Social Choreography

“Descent into deep time” is a phrase that emerged during the work process of four artists – Pavle Heidler, Ana Horvat, Silvija Marchig, and Sonja Pregrad – who came together for the Glacier project. It highlights a focus on the performative moment, exploring the sense of duration, the differences between stage presence and representation, reality and fiction, while emphasizing that the bare minimum for live performance is the physical presence of the performers. Glacier is characterized by its focus on bodies within a given space and time, and the support of improvisation as the skill of decision-making in the moment of performing a particular stage action, without a previously planned next move. Each situation is significant, rich with potential meanings, affirming atmosphere, emotions, and moods on a micro level of performance. Based on tracking the process of creating Glacier, this article will provide insight into the project’s working method and offer a framework for understanding the performativity of four artists. Additionally, it will outline the author’s approach to archiving the creative processes of performances she witnessed over a five-year period.
Keywords: Glacier; performative moment; sense of duration; stage presence; archiving performance

過去二十年間，表演藝術家經常受邀在藝術展覽中展示他們的「表演」
（Performance），這已成為美術館和藝術雙年展的一種趨勢，引發了當代藝術中「新表演轉向」（New Performance Turn）的現象。本文探討不同學者對這一現象的藝術史發展基礎的看法。⻄方學者傾向關注表演進入視覺藝術領域時所帶來的意義，例如「編舞、組織、展覽場域和生產模式」，而非⻄方學者則更關注戰後以來「行為藝術」（Performance Art）中涉及的「身體政治」和「行動主義」等前衛力量。這種差異性揭示了一個事實：各地不同時期的表演轉向性質並不一致，戰後非⻄方的「行為身體命題」更趨向於涉及後殖⺠文化體制、主體性問題、社會道德和政治現實。

本文試圖從非⻄方觀點補充對「新表演轉向」的理解，並反思將此現象假設在二戰後「行為藝術」前衛基礎上發展的適切性。當今的「新表演轉向」是否真的可以被視為早期「行為藝術」某種「新」美學形式的延伸呢？從1960年代起，藝術展覽場域中的生命體和當今「表演」在博物館中的情況並不相同。在現代藝術史上，「身體行為」是對現存體制的挑戰，但當今新形式的「表演」更關注於展覽空間中的社交性能量。最終，本文提議當今的「新表演轉向」實際上是將表演中的操演性（Performativity）視為「新的策展和組織意義的工具」，更貼近安德魯．赫維特（Andrew Hewitt）提出的「社會編舞」（Social Choreography）概念，關注如何有效地在展覽場域中激活感知、體驗和社交情境。

關鍵字：新表演轉向、行為藝術、身體政治、操演性、社會編舞、情境

This essay aims to characterize the documentary dance method developed by Latvian choreographer Kristīne Brīniņa. In her personal work, Brīniņa experiments with authenticity through verbatim and documentary theatre techniques, combining them with contemporary dance in the form of site-specific theatre. Her approach prioritizes devising with performers to ensure the inclusive engagement of all participants. In Brīniņa's work-in documentary dance theatrical performances-the body becomes a social text reflecting current issues in society, simultaneously on both a collective as well as an individual scale, thus enabling a contemporary form of storytelling through the language of everyday movements.

In this article, the author analyses the reception of the grizzly bear dance in the visual culture of the early 20th century. Such a study is relevant in the Russian discourse, since in recent years, there have been separate works on the reception of dance and music cultures in visual culture.
In the grizzly bear dance, several characteristic trends of the early 20th century of the USA and Europe merged: fascination with the primitive, a desire to control moral behaviour, and the interpenetration of various cultural strategies of different countries. In this regard, it is important to analyse the visual representations of the grizzly bear dance in order to identify which specific social and cultural changes were reflected in the works of art on the theme of this dance.
Analysing films, engravings and paintings dedicated to the grizzly bear dance, it is possible to identify those social changes that have undergone secondary reception in visual works. First of all, it is the connection of the dance with African culture, the personification of the bear with Africans due to cultural traditions and associations with other dances of the era. In addition, because of the obscenity of dance and violations of established dance norms, the bear dance has become a way of self-manifestation of a new female role-model behaviour. Music also played a great role in the jerky, cramped movements: the ragged rhythm of ragtime increased the uncontrolled spirit and “wildness” of the dance. [This research has been completed with the support of the Russian Science Foundation (RSF), project no. 23-28-01577.] / В настоящей статье автор анализирует рецепцию танца медведя гризли в визуальной культуре начала ХХ века. Подобное исследование актуально в отечественном дискурсе, так как в последние годы появляются отдельные труды о рецепции танцевальной и музыкальной культур в визуальной культуре.
В танце медведя гризли слились несколько характерных тенденций начала ХХ века США и Европы: увлечение примитивным, стремление к контролированию морального поведения, взаимопроникновение различных культурных стратегий разных стран. В связи с этим актуально проанализировать визуальные репрезентации танца медведя гризли, чтобы выявить, какие конкретно социокультурные изменения отразились в художественных произведениях на тему этого танца.
Проанализировав фильмы, гравюры и картины, посвященные танцу медведя гризли, можно обозначить те социальные изменения, которые подверглись вторичной рецепции в визуальных произведениях. В первую очередь, это связь танца с африканской культурой, олицетворение медведя с африканцами в силу культурных традиций и ассоциаций с другими танцами эпохи. Кроме того, из-за непристойности танца, нарушения устоявшихся танцевальных норм медвежий танец стал способом самоманифестации новой женской ролевой модели поведения. Большую роль в отрывистых, тесных движениях играла и музыка: рваный ритм регтайма усиливал бесконтрольность и «дикость» танца. [Исследование выполнено при финансовой поддержке РНФ в рамках научного гранта № 23-28-01577.]

