Dance studies (Theatre Studies)

L’autrice ha selezionato e analizzato con una prospettiva storica l’ampio materiale documentario presente nell’Archivio del Teatro Club, situato nella Biblioteca “Antonio Baldini” di Roma, con il fine di portare alla luce la ricca e innovativa produzione degli eventi di danza organizzati dall’Associazione nei suoi primi anni, dal 1957 al 1966. Il saggio si concentra inoltre su alcuni spettacoli significativi per l’originalità delle scelte artistiche della programmazione e rispetto a ciò che offriva il panorama teatrale italiano in quel preciso momento storico, proponendo diversi spunti di riflessione su un argomento ancora inesplorato dagli studi di storia della danza e di cui si dà una prima puntuale ricognizione.

The Innovative Dance Seasons at Teatro Club of Anne d’Arbeloff and Gerardo Guerrieri

The author has selected and analyzed, from a historical perspective, the large material preserved in the Teatro Club Archive at the “Antonio Baldini” Library in Rome, with the aim to reveal the various and innovative production of dance events organized by the Association in its first years, from 1957 to 1966. The essay focuses also on some significant performances for the originality of the artistic selection concerning the season programs in the Italian theatre of the Fifties and Seventies, proposing several reasons for a reflection on an argument not yet investigated by the history of dance and of which the author offers a first accurate inquiry.

This paper explores the effect of the #MeToo movement in dance and, more specifically, how the re-emergence of female cho-reography in ballet can attribute certain consequences in changes of aesthetics in the art form and the normalisation of women's repertoire in major ballet companies to the movement. The paper takes a chronological look at the last three decades, focusing geographically in the United States and the United Kingdom in order to provide a framework that may explain the changes that have taken place in the sector in the last few years. Feminist and gender studies will provide the academic framework to analyse the press and media articles that seem to have played a major role in this resurgence of female choreography and leadership in the sector. Academic studies regarding the lack of parity in the sector at the upper tier of major companies and the historical neglect of women's contributions to the development of the art form will also be considered in the analysis of recent changes in the sector. Miranda Fricker's theory on  epistemic  injustice  will  also  provide  valuable  help  in  establishing  the possible factors that may have contributed to this historical neglect and  its  present  consequences.  The  analysis  will  be  mainly  qualitative  through the internal and external analysis of the collected sources.

Statutes of “limpieza de sangre” (blood purity) legislated Spain’s vast empire from the fifteenth through the eighteenth centuries, condemning non-Christians—Jews, Muslims, Black Africans, Native Americans—and also Roma—to exile, bondage, and extirpation. “Raza” (“race”) signified the Blackness of religious difference in dance as in other fields. As courtly Spanish dance performs harmonious Christian virtue, flamenco vibrates with the murderous rage and howling desolation of Abel’s heretically discordant, outcast brother, Cain. Here follow some reflections on my Jewish identity as a portal through which to step into creative and ethical alignment with flamenco’s radical homelessness.

The Book titled “Hasta Mudra Therapy – An effective aspect of Dance Therapy” deals with various disciplines like Dance, Therapy, Dance Therapy, Hasta Mudra Therapy, Hasta Mudras used in Dance, Yoga, Hindu and Buddhist religious practices; Physiology of palm, Pharmacokinetics and Acupressure. This Book is the result of the PhD thesis titled “A study of Dance Therapy with specific reference to Hasta Mudra Therapy”, submitted to University of Hyderabad, Telangana, India, which fetched me a PhD degree. The research involved a comprehensive study and analysis of the above mentioned disciplines to substantiate the work and prove it scientifically. Dance is an ocean which has boundless and inexhaustible benefits hidden in it. Dance involves all the fine arts, it encompasses mathematics, physics, chemistry, biology, management; it is closely associated to mythology; imbibes culture and tradition; involves language with technical grammar; improves communication skills & memory; cultivates discipline; it is a fitness health, entertainment & refreshment; imparts knowledge and above all it is divine and next to God. Dance can also be a mode of therapy, a skill which keeps you fit and good health. Practicing dance nurtures the body just like any other physical training or meditation. Although dance has been a method of expression for centuries, it wasn’t until recently that it was characterized as a form of therapy. Dance Therapy research has been undertaken to heal both physical and mental illness, however, Dance as a whole or Dance Movement analysis is only considered as the research topic. Dance Therapy research in specific to Hasta Mudras is not done till 2008, which prompted me to choose it as my PhD research topic, as most of the Indian classical Dance forms use the Hasta Mudras to communicate Dance. From the study, it is obvious that, Dance therapy and in specific Hasta Mudra Therapy, can be a potential alternative therapy which has been proved and established.

