic signature in the creative process of contemporary performance”], GTF-Jahrbuch 22 "Tanzerfahrung und Welterkenntnis", edited by Claudia Behrens, Helga Burkhard, Claudia Fleischle Braun & Krystyna Obermaier. Leipzig: Henschel-Verlag, 2012, ISBN-10: 3894877308, ISBN-13: 978-3894877309
Books reviews
Sachsenmaier, Stefanie. Susanne Foellmer, Maria Katharina Schmidt and Cornelia Schmitz (eds.), Performing Arts in Transition: Moving Between Media, Dance Research Journal, 2020
Sachsenmaier, Stefanie. Libby Worth with Jasmin Vardimon, Jasmin Vardimon's Dance Theatre: Movement, Memory and Metaphor, Dance Research Journal, Volume 35 Issue 2, Page 280-281, ISSN 0264-2875, 2017
Sachsenmaier, Stefanie. Petra Maria Meyer (ed.), Intuition, Munich: Wilhelm Fink: Theaterforschung.de: http://www.theaterforschung.de/rezension.php4?ID=1817, 2013
Conference contributions
Sachsenmaier, Stefanie. “Dance- and Performance-Making as Activist Practice: Creating Relational Subjectivities as a Form of Social Change”, Dance Studies Association, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, Canada (online), 2022
Sachsenmaier, Stefanie. “The Politics of Process in Performance-Making: Creating Solidary Subject Formations for Survival”, TAPRA, Colchester/Essex, UK, 2022
Sachsenmaier, Stefanie. “Performance, Process, Politics”, invited roundtable contribution “Collective Resistance”, Borderlines IX: Seeking Solidarity and Wonder Through Performance, A Dance, Drama and Performance Studies Research Institute Conference, De Montfort University, Leicester, UK (online), 2022
Sachsenmaier, Stefanie. “Solidarity in and through Performance Activism: Challenging the Neoliberal Subjectivity”, invited paper presentation, Borderlines IX: Seeking Solidarity and Wonder Through Performance, A Dance, Drama and Performance Studies Research Institute Conference, De Montfort University, Leicester, UK (online), 2022
Sachsenmaier, Stefanie. “Making Dance Otherwise”, SWEAT Hong Kong International Dance Festival, Hong Kong Academy of Performing Arts, China (online), 2022
Sachsenmaier, Stefanie. “Enacting Transformative Change: Solidarity Practices in and Through Performance”, Dance Studies Association, Rutgers University, New Brunswick, USA (online), 2021
Sachsenmaier, Stefanie. “Negotiating the Commons: Solidarity Practices in and through Collaboration”, Dance Studies Association, Northwestern University, Evanston, USA, 2019
Colin, Noyale and Sachsenmaier, Stefanie. “Performing Solidarity: The Politics of Collaboration in Performance Practice”, Dance and Somatic Practices Conference, Coventry University, 2019
Sachsenmaier, Stefanie. “Forming Solidarities Through Collaboration: Towards a Politics of Togetherness”, Invited roundtable contribution, Performance and the Body Working Group, TAPRA: Agonistic politics in performance: practices of difference, disagreement, and respect in theatre, dance, and sport, Brunel University, London, 2018
Glenz, Sabine, Heun, Walter, Niederbuchner, Andrea and Sachsenmaier, Stefanie. “What was she doing then? Ein Gespräch über Rosemary Butcher [A conversation about Rosemary Butcher]”, Invited roundtable contribution, ‘Housing the Temporary. Zugänge zur eigenen Geschichte [Approaches to one’s own history]’, International and Interdisciplinary Symposium schwere reiter, Munich, 2018
Argyropoulou, Gigi, Colin, Noyale, Graziano, Valeria and Sachsenmaier, Stefanie. “The Politics of Collaboration” Roundtable, PSi#23 “OverFlow”, Hamburg, 2017
Melrose, Susan and Sachsenmaier, Stefanie. "Tracing Lost Legacies - Remembering Rosemary Butcher", Keynote, Memory at Work: Rosemary Butcher in the Present Tense, London, 2016
Butcher, Rosemary and Sachsenmaier, Stefanie “Making Marks and Memories – The Body in Recorded Time”, Invited Keynote, Memory Sentiment Body Space Object Symposium, Coventry, 2015