Ce que les chorégraphes nomment ici « partition » renvoie le plus souvent à des énoncés, plus rarement à un système de signes, qui ont vocation à être déchiffrés et mis en jeu en fonction d'un ensemble de règles et de conventions, comme c'est communément le cas dans le champ musical auquel le terme est emprunté 1. Dans les deux cas néanmoins, c'est le rapport à la consigne ou à l'instruction que la partition engage, au sens d'« indiquer la méthode à suivre, le travail à accomplir 2 », qui intéresse les artistes et en fait un outil précieux pour leurs processus de composition. Elle apparaît alors à différents moments : tantôt préparatoire ou expérimentale, elle peut disparaître ou s'affiner au cours des répétitions, ou bien persister à titre de cadre non figé pour une oeuvre ouverte. Quand il s'agit d'énoncés, ceux-ci peuvent être simplement descriptifs et ont pour objectif de générer mouvements ou actions, tels : « bouger au ralenti », « aller le plus rapidement possible d'une situation à l'autre », « marquer des suspensions entre les mouvements », « parle[r] avec un accent britannique très huppé » (Flood, 2017, Daniel Linehan) ; « ouvrir une fenêtre », « traverser la pièce en diagonale » (CPAU, 2009, DD Dorvillier) ; « se concentrer sur le fait de défaire les tensions accumulées sans perdre la dynamique de la marche » (Vertus, 2005, Nathalie Collantes) ; « vous ferez attention à varier les niveaux du centre entre ‹ pas complètement au sol, environ trente centimètres au-dessus du sol ›, ‹ pas complètement en posture debout environ vingt centimètre au-dessous › » (Déperdition, 2003, Myriam Gourfink). Les énoncés peuvent également receler une dimension poétique, et s'adresser plus spécifiquement à l'imaginaire de l'interprète, comme : « Arborescence. Un paon. Dangereux. Ralenti et s'effondre. Une mare de sang. Un vent de panique. Des fleurs ; des fleurs arrachées, des dahlias et des roses mêlées. Divers tas de choses, presque rien, dans le noir. L'incessante couleur qui me recouvre entièrement. Partage successif. Trempé. Ouvert » (cité par Loïc Touzé, 9, 2007). Ou encore : « Le fruit est trop mûr et a Commencé à fermenter. Des oiseaux En ont trop mangé et Sont un peu ivres. Ils 1 Sur cet emprunt lexical de la danse (et du théâtre) à la musique, nous renvoyons le lecteur au programme de recherche qu'a mené Julie Sermon à La Manufacture, et qu'elle a consigné dans son essai « Partition(s) : processus de composition et division du travail artistique » in Julie Sermon, Yvane Chapuis (dir.), Partition(s), op. cit., pp. 25-223., Cet essai a guidé la rédaction de cette introduction. 2 Entrée « Instruction » in Trésor de la langue française [En ligne], Centre national de ressources textuelles et lexicales, 2012. Pour plus d'information sur l'usage de consignes ou d'instructions dans le travail de la composition, voir également les chapitres Contrainte et Tâche. 4 Voir l'introduction de Myriam Gourfink, « Le vocabulaire d'une communauté ». 5 Concernant les notions de combinatoire et de règles, voir les chapitres Assembler (section Combinatoire) et Choisir. 6 Voir la partie « Partition et ‹ raison graphique › » in Julie Sermon, « Partition(s) : processus de composition et division du travail artistique », art. cit., pp. 32-38. 10 Albrecht Knust (né à Hambourg en 1896 et mort à Essen en 1978) était un danseur, chorégraphe et pédagogue allemand. Il a été élève de Laban, puis directeur de la Folkwangschule. Il s'est consacré à la rédaction et à la diffusion de la labanotation (ou cinétographie). 11 « Systématisation d'une lecture et écriture de partition chorégraphique en temps réel », bourse d'écriture du ministère de la Culture et de la Communication, 2002. 12 Jacqueline Challet-Haas (née en 1934), danseuse, pédagogue, notatrice du mouvement Laban, auteure et traductrice de plusieurs ouvrages, a créé en 1990 le cursus de notation Laban au Conservatoire national de musique et de danse de Paris dans lequel Myriam Gourfink a étudié.