Anachoresis in Greek is defined as an act of departure, a withdrawal from the world, a term related to what we are currently experiencing in the crisis of the pandemic. ANEW is a choreographic response to the current abruptness of withdrawal from public space, part of the Anachoresis project occupying the Cyprus Pavilion at the 17 th International Architecture Exhibition / La Biennale di Venezia which suggests new ways of being or living together. The artistic questions shaping the score for movement in ANEW focus on re-imagining and recreating new spatial and social contracts in search of new relationships between individuals, within constructions of domestic spaces and cities.

This is the edited text of the keynote speech given by Professor Vladimir Mirodan at 'The Makings of the Actor: Embodiment in Acting Practice' international conference, hosted by the Copenhagen International School of Performing Arts (CISPA), 23-24 October 2021.


Size Matters
The influence of Expressionism on modern acting or ‘How far can you go?’


I have been fascinated – it seems forever ¬– by a question that matters very little to academics but a great deal to actors and directors: ‘How big can I be’?  A question that often keeps actors awake, in particular when they are asked to embody characters that ¬– as Henry James said about Ibsen's – ‘have the brilliant property of becoming when represented at once more abstract and more living’?

How does ‘embodiment’ achieve a union between the idea and the body that is both shatterproof and vibrant enough that it may be ‘read’ by the spectator?  Struggling with this very question, Antony Sher once wrote:

I find the classics difficult to watch and to understand.  So I like them done by Brook or Adrian Noble or the Rustaveli Company; I need them to be made vivid, illustrated to some extent. 

Great!  But how do you ‘illustrate”?  How far does ‘to some extent’ go?  When does a gesture meant to be ‘flamboyant’ turn into ‘posturing’?

One of the answers seems to me to reside in what the Russian school of acting calls the ‘amplitude’ of movement.  How one deals with amplitude in the rehearsal room swings maddeningly between the ’believable’ and the ‘exaggerated’, with the ‘expressive’ as a ‘sweet point’ somewhere between the two.  My talk unpacks some of this process, tracing its roots to the influence of important teachers of movement for actors who introduced into British actor-training establishments the ideas and methodologies of Continental Expressionism:  Rudolf Laban, Litz Pisk, Yat Malmgren, etc.  The marriage of Continental and British acting traditions that followed gave rise to a particular style of acting I describe as ‘attenuated expressionism’.  And there are pictures from Expressionist art to bring this notion home!

In actor training, much effort is expended on developing a ‘sense of what feels right’ when it comes to amplitude.  My talk ends by outlining the role of ‘histrionic sensibility’ or ‘talent’ and the need for innate inclinations in this area to be recognised and developed in training. 

So that you may get a sense of the direction of travel, here is a thought from the great American designer Robert Edmund Jones:

Realism is something we practice when we aren’t feeling very well.  When we don’t feel up to making the extra effort.

Автор этой статьи исходит из убеждения, что именно история
культуры, а не естественные науки или психология может пролить
свет на вопрос о природе эмоций. В жизни мы часто неявно посту*
лируем, что эмоции — это наиболее прямой, непосредственный,
моментальный ответ человека на воспринятое им событие, слово,
образ. Это житейское представление об эмоциях как «естествен*
ном» ответе организма на воздействие (в английском языке есть для
этого хороший термин — а gut reaction, т.е. реакция, которая идет
«изнутри», буквально — «из кишок») переняли современные есте*
ственные науки.

