Each year, the EDNext project investigates important thematic topics relevant to the contemporary dance sector and disseminates the findings. In 2023, EDN members will explore the concepts of EDIA (equity, diversity, inclusion, access) and its correlations to movement practices. Researcher Alexandra Baybutt will follow the red thread between EDN's yearly activities, dive deeper into the topics, collect examples of good practices and propose recommendations to be published in the end-of-the-year research publication.

Alexandra Baybutt (PhD, RSME, CMA) works in dance professionally since 2004, and engages freelance in postdoctoral research, somatic movement education, and artistic practice in the UK and Europe. Recent research projects include exploring embodiment as an ethics of encounter for University College London in the Institute of Advanced Studies; looking at the effects of Brexit and Covid-19 on the independent dance scenes of the UK; and analysing the politics of curation of contemporary dance festivals in the former Yugoslav space (monograph forthcoming, published by Taylor and Francis). Each of these used a mixed-methods approach and constructivist epistemology, and concern for space as physical, affective, political and social. 

Photo © Anna Kushnirenko.