This article aims to take part in the ongoing discussion on the social and political potentialities as well as the conceptual premises of choreography and to contribute to the discussion about world relations in the choreographed movement. The much-used definition of Western choreography is “organized movement in space and time”. Although this definition always applies, it does not specify the world relations and worldmaking capacities of the choreographed movement. The main focus of this article is an ontological rethinking of the basic concepts of choreography: movement, space, time and organization, with the addition of kinaesthetic fields, kinaesthetic and spatial intelligence, virtual and actual realms, striated and smooth spaces (Deleuze and Guattari) and different conceptions of time. By analyzing these concepts, the aim is to provide a view of ontologically elementary units in choreography (such as a change in space, the difference over time and space, and passage to shared actuality), with a wider understanding of the inherent social relationality in choreographed movement. After discussing these topics, a few social choreography events and protests are described to represent different choreographic aims and organizational modes arising from each specific situation. The article concludes by proposing that choreography could be seen as organizing movement in space and time but also as a choreographic actualization of intensities in different discursive fields.

This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY

In 2013 Honorata Martin, a young artist from Gdańsk travelled about six hundred kilometres on foot. No other work than the journey itself was created apart from the scrapbook with her notes and a short video. By putting herself in the precarious position of a nomad/migrant, the artist achieved multiple goals. One of them was to put an end to the alienation of work. The result is a work that is deprived of a “labour force,” and as such, it cannot be exploited. Martin adopted the strategy of a “passive subject” (as opposed to the “active subject” of Lazzarato). She followed the instructions, fitted the image that was being proposed to her by people she encountered, and this was exactly the move that triggered emancipatory power. Her perverse answer to the danger pointed out by Lazzarato was the creation of a subject without a soul who cannot be put to use in the economic structure based on immaterial labour. Her project “Setting off for Poland” contributes to decades-long discussions ...

The article analyzed the author's choreographic works of Merce Cunningham. His aesthetic-theoretical ideas and characteristic features of an individual ballet master style are identified and systematized. Put forward the hypothesis that these ideas formed the basis of aesthetics of the post-modern dance. Аннотация В статье проанализированы авторские хореографические произведения Мерса Каннингема. Выявлены и систематизированы его эстетико-теоретические идеи и характерные признаки индивидуального балетмейстерского стиля. Выдвинута гипотеза, что эти идеи легли в основание эстетики постмодернтанца.

The research which is embedded in this thesis through the dances and the context statement is about my experience of dancing and dance-making. During the process of making dances there is a sense of messiness in not knowing what is emerging. In the process of writing this document I have had to shift my experience in order to perceive the messiness and to reflect on how I work with it.

В настоящей статье автор анализирует рецепцию танца медведя гризли в визуальной культуре начала ХХ века. Подобное
исследование актуально в  отечественном дискурсе, так как в  последние годы появляются отдельные труды о рецепции танцевальной и музыкальной культур в визуальной культуре.
В  танце медведя гризли слились несколько характерных тенденций начала ХХ  века США и  Европы: увлечение примитивным,
стремление к  контролированию морального поведения, взаимопроникновение различных культурных стратегий разных стран.
В связи с этим актуально проанализировать визуальные репрезентации танца медведя гризли, чтобы выявить, какие конкретно социокультурные изменения отразились в художественных произведениях на тему этого танца.
Проанализировав фильмы, гравюры и  картины, посвященные
танцу медведя гризли, можно обозначить те социальные изменения, которые подверглись вторичной рецепции в визуальных произведениях. В первую очередь, это связь танца с африканской культурой, олицетворение медведя с  африканцами в  силу культурных
традиций и ассоциаций с другими танцами эпохи. Кроме того, из-за
непристойности танца, нарушения устоявшихся танцевальных
норм медвежий танец стал способом самоманифестации новой
женской ролевой модели поведения. Большую роль в отрывистых,
тесных движениях играла и музыка: рваный ритм регтайма усиливал бесконтрольность и «дикость» танца.

This article uses a dance-somatic standpoint to explore the complexities of body-technology relations across the virtuality and corporeality of bodies and environments using multi-person Virtual Reality technology (VR). Immersion into a virtual environment (VE) using VR can lead to a sense of presence, of ‘being there’. Dancers move attending to a field of sensation which is felt and tactile, undertaking somatic and sensory practices to de-centre vision so to foreground and thus activate non-visual and somatic senses. From this dancerly standpoint, entering into a VE brings into play the immediate effect of a perceptual tension or ‘gap’ between the visual, virtual environment and the physical, felt environment. Technologists and artists engaging with VR typically find ways to cover-over this perception gap in order to create a reality that is fluidly and synchronously experienced by the participant. This article introduces and discusses two participatory performance projects Figurin...

Esta investigación aborda las relaciones entre la estética de la danza y la política durante el primer franquismo a partir del análisis de la cultura visual y material de algunas primeras compañías de danza española creadas durante la posguerra. A partir del estudio de la recepción de algunos de los proyectos poco conocidos de la danza escénica en España durante el primer franquismo se pretende contribuir a comprender en mayor profundidad el rol de los espectáculos de danza de carácter interdisciplinar y al estudio de la historia de la danza en España durante el siglo XX. El análisis de las fuentes ligadas a algunos de estos proyectos permite plantear la idea de  bailar como un habitar que constantemente pone en juego las fronteras entre lo individual y lo colectivo tanto a nivel artístico, como estético y político. Los principales proyectos que se analizan son: el Ballet Español de Ana de España, el Ballet de Jorge Montemar y el Esbart de Verdaguer.