Savaş sonrası Japonya’sında ortaya çıkan öncü bir dans olan butō, bedenin özel bir
kavranışına dayanan kendine özgü bir estetiğe sahiptir. Bu estetik, ana akım dansın “ideal beden” anlayışının tersine, modern yaşamın bir sonucu olarak sakatlanmış ve acı çekmekte olduğuna inanılan insan bedeninin bütün çıplaklığı ile sahne üzerinde sergilenmesi ve bu yolla özgürleştirilmesiyle ilgilenmektedir. Bu makale, butō’daki beden anlayışını kavramsallaştırmak üzere, postdramatik tiyatro ve Merleau-Ponty felsefesinin bedene bakışlarına odaklanmaktadır. Butō dansçıdan tüm toplumsal örüntülerin ve benliğin ötesinde yer alan, fakat aynı zamanda tüm diğer canlılar ve şeylerle birlikte dünyanın bir parçası olan “et-beden”inin ifadesini araştırmasını ve aynı anda hem özne hem de nesne olan bu bedeni herhangi bir şeyi temsil etme ihtiyacı duymadan saf mevcudiyeti ile sahne üzerinde sergilemesini bekler. Bu, dansçının bedenini mutlak bir edilgenlik içinde dünyaya vermesi ve kendini ondan gelecek etkileşimlere açmasıyla mümkün olacaktır.

Butoh, which is an avant-garde dance, which has emerged in post-war Japan,
has a distinctive aesthetics that depends on a specific understanding of the body. In contrast to the sense of “ideal body” in mainstream dance, this aesthetics is interested in staging of the suffering human body, which is believed to be crippled as a result of modern life, so that it will be emancipated. In order to conceptualize the understanding of body in butoh, this article focuses on the views of body in postdramatic theater and the philosophy of Merleau-Ponty. Butoh demands from the dancer to search the expression of his/her “flesh-body”, which stands beyond the social patterns and the self, but is a part of the world with other living beings and things, and display this body, which is at the same time a subject and an object, in its pure presence without feeling any need for representing something. This can only be possible, if the dancer gives her body to the world with ultimate passivity and open him/herself to any possible interactions.

Arnold Jacobshagen / Elisabeth Schmierer (Hrsg.): Sachlexikon des Musiktheaters. Laaber-Verlag 2016
667 Seiten mit 163 Abbildungen.
Geb. € 78,– (Subskriptionspreis bis 31.10.2016, danach ca. € 88,–)
ISBN 978–3–89007–781–9
Das Musiktheater mit seinen Hauptgattungen Oper, Ballett und Musical ist unter den darstellenden Künsten die beliebteste: Es zieht in Deutschland weitaus mehr Besucher an als das Sprechtheater. Das Sachlexikon des Musiktheaters erschließt erstmals umfassend und alphabetisch die Praxis und Theorie sowie die Gattungen und Schauplätze des Musiktheaters in Geschichte und Gegenwart. Es richtet sich nicht nur an alle Interesssenten und Besucher des Musiktheaters, sondern ist als Kompendium für angehende Sänger, Orchestermusiker, Dirigenten, Dramaturgen oder Regisseure ebenso konzipiert wie für Studierende und Lehrende an Universitäten, Hochschulen und weiterführenden Schulen.
Ein zentrales Augenmerk gilt dabei der Bühnenpraxis: Wie sieht eine Sängerlaufbahn aus? Welche rechtlichen und ökonomischen Rahmenbedingungen sind im Musiktheater zu berücksichtigen? Was geschieht beim Umbau des Bühnenbildes? Wie werden Requisiten, Kostüme und Kulissen hergestellt? Wie teuer ist die Oper wirklich? Welche Medien werden bei Produktionen des Musiktheaters eingesetzt? Ebenso umfassend wird die Theorie des Musiktheaters behandelt, von den musik- und theaterwissenschaftlichen Fachbegriffen bis zur historischen Darstellung aller einschlägigen Gattungen und Genres. Nicht zuletzt werden auch die nationalen und internationalen Theaterzentren in Städteartikeln vorgestellt.
Die breite inhaltliche Ausrichtung spiegelt sich auch im Spektrum der Autorinnen und Autoren: Neben Musik- und Theaterwissenschaftlern haben auch zahlreiche renommierte Experten aus der Bühnenpraxis, darunter Intendanten, Dramaturgen, Künstler, Bühnentechniker und Kulturmanager am Sachlexikon des Musiktheaters mitgewirkt.

