Host organisation: Citymoves Dance Agency SCIO
Project title: DanceLive 20 Archive and Exhibition
Project description

Citymoves Dance Agency has been leading positive impacts through dance since 1987, and founded DanceLive Festival in 2005. The annual four-day festival embraces a broad programme of professional dance and performance events by leading Scottish and UK artists. The festival includes professional performances in traditional theatre venues, site-specific work, films, exhibitions, professional workshops and networking events. It is a festival that inspires, celebrates and champions innovative work.

2025 is the 20th anniversary of the festival, and Citymoves would like to partner with a Doctoral Intern to create an archive of the organisation's past work and showcase it as part of an exhibition celebrating the festival.

Outputs

This project would allow the researcher to create a small archive and use the materials in the archive to create a multimedia exhibition to celebrate 20 Years of DanceLive Festival.

The collection to be archived includes:

  • legacy print materials such as posters, flyers, and programmes
  • digital photo files
  • VHS and DVD videos, which would need to be digitised.
Location

Ideally, this internship would take place in person, as the archival materials are at our primary location in Aberdeen. However, hybrid working could be accommodated during the metadata cataloguing and exhibition design phases of the project.

Benefits to the researcher

This project allows an intern so see a project through from start to finish, including creating a public-facing arm of the project. The project also shows the non-museum applications of these skills. Some skills that the researcher might gain are:

Technical skills:

  • Media Digitisation
  • Accessioning Process Creation
  • Applied Storage Techniques

Research skills:

  • Archival research
  • Data collation
  • Ethnographic interviewing

Curation skills:

  • Exhibit Design
  • Programme Creation
  • Applied Display Techniques

Insights and soft skills:

  • Experience working in/with a third-sector organisation
  • Non-museum application of Archiving and Exhibition
  • Project management
  • Understanding interconnections between sectors and organisations

The intern will experience working in a supportive environment with a team committed to helping each other achieve their personal and professional goals and develop skills to help them thrive in their careers.

Key relationships

Interns will regularly work under the supervision of Michelle Soto, MS, MLitt a qualified ethnographer and benefit from the organisation's connection to the broad Arts and Cultural Sector in Aberdeen and Scotland.

They will collaborate closely with Citymoves core staff including Hayley Durward, CEO, and Lynn Shaw, Dance Development Manager who both have a lengthy tenure with the organisation and a wealth of institutional knowledge.

They will have opportunities to build connections with Culture North East, the University of Edinburgh Digital Dance Archive for Scotland, University of Aberdeen's Elphinstone Institute David Buchan Library and Archives, Aberdeen City's Library, Archives and Museum teams, Creative Scotland, Tobar an Dualchais, among other organisations.

While curating the exhibition, interns may choose to interview long-time participants and collaborating artists to create supplemental ethnographic materials for the exhibition.

Timescale

Start date (or must start by): Flexible

End date (or must end by): 15 October 2026

Structure: Flexible work pattern

Subject areas

This opportunity would be relevant to the following subject areas:

Creative Writing; Dance; Drama & Theatre Studies; Visual Arts; Curating; Museum and Gallery Studies; Museum Policy & Management; Heritage Management; Cultural Studies and Pop Culture; Information and Knowledge Management; Archives; Records Management; Information Science and Retrieval; Library Studies; Information and Knowledge Management;  Cultural History; Scottish Studies; Ethnography and Anthropology.  

Person specification

A1. Knowledge Base

  • Desirable: Research methods – theoretical knowledge; Research methods – Practical application; Academic literacy and numeracy; Information literacy and management.

A2. Cognitive Abilities

  • Desirable: Analysing; Synthesising; Critical thinking; Evaluating; Problem Solving.

A3. Creativity
  • Desirable: Inquiring minds; Intellectual insight; Innovation.
B1. Personal qualities
  • Essential: Enthusiasm; Perseverance; Integrity; Self-confidence; Self-reflection; Responsibility.
B2. Self management
  • Essential: Preparation and prioritisation; Commitment to research; Time management; Responsiveness to change; Work-life balance. 
C1. Professional conduct
  • Essential: Respect and confidentiality.
  • Desirable: Health and Safety; Ethics, principles and sustainability; Legal requirements; IPR and copyright; Appropriate practice. 
C2. Research management
  • Essential:Project planning and delivery.
  • Desirable: Research strategy; Risk management.
D1. Working with others
  • Essential: Collegiality; Team working; Collaboration; Equality and diversity.
D2. Communication & dissemination
  • Essential: Communication methods; Communication media; Publication.
D3. Engagement & impact
  • Desirable: Public Engagement; Society & Culture.

First published: 9 October 2025

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