Eppur Si Muove: Forms of Resistance in Public Performances of Movement This study is concerned with movement and its political potential for resistance, examining this potential through artistic and cultural performances which center bodily movement in public space. The political potential is created following the encounter between a physical movement and a spatial, social, cultural or political limitation, and results from the impact of this encounter on the movement itself. The "performances of movement" with which I am concerned appear as the result of political relations of power or in response to structured spatial systems which are perceived as a cause, opportunity, or trigger for movement. "Performances of movement" are the paradigmatic test cases which enable the kinetic perspective suggested by this study.

In 2013 Honorata Martin, a young artist from Gdańsk travelled about six hundred kilometres on foot. No other work than the journey itself was created apart from the scrapbook with her notes and a short video. By putting herself in the precarious position of a nomad/migrant, the artist achieved multiple goals. One of them was to put an end to the alienation of work. The result is a work that is deprived of a “labour force,” and as such, it cannot be exploited. Martin adopted the strategy of a “passive subject” (as opposed to the “active subject” of Lazzarato). She followed the instructions, fitted the image that was being proposed to her by people she encountered, and this was exactly the move that triggered emancipatory power. Her perverse answer to the danger pointed out by Lazzarato was the creation of a subject without a soul who cannot be put to use in the economic structure based on immaterial labour. Her project “Setting off for Poland” contributes to decades-long discussions ...

This text is about Amor Rojo (2023), a product of Dora García’s recent artistic research, which is two-pronged. The film inquires, on the one hand, into the ideological and political work of Bolshevik Alexandra Kollontai, and the impact her writings and reforms in the (pre-)Stalinian USSR have had on socialist feminism until this day, in Mexico in particular. On the other hand, it joins a sequence of massive protests against femicide and anti-abortion laws that have taken place in Mexico City since 2020, zooming in to give a portrait of transfeminist communities that belong to the multitude of actors driving this struggle.

Masses-the multimedia video installation is a doctoral art project at the Department of Polymedia Art of the PhD Interdisciplinary Studies at the University of Arts in Belgrade. The doctoral project is comprised of the practical and theoretical parts. The art framework of the project attempts to synthesize the theme defined research, i.e.to visualise the main aspects of the theoretical analysis. The works of art which have resulted from the doctoral art project stem from theoretical considerations, but they can be examined as independent art unities which have multi media character. The main aim of the theoretical work is to systematize the theories which deal with the phenomenon of masses and massive, with their reflections throughout history and art, as well as with the analysis of the methodology of a work of art. Work thesis is: The aesthetics of massive contains a visual message in the process of social communication.

This paper uses choreographic analysis to examine the 2003 and 2014 protests in Hong Kong and contends that the political potential of a social movement is located not in its immediate result, but in the new structure and organization of reality it inspires. Informed by dance studies scholarship, choreographic analysis looks at social movements with a focus on the form of bodily movements and seeks to identify the choreographing force that it calls 'lyricism', which emerges from the new collective desire shaped by the event. Through choreographic analysis, and by drawing on popular music studies, this paper proposes that the site of radical politics in Hong Kong can be located in the persisting colonial alienation that separates the people from the authority. The trajectory of Hong Kong recent protests also shows that these events, though seemingly ephemeral, are moments of revolutionary thoughts that have universal implications and lasting effects.

choreographer, premiered her work 'A line, a gaze, a horizon' at the Cyprus Choreography Platform in November of 2020. The work, entirely created online, has been expanded and performed in 2022 commenting on the overwhelming shift to digitally creating and screening dance. Waierstall's inclusion of live-action screendance methodologies in a proscenium theatre performance radically alters thinking around live and mediated performances and the effect of technology on dance composition. Employing the lens of screendance theory and film phenomenology the aim of this essay is to explore how including screened dance into live performance choreographic methods effects the experience of watching dance. The essay includes spoken word that guides the structure of the work as well as images of the work to create a written and visual narrative that combines artistic expression and analysis to explore the possibilities of including technology in contemporary dance making.

In 2013 Honorata Martin, a young artist from Gdańsk travelled about six hundred kilometres on foot. No other work than the journey itself was created apart from the scrapbook with her notes and a short video. By putting herself in the precarious position of a nomad/migrant, the artist achieved multiple goals. One of them was to put an end to the alienation of work. The result is a work that is deprived of a “labour force,” and as such, it cannot be exploited. Martin adopted the strategy of a “passive subject” (as opposed to the “active subject” of Lazzarato). She followed the instructions, fitted the image that was being proposed to her by people she encountered, and this was exactly the move that triggered emancipatory power. Her perverse answer to the danger pointed out by Lazzarato was the creation of a subject without a soul who cannot be put to use in the economic structure based on immaterial labour. Her project “Setting off for Poland” contributes to decades-long discussions ...