Rasa plays a very prominent role in performing arts. It is the soul and motive for a successful performance of a dance, an act or a play. If Rasa is to be of any moment and significance, it must necessarily be educated and explored. This research article might provoke thought and further inspire the performer to devise various ways and means in understanding the concept and significance of Rasa and incorporate the same in their performances. It would also facilitate in creating interest among individuals and professionals and further help in taking up in-depth research in this domain.This study has been undertaken to investigate the aesthetics of the sentiments and their interpretation in Kuchipudi dance.

pp. 426-439 of publication.

Water is considered a metaphor of adaptability and change. In literary history, it has also symbolized qualities such as purity (or making pure) and power, especially as a synecdoche of the ocean. Often, its mutability has brought with it an association of being ‘fickle’, as when Shakespeare’s Antony turns tail to follow Cleopatra away from battle.  He berates himself as “dislimned …as water is in water”.
Water as a substance, however, is remarkably stable and consistent to itself.  Water is highly responsive, but retains integrity. In fact, by dint of its consistency—as stabiliser, conduit, mediator, regulator and even boundary-definer within the systemic fields in which we live--it is the very guardian of the life systems we need in order to survive.
As our bodies are comprised of over 70% water, one could presume it logical to behave like water. I suggest, however, that water’s qualities of responsiveness and resilience are just what we resist—that its vulnerable authority is considered a weakness against which we tend to be on guard. Only by dropping that defensiveness can we begin to find non-damaging solutions to our current ecological crises.
This paper draws parallels between water’s features (such as strong hydrogen bonding, specific heat capacity, surface tension and hydrophobic qualities) and the kinds of realisation that are made, through sensory experience and training, in theatre and dance ecology praxis. I take as an exemplar the recent site-responsive performance work of Melbourne’s Environmental Performance Agency (or EPA). I also take up Krippendorf’s suggestion that, if it made sense to us, communication within and around ecological thinking could be more a cooperative dialogue, as between dancers, instead of a battle.  Other models of non-agonistic relationship include indigenous, shamanic and non-Western medical practices.  Such models can alter the metaphors we live by, and hence too the nature of our decisions and engagements with the world.

