1. The first challenge is related to the archaeology of the phenomenon and to the history of its lexicalisation: when, why and as a result of which poetic events was the notion of dance dramaturgy being developed? In the history of Western dance has an implicit dramaturgical paradigm ever existed prior to this “denomination” phase? For what cultural purpose has the notion itself gradually been lexicalised and established (until becoming a kind of commonplace of poetics)? How is the state of the issue expressed in reference texts?

2. The second challenge refers to the definition/description of the phenomenon: what is dance dramaturgy, or what should it be? Faced with the vertiginous plurality of the inherent discourse, is it possible to map all the practices, nominally or de facto, related to this label? Is there a dance dramaturgy within the choreographic activity itself which is not aware of being so? Is it plausible or useful to proscribe some of the procedures which part of the current dance praxis claims as dramaturgy? Or does the nebulosity and variety of practices and semantics enable the specificity of dance dramaturgy to be constructed?

3. The third challenge deals with these “differential” aspects: how does dance dramaturgy situate itself within the expanded context of dramaturgies, be they silent or part of the image, postdramatic theatre or “non-hegemonic” dramaturgies in general? What relationship of continuity or discontinuity does it maintain with writing paradigms linked to the historical idea of dramaturgy or dramatic composition? Do we have to call on dance for dramaturgical construction paradigms based on procedures and structures from narrative, drama or audiovisual fiction?

4. The fourth challenge is perhaps a subdivision of the previous one: what relationship, identification, hierarchy or confusion is currently established between dance dramaturgy understood as “writing” and the writing that we call “choreography”? Is there a relationship of continuity, complementariness or opposition between the two?

5. The fifth challenge concerns “authorship” statuses: is dance dramaturgy an unavoidable function of the danced performance or just functional in a restricted range of styles (for instance, dance theatre)? Is it possible to dispense with it (for instance, in clearly formalist or abstract dance)? To what extent do we speak of a critical-discursive function, of a poetic function, or of a professional work comparable to the figure of the institutional dramaturg? And, finally, how is it possible to characterise the dramaturg in dance, bearing in mind that they usually work in a context in which authorship (and generally authority in poetic matters) belongs, with all its discursive charisma, to the choreographer or the performer?

6. The sixth challenge has to do with the “memorial” statuses: as it is a practice of heterodox writing, which usually dispenses with the distribution or axial position of the texts (or which results from locating them only in the framework of another less syntagmatic and paradigmatic writing, made of energies, images, movement diagrams, and so on), how is it recorded? Is there a way of preserving, archiving and publishing it? How or to what extent does the stage work to which it is applied survive?

7. The seventh challenge concerns the protocols of temporality and practical development: how does dramaturgical creation adapt to all the development phases of a choreographic project? When does it intervene? Is it in synchrony with the rehearsal work or does it experience a kind of essential non-time? What is the importance of the idiosyncrasy of the projects? How are the diverse work methods in the creative praxis (depending on the different styles) assessed? To what extent does the efficiency of the dramaturgical task depend on relational aspects? If it is based on a dialogue or a dialectical relationship between dramaturg and choreographer, what form does this dialogue take and how is it substantiated?

8. The eighth challenge refers to education: is it possible to teach or convey a set of knowledge, skills and competences within the field of dance dramaturgy? How would the inherent curricular development be conceived? Is there a dramaturgical “methodology” that can be infallibly applied to any poetic context?