The MA thesis Touch and Revolution – on Social Choreography, Book1: ACTION for Aalto University focuses on outlining how choreographic tools can offer viable alternatives for societal processes of change. It also investigates artistic practices as action, a space where we can come together.
 
 
The thesis aims to expand on theoretical thinking that has grown from my experience as an artist and as an activist. From this starting point I will hypothesizes, that there are viable choreographic methods to be used in times of crisis: when we need to rethink and redesign our social, civic and political processes. I have aimed to compose the theory as a choir of thought, a choreography with many layers, to parallax different ideas, methods and practices. This I do in the spirit of Hannah Arendt's (1958) concept of Action as something which creates spaces where we come together to process meaning and identity, and where we can find freedom to act in concert, and create change thought deeds which touch upon other lives and live on. I have aimed to think and write together with selected inspirational thinkers such as Hannah Arendt, Judith Butler, Karen Barad, Donna Haraway and others, and to include deliberately long quotes, to give space for the “full thought” of the author, thus making a stage for multiple voices. Also, a variety of reference points -written and visual- have been incorporated into the text to create a weave of multiplicity. Most of the cited thinkers are by choice women or non-binary (feminist) theorists, who have challenged and fed this study not only through their writing, but with their engagement in activism and/or bravery in finding their own modes of existing outside the prevailing conventions of patriarchy and capitalism. They have helped me find my voice and the trust in it. The proposing of a new social choreographic practice is deeply rooted in the questions that stem from my own experience and understanding of choreographic practice and activism, yet at the same time they are challenged and inspired by other discussions, theories and activities, which this thesis does not focus on but can and should be addressed in other context in the future. Thus, I have chosen to focus on writing choreographically rather than write about my choreographies, and embed a range of societal scores and processes as examples of choreographies for action.
 
 
This study looks into activism and social studies with a very idiosyncratic modality, and the connection between arts and activism is drawn more on a methodology rather than in themes and content.
 
 
As for Art’s integrity and importance in society, I have aimed to reveal a deeper quality, a dynamic force creating spaces no other can create, with insights no other can give. As such this thesis is a choreographic suggestion for a small personal revolution with the potential for an epistemic change.

Now we only need travel a few métro stops to find dances from virtually everywhere. This proximity has encouraged an intermingling between the dominant contemporary dance, and especially its creed of experimentation, with traditional dance forms that have become strongly rooted in Québec (cer- tain Spanish, African, South American, and East Indian dances, for example). The current interculturalist practice is still limited to a small group of Montréal choreographers—but the basis for exchange has changed completely. It is now common for contemporary dancers to study another culture or style of dance in depth, as if acquiring a second language in which to communicate. As for choreographers from other dance traditions who have more recently immigrated, it may be the ethos of artistic freedom that has compelled them to invent dances that represent their present-day lives in Montréal.

This paper contextualises the framework and methodology for producing the video performance Ballet, by Szuper Gallery (Susanne Clausen & Pavlo Kerestey), which was initiated through an encounter with an archive of rural information and propaganda films from the Museum of English Rural Life [MERL] in Reading, UK. This project looked at ways of extrapolating filmed gestures from the MERL films to choreograph a large-scale performance film and to consider how this practice-led research could instigate a new way of engaging with and interpreting the MERL film collection. The resulting video was produced in 2009 and was first exhibited at MERL, where it became part of the archive. This was followed by a series of international screenings. I will set out the surrounding research in and around the archive propaganda films, focusing on the performances by rural extras (background actors) in these films, while looking at the way one could understand the relation between a future-past, or tradition and accident in these films (Massumi, 1993). I will pair this with a reflection on the cultural reading of the extras (Didi-Huberman, 2009) and the notion of social choreography (Hewitt, 2005) in this context. I will then lay out reflections on artistic methods for the final performance, a Crash Choreography, based on calculated, but spontaneous encounters. Rural Propaganda Films MERL is a national museum and houses the most comprehensive national collection in the UK of objects, books and archives relating to the history of food, farming and the countryside.

This paper is based on a forthcoming book chapter. It discusses patterns and dynamics of embodiment and especially of embodied interaction in childhood. The discussion leans on the notion of “social choreography,” which refers to the multitude of ways that human beings organize their daily actions and interactions according to various models and implicit influences. The purpose of this article is to illuminate how even very young children are being “choreographed” and conditioned to move and behave according to predetermined patterns. These patterns are reflected in children’s play culture, informal and formal education, and increasingly mediated through media culture. Modern arts education, when critically scrutinized, can be also seen to reinforce certain aesthetic patterns and styles. In dance, this may mean that the aesthetic preferences of the teacher dictate children’s movement qualities and choreographical choices. This can be a homogenizing influence, where cultural differen...