The dissertation is about the choreomusical (dance/music) relationship in western concert dance (ballet and modern dance). More specifically, it is an interrogative study of how we are able to perceive and think about choreomusical relations. The dissertation opens with an introductory chapter on the theoretical and methodological framework of the project, particularly the concepts of discourse and history associated with Michel Foucault. The major bulk of the dissertation consists of three parts -1) A History of  Choreomusical Relations, 2) Choreomusical Research and 3) The Conditions of Discourse. This is followed by a concluding chapter and appendices.
Part One focuses on the conceptual formation of the relationship between dance and music as it emerges from discourses that occupy three different historical spaces: 1450 - 1750, 1750 -1875 and 1875 - 1975. The aim of the history is to expose the conditions of choreomusical discourse and to show how the relationship between music and dance is informed by the issue of gender, ideology and social categorisation. Implicit in the history is a critique of the prevalent notion of a linear development towards mid-twentieth century enlightenment represented by the Cage/Cunningham non-relation poetic.
Part Two presents a discussion of the choreomusical methodologies that have been proposed within the last decades. Moreover it applies contemporary theories of film music, new musicology and cognitive semantics to the development of choreomusical research. One chapter investigates the twentieth-century tables of choreomusical relationships in order to clarify how the parallel parameters are informed by causal relationships between movement and sound as well as metaphorical mappings. Furthermore it is proposed that the lack of interest in the relationship between music and dance within dance research is due to a kind of feminism that emerges from the metaphorical understanding of dance as female and music as male.
Part Three is dedicated to a very detailed analysis of Mark Morris' Gloria (1981, revised in 1984). The primary aim is to demonstrate how critics of Morris' choreomusical poetic have failed to understand it within the light of postmodernism. In other words the thesis is that the self-reflexive or ironical play with our notion of visualisation or correspondences between dance and music is yet another postmodernist aspect of Morris' work. The new reading of Morris' choreomusical poetic proposes that it provides an artistic manifestation of that which Foucault has defined as the rule of the tactical polyvalence of discourses.  More specifically, the interpretation of Gloria suggests that the central meaning of the work is an exposition of the conditions of choreomusical discourse. Gloria reinforces choreomusical discourse but also undermines it, renders it fragile and makes it possible to thwart it. As such the choreomusical self-reflexivity is a valuable resistant aspect of Morris' work.

Corporeity can be shown as an important study element of the relations between individuals, indicating a singular modus for the development of cognitive-affective processes. The aim of this study was to develop a reflection, starting from the analysis of a creative process that involved the realization of a poetic-theatrical experiment, in order to investigate how the dynamics between the word and the subtext were processed, using corporeity as argument for the explanation of the signification process. The thesis that I defend is that corporeity is the element that propitiate the process of signification, and the subtext being the in-between-place of this communication, establishing this dynamic as a pedagogy of the theatrical event. The dramaturgy of corporeity proposes a working way, originating from an intense intimate dynamization between the sensorial, corporeal, affective, aesthetical, esthesical, volitional, synaesthesical and imagery perceptions developed at the moment of the actors’ creative process. The working procedure addressing the dramaturgy of corporeity would also be a methodological alternative for the actors to learn to understand themselves as artists-educators and on how to make their work a potentiator of the link between these two words. In this study, the poetic-theatrical experiment, based on the text Prometheus Chained, by Aeschylus, was carried out as fieldwork, in order to foster the reflexive motes necessary for understanding the moments of aesthetic living, essential to an understanding of how pedagogy of the theatrical event works. With this work, it was possible to elucidate a differentiated way of operating the cognitive-affective processes, which occurs through the relations of corporeity. This fact made it possible to establish a singular means of educational, cognitive-affective processes, detached from traditional meanings in the field of education which usually think of them when focused through cognitive cognitive-encephalic analyzes. Thus, it was possible to observe the experiential relationships that occur during the theatrical event as an important field in the area of education, which has not yet received an explanatory approach as developed in this research.

This thesis presents new research on artistic performances of North Korean migrants living in South Korea through critical analyses of three case studies. Two of the case studies are focused on a North Korean migrant women's musical troupe, and one on a choir of North Korean and South Korean youths. Much extant research on North Korean migrants adopts the methodologies of ethnographic research, but this thesis is firmly grounded in the discipline of performance studies. Also drawing on work from trauma studies, gender studies, and cultural studies, I embrace decolonizing and de–Westernizing methodologies, and feminist principles, as central guidelines for my analyses of the performances. My original contribution to knowledge demonstrates how the artists performatively exchange and transmit historical cultural memory, and circulate collective affects related to Korean national division, through their art. The content of each case study reflects a specific aspect of the present socio–political condition of divided Korea, which I argue is haunted by three core traumas in its modern history: colonization, war, and subsequent national division. These past traumas set into motion cycles of repeated violence and suffering that persist in the socio–historical, political, and cultural circumstances in which the performances take place in the present. Asymmetrical relations of power and privilege inhere as the North Korean artists entertain South Korean audiences on the South Korean stage, in a cultural and spatiotemporal environment that produces and maintains practices of gendered epistemic violence, neoliberal capitalism, and classism. As the North Korean performers and South Korean spectators gaze at each other from unequal positionalities, collective affects are produced and exchanged in the performance space through sound, movement, and kinesthetic empathy. Generating moments of tenderness, sentiment, love, and hope for future reconciliation in their embodied representations, gestures, and voices, the artists summon "utopian performatives"; moments of collective vision and healing that imagine a better future for all. Thus, in the midst of the great cycles of dismay, violence, and trauma that haunt contemporary Korea, the performers access hope, beauty, and love in different ways in each performance.

