Contemporary Choreography
Year: 2017
Type: book
Abstract: llt' sear ching embodied experiences of affect, feeling and emotion in site spec ific dance offers understandings beyond the visual and aesthetic aspects of perf ormanc e, opening consideration of both the performers' and audiences' par ticip atory experiences.In this chapter, I discuss embodied experiences within site-specifi c dance for designed gardens.I draw on over ten years of site-specific work created for a regional arts festival, for which I have had the opportunity to investigate choreographic approaches to complement and enhance specific sites through embodiment.To begin, I provide an introduction to site-specific dance and discuss how live performance events allow affect, feeling and emotion to arise.Drawing on a range of writers from varied disciplines, I discuss affect as a fluid and relational, collective experience that extends beyond individual expe riences as dancers, and may be shared with and between particular audiences at particular times and places.While theorizing offers some understanding of this experience, it is often difficult to express these embodied, collective experiences in words.Choreo graphic practice and research, alongside creative writing about key moments in these performances, provide an opportunity to illustrate these fleeting affec tive practices in words.Thus, in this chapter, moments when I felt I shared an experience with audiences, combined with written responses, recorded anec dotal comments from audience members and notes from discussions between performers, have been crafted into creative vignettes that are highlighted in italics within the text.My intent is to represent the affective experience of site specifi c dances within these vignettes.In conclusion, I reflect on how choreo graphic approaches to site-specific performance may offer our communities an enhanced emotional experience of local sites. Dance researchWithin dance research, practical methods in which investigating movement experie nces becomes central are of much value.An understanding of the notion of'e mbodiment' is useful in appreciating dance as much more than a visual ip ectacl e.I use the term embodiment to simultaneously and holistically incor porat e our differently nuanced and experienced constellations of cultural, social,
Source: Routledge eBooks
Language: English
Subfield: Visual Arts and Performing Arts
Field: Arts and Humanities
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W1508752806