Alessandra De Nicola collaborates with BiPAC and the Riccardo Massa Department of Human Sciences for Education. Her research activities are in field of cultural heritage education, public engagement, visual studies. She works with various italian institutions and cultural actors. The drawing of choreographers as performances in museum space. Ideas and excuses for heritage education. This article examines the choreographic installation Retranslation I Final Unfinished Portrait (Francis Bacon), by William Forsythe and Peter Welz in 2006 with the aim of highlighting that drawing as experience that makes possible to achieve multiple forms of representation: dance and choreography, painting and drawing, video and movement image. The installation will be approached as a case study for an educational reading aimed at giving visibility to the gesture as a mediation tool between drawing and the experience to open access to cultural heritage. At the parallel it will be shown how drawing is a fundamental component of the choreographic creative process and a link that permit to create aesthetic discourses between artistic languages. It is an interaction between three different disciplines and objects: the pictorial work Final Unfinished Portrait by Francis Bacon, the choreographic and performative intervention by Wil

Review of ‘Feldenkrais for Actors – How to Do Less and Discover More’ by Victoria Worsley, illustrated by James Humphries; Nick Hern Books London 2016; 272 pages How do we train actors to develop an organic competence of their craft? How do we educate young people to become agile, creative, sensitive and affective performers in a cultural context that affords an increased disembodiment of everyday life experience? How do we encourage open-ended inquiry within a corporate increasingly goal-oriented and fast-paced vocational educational training system? Victoria Worsley, London based actor and Feldenkrais® practitioner, published the book Feldenkrais for Actors – How to Do Less and Discover More as a resource for students and teachers in 2016. Her writings emerged from her rich experience as an artist, teacher of Movement for Actors in Drama Conservatories, and as Feldenkrais practitioner who works with the general public. Her book offers a convincing resource for student-actors, prof...

This special issue of JDSP aims to address the socially and culturally transformative potential of Somatics and somatic-informed performance practices. The transdisciplinary discourse of dance and somatic practices has moved beyond the state of merely identifying the field. The editors of this volume recognize somatic practices as processes of undoing existing patterns so that new ones can emerge. How can this undoing be extended beyond the body of the individual to the body politic or the social body? How might we construct Somatics as practices of critique that might contribute to an alternative social imaginary? Can somatic practices foster a capacity for self-reflection and criticality as feature of the 'democratic citizen' (Morin 1999) within growing totalitarian sociocultural contexts? 1 Glenna Batson (2017) argues towards the need for a new critique to fully address Somatics in the face of the polycrisis of neo-liberal globalization. 2 If we understand the potential for undoing as processes of putting into question or putting into crisis, as practices of critique or critical practices, how does the field of somatic practices engage with auto-critique or critical self-reflection? Isabelle Ginot (2010) points us to the problem that within endogenous and self-referential somatic discourses, notions of 'belief' tend to override critical scholarship or practice. While Ginot proposes that somatic discourses tend draw on science to promote a 'form of homogeneous, non-historicized, almost eternal truth' (2010: 15) that excludes cultural variations or the body-politic, she also points towards the possibility or need to 'investigate and construct somatic practices as practices of empowerment' (Ginot 2011: 5).

This essay discusses the Feldenkrais Method as a critical resource within performer training. The essay draws on performance research undertaken between 2004 and 2012 and on pedagogical practice within international dance and actor training contexts. It examines the development of Feldenkrais-informed performance pedagogies as means to facilitate conditions for embodied selfcare, collaborative creative inquiry, and an embodied criticality through movement. There is a trend towards democratisation and collaborative practice in Western contemporary performance ecologies and training, calling for autonomous learners and reflective practitioners with a highly developed sense of agency, empathy and psycho-physical flexibility. The essay proposes that informing performer training through Feldenkrais processes and value systems can offer timely educational models that transcend notions of reductionist, discipline-oriented skills provision, by offering embodied modes of artistic questioning and aesthetic inquiry. It argues that the Feldenkrais Method (FM) offers emancipatory, empathy forming, and agency-constituting processes which can support an open-ended and rigorous approach to performer training. By drawing on trans-disciplinary critical theory frameworks the article suggests that FM, as a bio-psycho-social practice, fosters improved mobility, creative inquiry skills and complex thought through inter-subjective de-conditioning processes. It argues that the Feldenkrais Method offers a pedagogical foundation for the vitalising and integration of the learners' sexually potent self into training and performance processes.

This article takes a somatic dance standpoint to investigate bodily sensorial encounters with virtual reality technology (VR). Using somatic dance practices as sensory tuning methods, this article investigates the virtuality and corporeality of human and nonhuman bodies across virtual and physical environments and expanded sensory modes of seeing and feeling, using a multiperson interactive VR framework. Predicated on a dance-based sensibility and mode of engagement with VR, workshops crafted for groups of dancer and nondancer participants offer methods for the design and facilitation of VR encounters that expand ideas and expectations of both body and technology. Using autoethnographic writing and participant testimonies, alongside conceptual thinking around participation in VR, I present this methodological approach and demonstrate its potential to address new questions about VR experiences that are centred on the sensorial body.

