Artists’ Mobility Across Borders: A Mixed Methods Approach to Understanding Dance on the Island of Ireland

Abstract

This paper argues for the importance of mixed research methods in capturing the voices and perspectives of artists to understand the territorial nature of cultural policy. A pilot study, Co-Motion: Dance and borders, used an experimental, interdisciplinary approach of epistemological pluralism mixing improvised dance methods with survey data to understand the cross border professional experiences of dance artists on the island of Ireland. We see territorial mobility as both a policy practice and a construct, and sought to explore the impact and reception of that mobility on artists. Bringing together mixed methods allows for showing the affective nature of policy as well as telling via survey data. Reflecting on this experiment reveals the divergence and complexity that mixing methods may prompt and highlights the need for a methodological approach that recognises artists’ aesthetic way of knowing as crucial to capturing the embodied nature of cultural policy frames and contexts.