What kind of role play movement cultures in the construction and staging of national and transnational communities? Current processes of globalisation and migration raise questions regarding the interaction of different cultures, the characteristics of cultural transfers and cultural identities. Newly emerged transnational communities create traditions and identities blending the characteristics of different cultures but also elements of high and popular culture, oral and mass media culture. The TAL analyses their correlation from a cross-cultural comparative point of view.

By consciously blurring the boundaries between the arts and science, the TAL has been developing new methodical approaches and experimental ways of working which enable us to grasp processes of knowledge generation beyond the culture of the written word. The Archives Internationales de la Danse, founded by Rolf de Maré in Paris in 1931, served as an inspiring example. The „A.I.D.“ attracted emigrated dancers, dance and culture scientists and ethnologists from all over the world who shared an interest in body cultures, anthropology and community concepts. By connecting and keeping files on non-European dance practises, European folklore culture, contemporary dance styles and the theory and history of movement culture, the „A.I.D.“ launched a project aiming to recover physical knowledge and challenge out-dated knowledge systems.