For a few months, in 2020, the constant flow of people around the world stopped almost entirely because of the pandemic. Borders were closed, cities placed under blockade and various states of exception restricted or completely abrogated the right to move. The restrictions on movement created a new social choreography of daily movement in the urban public space that became a vast laboratory for political gestures based on movement. A new choreography that obeys social distancing guidelines started to be seen in the Israeli public space. But there were also other movement-based reactions to the new situation, ones that subversively disrupted the rules of exception and ones that resisted them out loud.

Her research activities are in field of cultural heritage education, public engagement, visual studies. She works with various italian institutions and cultural actors. The drawing of choreographers as performances in museum space. This article examines the choreographic installation Retranslation I Final Unfinished Portrait (Francis Bacon), by William Forsythe and Peter Welz in 2006 with the aim of highlighting that drawing as experience that makes possible to achieve multiple forms of representation: dance and choreography, painting and drawing, video and movement image. The installation will be approached as a case study for an educational reading aimed at giving visibility to the gesture as a mediation tool between drawing and the experience to open access to cultural heritage. At the parallel it will be shown how drawing is a fundamental component of the choreographic creative process and a link that permit to create aesthetic discourses between artistic languages. It is an interaction between three different disciplines and objects: the pictorial work Final Unfinished Portrait by Francis Bacon, the choreographic and performative intervention by Wil-

Цель исследования -раскрытие сущностных характеристик социального танца в аспекте философской антропологии. В статье обосновано, что социальный танец заслуживает более пристального изучения, поскольку он обладает сильным потенциалом воздействия на природу человека и общество. Научная новизна заключается в том, что современный социальный танец рассмотрен в философско-антропологическом аспекте. В результате исследования было выявлено, что социальный танец в современном обществе является уникальным танцевальным феноменом, так как он не сводится к предшествовавшим видам танца. В статье были выявлены онтологические характеристики социального танца как антропологического события, которое требует для своего существования пространство, свободу, решительность.

Tutkielman lähtökohtana on tanssin kytkös politiikkaan. Perinteisesti tanssia ja muita taiteita on politiikan tutkimuksen yhteydessä käsitelty politiikan kannalta marginaalisina tai täydentävinä ilmiöinä. Näissä tutkimuksissa politiikka ja tanssi mielletään selvästi erillisiksi kokonaisuuksiksi, joita sitten tarkastellaan valitussa kontekstissa tutkimalla esim. performatiivisuuden hyödyntämistä poliittisissa kampanjoissa. Tässä tutkimuksessa lähdetään liikkeelle päinvastaisesta asetelmasta; tanssi itsessään tuodaan politiikan keskiöön ja tarkastellaan sen näkökulmasta avautuvaa käsitystä politiikasta. Näin muodostetaan tanssista politiikan keskeinen paradigma. Teoreettisena lähtökohtana on Hannah Arendtin käsitys politiikasta praxiksen tilana, joka avautuu ihmisten välille toiminnan kautta. Lisäksi tätä prosessikäsitystä politiikasta tarkennetaan Giorgio Agambenin, Jean-Luc Nancyn ja Alain Badioun ajattelun kautta. Tutkielma on olemukseltaan varsin teoreettinen, mutta kuitenkin vahvasti kytköksissä empiiriseen materiaaliin. Tanssiparadigman konstruktiossa käytetään valottavana tapauksena improvisaatioon perustuvaa Katulavatanssit-tapahtumakonseptia. Metodina on kvalitatiivinen haastattelu-ja kyselyaineiston analysointi. Lisäksi ymmärrystä tanssista poliittisena täydennetään pääpiirteisellä kuvauksella modernin tanssin synnystä Yhdysvalloissa. Yksi tutkielman keskeisistä havainnoista on, että tanssi korreloi itse asiassa saumattomasti politiikan prosessikäsityksen kanssa; tanssi ei oman toimintansa lisäksi muodosta mitään ulkoista päämäärää tai lopputulosta. Käsitys muuttaa tosin hiukan muotoaan, kun tanssia ei katsota vain filosofialle tyypillisestä metaforisesta näkökulmasta, vaan tanssitaiteen itsensä kautta. Sekä Katulavatanssit-tapaus että nopea katsaus modernin tanssin historiaan osoittaa, että tanssi muodostuu aina kahden jännitteenkoreografia ja improvisaatio-ympärille. Näin tanssi muodostaa kaksisuuntaisen paradigman, jonka kautta politiikkaa voidaan jäsentää havainnoimalla kuinka nämä kaksi jännitettä tulevat valitussa kontekstissa esiin. Lopulta tutkielmassa palataan perinteisempään politiikan tutkimukseen tarkastelemalla liberaalin demokratian vaalijärjestelmää muodostetun paradigman kautta. Ehkä hiukan yllättävä johtopäätös on, että kaksisuuntainen prosessikäsitys kuvastaa osittain nk. elitististä käsitystä demokratiasta, jonka tunnetuimpia hahmoja on Joseph Schumpeter. Jos vaalit nähdään puhtaana kilpailuna äänistä, tämä voidaan kuvata tyypillisenä improvisaationa, joka on sidottu minimaaliseen rakenteeseen. Toisaalta tämä kilpailun tila on täyttynyt poliittisista puolueista ja intressiryhmistä, jotka edustavat tyypillisesti tiukkaan sidottua koreografiaa.