Immersive media is a hot topic, especially in the United States. The novelty value of Punchdrunk's Sleep No More, which became New York's hottest ticket in 2011 and 2012, has positioned the British company's trademark brand of "immersive theater" at the front of debate about new media and the future of storytelling. This work is supposed to "shatter" the fourth wall of traditional non-immersive theater, and spectators describe the experience as "mind-blowing." For audiences, the ability to interact physically with objects and the actors' bodies is the core of this hardcore theater experience. But it can be argued that Punchdrunk does very little to engage the fourth wall and that its commodification of the one-on-one encounter bypasses an opportunity to break down the distinction between audience and performer, the radical boundary crossing that immersive media is supposed to achieve. Both media pundits and performance scholars have been remiss in praising this sexy new theater. Comparing scope for theatrically significant audience-actor interaction here and in théâtre érotique, I propose that sex shows, while acknowledging their foundation in sex and voyeurism, may in fact produce a theater less compromised by voyeurism and audience neediness than Punchdrunk's theater of intimacy. The argument is not that SNM isn't serious theater because it's too much like a skin show, but that the skin show might do more as theater.

El presente artículo analiza la funcionalidad del canon, entendido como un dispositivo de subjetivación artística, en la danza contemporánea periférica. Luego de la introducción de casos etnográficos provenientes del campo de la danza de Buenos Aires, el trabajo se focaliza en la discusión de conceptos operantes como el de canon, progreso, modernismo, movimiento y nacionalismo. En última instancia, se propone concebir los aportes del concepto de barroco barroso de Néstor Perlongher y de desidentificación de José Esteban Muñoz, como estrategias político estéticas de subversión del canon. Pugnar por una coreopolítica de la abundancia es entender al arte, particularmente a aquel que compromete al cuerpo en movimiento, como un terreno para la construcción de nuevas formas de vida.

As a dancer and choreographer who works with South Asian movement and dance forms to create contemporary political dance theatre, I find myself constantly negotiating my way through the constraints placed upon the creative process by a context over-determined by overlapping stereotypes. The need to work through generalized yet flattening metanarratives about racial and cultural difference also complicates the process of evolving a critical, embodied, multi-focal, and shifting engagement with "tradition" and mythology. In the context of violent fundamentalisms and essentialisms, stories associated with religion-mythology-seem difficult to touch, while the hierarchies inherent in the constituting of specific cultural practices as "tradition" are hard to ignore. At the same time, artists of color are under tremendous pressure to reexamine and sift through these problematic yet potentially enriching texts to offer alternative readings, contesting the Euro-American West's positioning of itself as the repository of all libratory thought.

