The Precarious Movements: Choreography and the Museum collection consists of examples of dance as a contemporary art practice. The videos include documentations and documentaries that exemplify work occurring at the interface between choreography and visual art. Some of the works represented in the films are case studies from the Precarious Movements research project; others pre-date that project but informed the work done there.

The Precarious Movements project puts artists and creative practice at the centre of its inquiry, engaging their knowledge and experience as primary research, and supports dancers and choreographers as important end users. Against the backdrop of intermedial experiments in the mid-20th century, the 21st century has seen dance and choreography appear more frequently in art galleries and museums. This is forecast to accelerate, propelled by curatorial inquiries and critical developments associated with a reinvention of the museum. However, processes and protocols concerning performance conditions specific to choreography, curatorial practices, acquisitions, collection, conservation and theory have lagged behind. The project addresses this problem and its principal aims are to:

·         Articulate best practice in the life cycle of choreographic work when it enters the museum and gallery.

·         Model best practice in commissioning, curating, conserving, presenting and interpreting choreographic work in the museum and gallery context.

·         Develop new critical understandings of dance and the art institution to support further development in the field.

Precarious Movements: Choreography and the Museum is a project that aims to bring artists, researchers and institutions into dialogue about best practice to support the choreographer and the museum, and to sustain momentum in theory and practice around dance and the visual arts. The project was awarded a Linkage Grant of nearly $400,000 over three years from 2021 to 2024 worth double this amount including in-kind support from partner organisations University New South Wales (UNSW), National Gallery of Victoria (NGV), TATE UK, Art Gallery New South Wales (AGNSW) and Monash University Museum of Art (MUMA) and independent artist Shelley Lasica.