Langweiler, Mark and Sachsenmaier, Stefanie. “On Not Neglecting the Near for the Far – The Practice of Wu Style Tai Chi Chuan”, Martial Arts Studies Conference, Cardiff University, 2015
Melrose, Susan and Sachsenmaier, Stefanie. “Time’s Markings/Marking Time/s: Rosemary Butcher’s Secrets of the Open Sea”. IFTR “Theatre and Stratification”, University of Warwick, 2014
Sachsenmaier, Stefanie. “Productive misapprehensions – ArtsCross as a trans-cultural collaborative zone of contestation of performance practice”. PSi “Avant-Garde, Tradition, Community”, Theatre Academy Shanghai, 2014
Sachsenmaier, Stefanie. “Tai Chi intervention” at Research Lab Falling About, hosted by Independent Dance’s WinLab, Siobhan Davies Studios, London, 2013, research notes published: http://roehamptondance.com/falling/writings/
Sachsenmaier, Stefanie. “Articulating processes of performance-making – towards a philosophy of performance practice”, Invited Research Presentation as part of the ‘Performance Philosophy’ series at Trinity Laban, London, 2013
Melrose, Susan and Sachsenmaier, Stefanie. “Just in Time - ‘Momentary’ Events in the Making of Rosemary Butcher’s Signature Practices”, PSi “Now Then”, Stanford University, California, USA 2013
Bannerman, Christopher, Kolb, Alexandra, Lin, Yatin, Sachsenmaier, Stefanie, Yue, Yunyu, Wang, Xin. ‘ArtsCross’ Roundtable, SDHS Conference Dance ACTions—Traditions and Transformations, Trondheim, Norway, 2013
Sachsenmaier, Stefanie. “Work Me Out! Spontaneous Combustion, Remote Collaboration – Researching into various collaborative set-ups in performance-making”, Symposium on Collaboration, Middlesex University, London, 2013
Sachsenmaier, Stefanie. "Rosemary Butcher, After Kaprow and Beyond", Remake Symposium, Performing Documents, Arnolfini, Bristol, 2012
Bannerman, Christopher, Sachsenmaier, Stefanie and Welton, Martin. "Somebody’s other – crossing cultures in performance practice", PSi18 “performance, culture, industry”, Leeds, 2012
Sachsenmaier, Stefanie. "On ‘thinking’ and ‘not-thinking’ in performance-making: a cross-cultural philosophical investigation", How Performance Thinks, PSi Philosophy and Performance, London, 2012
Sachsenmaier, Stefanie. "Vom Archiv zur Neuerfindung – Fragen zur künstlerischen Handschrift im kreativen Schaffensprozess zeitgenössischer Performance", GTF Tanzforschung, TANZerfahrung und WELTkenntnis, Cologne, Germany, 2011
Sachsenmaier, Stefanie. "Reinventing the past: Rosemary Butcher", IFTR "Tradition, Innovation, Community”, Osaka University, Japan, 2011
Sachsenmaier, Stefanie. "A future beyond Allan Kaprow: Rosemary Butcher reinvents 18 Happenings in 6 Parts", Dance and Somatic Practices Conference, Coventry University, UK, 2011
Franglen, Nick, Lammers, Christoph and Sachsenmaier, Stefanie. "Spontaneous combustion (a performance enquiry into spontaneous live decision-making)", Colloquium on Artistic Research in Performing Arts, Theatre Academy Helsinki, Finland, 2011
Rothwell, John, McCaw, Dick and Sachsenmaier, Stefanie. "On Embodiment", Invited Roundtable, Central School of Speech and Drama, London, 2011
Butcher, Rosemary and Sachsenmaier, Stefanie. "Reinventing 18 Happenings in 6 Parts", Invited Research Presentation, De Montfort University, Leicester, 2011
Sachsenmaier, Stefanie. "Performance-making as a process-specific discipline: the “dispositif” as a conceptual tool for the theorisation of performance-making processes", contribution to "Performance as Research" Working Group, IFTR "Cultures of Modernity", Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität Munich, Germany, 2010
Sachsenmaier, Stefanie. "How to Act?", Central School of Speech and Drama, London, UK, 2007
Invited guest lectures, masterclasses and research presentations
“Special Fokus: Retrospektiven im Tanz? Wozu sind sie gut?“ [“Special focus: Retrospectives in dance? What are they good for?“] – Invited panel contribution with Cristina Caprioli, La Ribot et al, moderated by Virve Sutinen and Andrea Niederbuchner, Tanz im August Festival, Berlin, forthcoming August 2022