RESUMEN – Pina Bausch en Brasil: fruta, vestidos, felicidad y Água – En este artículo nos aproximamos de manera general a la obra de Pina Bausch y a sus procesos de creación con la com-pañía Tanztheater Wuppertal. Desde este marco nos centramos en su trabajo en residencia por algu-nas ciudades del mundo y lo describimos como un repertorio cartográfico que aporta, desde la esce-na, una perspectiva histórica transfronteriza y transmoderna. A partir de los recorridos por las ciu-dades, explicamos en términos de antropofagia cultural su relación con América Latina, particular-mente con Brasil analizando algunas escenas de la pieza Água (2001) con las que se cuestionan este-reotipos como el placer, la identidad, el género y la felicidad. Palabras-clave: Danza-Teatro. Performance. Canibalismo. Cuerpo. Género.
ABSTRACT – Pina Bausch in Brazil: fruit, costumes, happiness and Água – This article approaches the work of Pina Bausch and the creative processes of the Tanztheater Wuppertal Company. The focus is on the work developed during her residencies in several cities around the world, a cartographic repertoire that provides a trans-border and trans-modern historical perspective from the stage. Through the analysis of several scenes of her Água (Water) piece (2001), and the stereotypes of pleasure, identity, gender and happiness, Bausch's relationship to Latin America (especially Brazil) is described here as an exercise in cultural cannibalism. RÉSUMÉ – Pina Bausch au Brésil. Des fruits, des vêtements, du bonheur et Água – Le présent article offre une vision générale de l'oeuvre de Pina Bausch et ses processus créatifs au sein de la compagnie Tanztheater Wuppertal. Dans cette optique, nous nous concentrons sur son travail lors de ses séjours dans plusieurs villes du monde et nous le décrivons sous la forme d'un répertoire cartographique qui apporte une perspective historique transfrontalière et transmoderne du point de vue de la scène. À partir de son parcours urbain, nous expliquons en termes d'anthropophagie culturelle, sa relation avec l'Amérique latine, en particulier avec le Brésil, en analysant certaines scènes de sa pièce Água (2001) qui remet en question certains stéréotypes comme le plaisir, l'identité, le genre et le bonheur. Mots-clés: Danse-Théâtre. Performance. Cannibalisme. Corps. Genre.

This collection of essays poses a series of questions revolving around nonsense, cacophony, queerness, race, and the dancing body. How can flamenco, as a diasporic complex of performance and communities of practice frictionally and critically bound to the complexities of Spanish history, illuminate theories of race and identity in performance? How can we posit, and argue for, genealogical relationships within and between genres across the vast expanses of the African—and Roma—diaspora? Neither are the essays presented here limited to flamenco, nor, consequently, are the responses to these questions reduced to this topic. What all the essays presented here do share is the wish to come together, across disciplines and subject areas, within the academy and without, in the whirling, raucous, and messy spaces where the body is free—to celebrate its questioning, as well as the depths of wisdom and knowledge it holds and sometimes reveals.

Влияние творчества Пины Бауш на формирование интердисциплинарных практик в современном танце. В статье рассматривается один из векторов развития современного танца во второй половине ХХ века, начало которого прослеживается в художественной практике немецкого хореографа Пины Бауш. Её сотрудничество с драматургом Раймундом Хохе – один из самых характерных примеров начала интеграции теоретического дискурса интердисциплинарности в практический, а ее подход к перераспределению сил внутри художественного процесса – пример смещения внутри модернистской иерархической структуры. В статье рассмотрены образцы танцевальной драматургии как интердисциплинарного решения художественных задач современного танца на российской сцене. Ключевые слова: современный танец, Пина Бауш, танц-драматургия, интердисциплинарный подход The article overviews one of the vectors of contemporary dance's development in the second half of the XX century which can be traced in Pina Baush's, a famous German choreographer, artistic practice. Her collaboration with dramaturge Raimund Hoghe is one of the most cited examples of the integration of theoretical discours into practice in the field, and her approach towards the rearrangement of the roles within the artistic process – reflecting the hierarchical shift in the modernist structure. The article reviews the examples of dance dramaturgical approach as a means of interdisciplinary solutions for artistic tasks on Russian contemporary dance stage.

The Ministry of Movement Affairs and nadaproductions are happy to announce the presentation of the first publication of the project Endangered Human Movements with the Title Four remarks on the history of dance which will accompany the performance with the same name.