This book chapter is a reflection on uses of touch and physical contact as a movement tutor of theatre and performance students in HE settings, mainly at the BA ETA at Rose Bruford in London. Using physical contact in movement classes requires frequent re-contextualisation of the aims of the exercises and group check-ins.  Working with touch offers students tools for navigating different areas of attention, foci of perception and modes of presence whilst moving. Being in contact with others celebrates contradictions and connections between being and doing; the self and the other; sensing and meaning-making. By giving more space to “sensing” through somatic approaches to physical contact, the “making sense” or “meaning-making” processes unfold more organically, rooted in an embodied experience. Building on tactile-kinesthetic awareness, I analyse how I introduce principles from CI, physical and dance theatre enabling students to find expressions that avoid cliché narratives, illustration, and stereotypical or over-dramatised relationships.

This article examines the choreographic installation Retranslation I Final Unfinished Portrait (Francis Bacon), by William Forsythe and Peter Welz in 2006 with the aim of highlighting that drawing as experience that makes possible to achieve multiple forms of representation: dance and choreography, painting and drawing, video and movement image. The installation will be approached as a case study for an educational reading aimed at giving visibility to the gesture as a mediation tool between drawing and the experience to open access to cultural heritage. At the parallel it will be shown how drawing is a fundamental component of the choreographic creative process and a link that permit to create aesthetic discourses between artistic languages.  It is an interaction between three different disciplines and objects: the pictorial work Final Unfinished Portrait by Francis Bacon, the choreographic and performative intervention by William Forsythe and the digital dimension through which Pe...

В статье предлагается обзор недавно опубликованных книг о движении и танце. Среди них два переводных издания, входящих в серию GARAGE DANCE, – «Память крови: Автобиография» Марты Грэм и «Терпсихора в кроссовках. Танец постмодерн» Салли Бейнс. Социокультурные и психологические аспекты истории советской танцевальной самодеятельности рассматриваются в монографии Игоря Нарского. Среди англоязычных трудов, концептуализирующих движение и танец, книга Роджера Смита “The Sense of Movement: An Intellectual History”, первый фундаментальный труд, в котором собран разнообразный материал из физиологии, психологии и философии, а также наблюдения в области ходьбы, танца и т. д. В историко-типологическом контексте рассматривается научный дискурс о танце и движении. Танец как регулятор эмоционального режима – ведущая тема исследований, рассматривающих практику танца как сквозь призму личного биографического опыта (Грэм), так и как репрезентацию «хореографии» отношений между властью и народом в советскую эпоху (Нарский).

Design/methodology/approach – The authors review examples of Bateson's “great pattern” of “combination,” which the authors call the binary. Bateson showed that binary is the minimal solution to the problem of gaining new characteristics by combining parts into a larger whole. ...

Design/methodology/approach – The authors review examples of Bateson's “great pattern” of “combination,” which the authors call the binary. Bateson showed that binary is the minimal solution to the problem of gaining new characteristics by combining parts into a larger whole. ...

Every performing art has its caesura-a resting pause-a potent stillness in the rhythmic flow of action. For western contemporary dance, stillness is a powerful aesthetic tool. Far less understood are the physiological-and behaviouralbenefits of rest. While rest intervals routinely are prescribed in sports science to promote physiological recovery and improve performance, such protocols are unknown in dance. Somatic approaches ('somatics') purposely embed intervals of stillness and rest for active listening and reflection. This kind of intentional reduction in action alters typical space-time-effort values of a dance technique class, shifting attention to an array of kinaesthetic qualities, thoughts and feelings. While dance customarily relegates somatics to a wellness role, the larger behavioural implications of intentional rest within dance pedagogy merit further investigation. Although the purposes are not fully clarified, 'intentional rest' potentially allows a deeper level of embodied knowledge to surface and be directed towards self-regulation and change. This article addresses the somatic function of intentional rest within the context of dance training. The author provides an overview of the scientific evidence substantiating rest. Further, the author opens an inquiry into the behavioural values of intentional rest as gleaned from written reflections of Master's degree dance students in a seminar on somatics.

, when we walked toward the Wall dividing East and West Berlin, we already knew how to walk for a cause, how to walk for change, after months of participating in demonstrations throughout Leipzig and other East German cities. This walking was never a stroll, nor was it Benjamin's flaneuring. 1 It was also not a resolute hike toward a clearly demarcated goal. Rather the power of the walk was obtained through the impact on the space in which it occurred. This walk was a forceful attempt to gain new space. We did not know if the border guards would put a stop to our walk once we arrived at the checkpoint. 2 This uncertainty about the outcome made us all hyper-aware of our spatial choices as well as the choreography of our body postures while walking toward the Wall. This awareness differed from our daily consciousness of surveillance by the East German Intelligence Service. 3 Still, the choreographic tactics that we learned as a result of the experienced surveillance informed our movements.