“Rosemary Butcher: Glimpses into an archive of choreographic practice” – invited guest lecture, Trinity Laban Conservatoire of Music and Dance, London, June 2022
“‘Landings’, ‘Imprints’, ‘Traces’ – Dance in the Gallery after Rosemary Butcher” – invited curated talk with Andrea Niederbuchner and Sam Williams, Dance4, Nottingham, 2021
“Supporting Movement Based Doctoral Research at a Distance (Zoom gathering during Covid-19 pandemic)”, Invited contribution to online gathering convened by Vida Midgelow, with Vida Midgelow, Bob Whalley and Sarah Whatley, available: https://www.artisticdoctorates.com/2020/05/16/supporting-movement-based-doctoral-research-at-a-distance-zoom-gathering-during-covid-19-pandemic/, 2020
“Collaborating Across Cultures – Negotiating Contemporary Dance Practices”, student lecture, Beijing Dance Academy, 2015
“Devised performance-making processes – philosophy and performance practice”, research presentations to MA students at Central School of Speech and Drama, 2013
Tai Chi Masterclass to BA Dance students, University of Northampton, 2013
“Articulating processes of performance-making – towards a philosophy of performance practice”, invited research presentation as part of the ‘Performance Philosophy’ series at Trinity Laban, London, 2013
"On Embodiment', MA lecture series, Central School of Speech and Drama, London, 2012
"Practice-as-research in the performing arts: Rosemary Butcher reinvents Allan Kaprow's '18 Happenings in 6 Parts' - a case study" at "The International School for the Development of Graduate Students", Osaka City University, 2011
"Reinventing 18 Happenings in 6 Parts", research presentation with Rosemary Butcher, De Montfort University, Leicester, 2011
"On Embodiment", invited panel discussion with John Rothwell and Dick McCaw, Central School of Speech and Drama, London, 2011
Co-Investigator Artistic Doctorates in Europe (ADiE https://www.artisticdoctorates.com/) funded by Erasmus+, led by Prof. Vida Midgelow
Research and Development funding with Rosemary Butcher, Arts Council England - Reclaiming the Territories
Senior Fellow Higher Education Academy
Editorial Advisory Board Member of Choreographic Practices Journal
Member of Research Ethics Committee, Middlesex University
Peer reviewing for Palgrave Macmillan, Theatre, Dance and Performance Training Journal; Dance and Somatic Practices Journal, Platform: Journal of Theatre and Performing Arts.
Academic researcher as part of ArtsCross International Research Network, http://www.rescen.net
Writer for ChoreoRoam (with Prof. Chris Bannerman), The Place, London, 2011
Research Event Organisation
Performing Solidarity event series in collaboration with Live Art Development Agency and Noyale Colin/University of Winchester, 2019 - 2020
Per/Forming Futures: Investigating Artistic Doctorates in Dance and Performance, Research Event curated by ADiE, Middlesex University, London, 11-13 April 2019
Memory at Work: Rosemary Butcher in the Present Tense, Event organised with Kirsty Alexander, Lauren Potter, and Independent Dance, Siobhan Davies Dance Studios, London, 17 December 2016
The Politics of Collaboration: European Currents, Research Event, Middlesex University, Hendon, 24 September 2016
Standing Conference of University Drama Departments [SCUDD] Annual Conference, Middlesex University, 27-28 March 2015, member of organising committee
ON COLLABORATION II – The Politics of collaborative performance-making, Symposium Middlesex University, Hendon, 18 May 2013
ON COLLABORATION – Time, Memory, Place, Symposium Middlesex University, Trent Park, 4 May 2012
Adviser for the Arts, UK Network of German Academics, run by the German Academic Exchange Service and the German Embassy, London
