Robert Hylton
all things dance
PhD
Dr Robert Hylton (PhD)
PhD - C-DaRE (Centre for Dance Research), Coventry University (fully funded by Coventry University)
My research focus is on street and hip hop dance, and its relationship with the African diaspora as archive, practice and a site for cultural transmission, as explored through my PhD on Black British Popping through film, and the concept I call haptic editing as a tool to develop theory-based creative work around the theme of cultural exchange, memory, experience and innovation.
ABK Research
My main research is popping improvisation as a somatic process, explored as time-based consciousness and interior sensation in my thesis, based on the concept I call Active Bodily Knowledge (ABK), and ABK Research as a practice-based approach to examine the temporal interrelation between consciousness and interior sensation in popping improvisation. In turn, I define what I call the bit before as part of the pre 'active' temporality of Active Bodily Knowledge in dance improvisation.
A presentation based on ABK Research and movement workshops on Active Bodily
Knowledge is available.
Related Research Interests
Black British cultural expression
British social dance
UK Jazzdance, social dance, hip hop & streetdance
Migration, otherness, embodied identity & place
Film theory & performance
Cultural transmission, archive & writing
Aim
Researching the presence of African diasporan street dance in both the UK and the US to enable a broader access and understanding of an often hidden or unspoken representation of Black performance and dance over the past 300+ years in Britain. With the aim to enhance and promote the visibility and presence of African diasporan street dance through a British perspective pre and post UK Jazzdance and hip hop dance in education, academia, performance and research.
The research will help develop a future exhibition, performance and film work.
For more information or questions, please get in touch
Related Qualifications
MA - Northampton University (bursary)
BPA - Northern School of Contemporary Dance (NSCD)
Selected Writing
Book
In 2020, I was commissioned to write a dance image archive book, Dancing in Time: The History of Moving and Shaking by The British Library – published in autumn 2022
Papers
Hylton, R. (2024). A Conversation on the Nature of Practice in Hip-Hop Creativity, Skill, Integrity, Intelligence and Community, Edinburgh University Press. BLOG
Link: https://euppublishingblog.com/2024/02/12/a-conversation-on-the-nature-of-practice-in-hip-hop/
Hylton, R., & Burrows, J. (2023). Creativity, Skill, Integrity, Intelligence and Community: A Conversation on the Nature of Practice in Hip Hop. Dance Research, 41(2), 170-180.
Link: https://www.euppublishing.com/doi/abs/10.3366/drs.2023.0401?journalCode=drs
Hylton, R. (2016). Reacting, Shifting and Momentum of a Developing 21st Century Dance, Blurring Boundaries: Urban Street meets Contemporary Dance, P18-27, Serendipity, Du Montfort University.
Contributions
Chambers, C. (Ed.). (2023). The Methuen Drama Encyclopaedia of Modern Theatre (1st ed.). Hardback. Published on April 20, 2023.
Role: Hip hop theatre contributor: focusing on the ways in which street/urban/popular dance styles have impacted on theatre.
Link: https://www.magersandquinn.com/product/METHUEN-DRAMA-ENCY-OF-MODERN-T/25013671
Hylton, R. (2020). British Library Eccles Centre BLOG 'Dancing in the Archives...'
Link: https://blogs.bl.uk/americas/2020/07/dancing-in-the-archives.html
Hylton, R. (2019, Spring). Layers of resilience and blackness. Hotfoot Online, 40–43. In Hotfoot Online Spring 2019 Edition. One Dance UK.
Link: https://www.onedanceuk.org/media/3qujiio0/1smlsmlhotfoot-online-spring-2019-edition-final.pdf
HOTFOOT Magazine, (2016), ADAD: 21st Anniversary Edition, LONG TERM INVESTORS, P75-77
Link: https://issuu.com/onedanceuk/docs/adad_21st_anniversary_oct-edition_f_29f8a8fc438656
Hylton, R. (2011), Skills n Drills, Animated Magazine.
Link: https://www.communitydance.org.uk/DB/animated-library/skills-n-drills?ed=14075
Fellowships, Associates, Talks, Panels & Memberships
Fellowships
Former Associate Research Fellow in the School of Arts at (Birkbeck Centre for Contemporary Theatre), University of London, 2019-2023
Former Visiting Fellow at The Eccles Centre, British Library, 2019
Associate Artist
Former Associate Artist at The Place, London
Talks
Introducing Cultural identifiers and their methodology: Reading Improvisation in Black British Popping - PSi #29 Assemble! Hoxton Hall - Palmer Room, June 21st, 2024
Creatively Innovating the Archive: In Conversation with Robert Hylton: Monday, 6 March 2023
De Montfort University's 'Funmi Adewole speaks with first-generation UK Hip Hop Theatre pioneer, Robert Hylton.
Talking Back: Hip Hop Through Research and Practice - curated by Dr Rosa Cisneros
Southbank University – The role of Artistic Director
The Place, London – The life of a choreographer
University of East London Dance: Urban Practice - Hip Hop Pedagogies
University of East London Dance: Urban Practice - Hip Hop Theatre
Northampton University - Hip Hop Dance and Theatre
Rich Mix, London – Hip hop dance archive, commissioned by State of Emergency
Dance UK (One Dance) AGM at Sadlers Wells - Websites, culture and information
Panel
Moving Online Research Group: Ontology and Ownership of Internet Dance - 2024. Run by Hetty Blades, Coventry University
One Dance UK Awards - Judging Panel 2023
Memberships
PoP Moves UK committee member: an international research group for popular dance and performance. (on a break)