Endangered Human Movements is a multi-disciplinary project including visual arts, performance and a series of publications. Four Remarks on the History of Dance is a discursive and artistic journey through the disappearance of movement. The Four Remarks in this book are meant to be a collection of contributions towards the expansion of a narrative that has been historically ethnocentric, enriching that narrative with indigenous movements and perspectives, unknown, sidelined and exoticized for centuries. The texts on the movements of Water, Air, Fire and Earth are conceived as notes on the empty spaces of dance history (and perhaps history in general). They do not claim to be purely academic, but are first and foremost an imaginary journey that deals – by way of free associations – with a contemporary interpretation of dances found in ethnographic films, documentary film archives, YouTube videos, in first person accounts, oral tradition, rumours, and legends. The book contains contributions from a variety of academic fields highlighting especially the conditions of disappearance of cultural expression.

This study essentially aims to put forward the conceptual framework for a transmission project for safeguarding the traditional dances of the people of Circassian origin living in Turkey. Today, due to modernisation and urbanisation, these dances are less and less known and practiced by the members of younger generations, and therefore, a transmission project which would bring different generations together is required. When structuring such a project is in question, significant questions such as what kind of transmission approach is to be chosen and which values must be given importance and priority in this approach emerge. In order to provide answers to these questions, the article identifies as its guides the basic principles in UNESCO's 2003 Convention for the Safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity, as well as the contextual approaches in dance studies which bring up criticisms regarding certain points in the convention. According to the convention, safeguarding intangible cultural heritage elements such as traditional Circassian dances begins with safeguarding the conditions that ensures the viability of these elements. Besides, UNESCO places particular emphasis on the involvement of local communities, which have until now kept these elements viable and have considered them as part of their identity, to this process of safeguarding. The article first discusses how these dances are viable within the Circassian community at their habitual cultural context, and deduces that these dances are shaped by the concepts of play and xabze that are peculiar to Circassian community. Xabze is the name given to unwritten rules and regulations, which determine almost all social behaviours in Circassian community. With the purpose of maintaining a social order that is based on respect, love and kindness, xabze sets forth strict rules, but it also has a flexible structure that is open to the transformation of these rules in order adapt to changing conditions. Being determined by xabze to a great extent, Circassian dances also provide a convenient environment for the transmission of xabze through generations. On the other hand, the dances in question are referred to with the term "play" both in Circassian languages and Turkish, and the way they are practiced bears the primary qualities of play and playing. As a result, in a project for safeguarding Circassian dances, this study proposes to embrace a transmission approach which prioritises before anything else the safeguarding of the two fundamental contextual elements that shape these practices: xabze and playfulness. At the end of the article, a proposal for a transmission project which follows this conceptual framework and which will be led by the members of Circassian community is presented in outline. In this proposed project, the researchers would act as catalysers of the communication of dance knowledge through generations rather than authorities who exercise control over this knowledge. In conclusion, the article aims to contribute to the fields of dance studies and intangible cultural heritage studies, as well as suggesting a conceptual framework for prospective transmission projects for safeguarding traditional Circassian dances and/or similar cultural elements.

Alexander H. Schwan nimmt den bekannten Vergleich von Tanzen und Schreiben neu in den Blick und entwickelt erstmals eine umfassende Poetik der Bewegung als körperliche Schrift: écriture corporelle. Im intensiven Dialog mit Schrift- und Bildtheorien analysiert er herausragende Arbeiten postmoderner und zeitgenössischer Choreographie, die Tanzbewegungen als ephemere Einschreibung im Raum organisieren. Er zeigt exemplarisch auf, wie diese Körperfigurationen als Veränderung eines imaginären Schriftbildes betrachtet werden können. So eröffnet die Studie wichtige theoretische Perspektiven für die Tanzwissenschaft und verändert die Wahrnehmung von Bewegung: Tanz wird sichtbar als flüchtiges Schreiben und unlesbare Schrift im Raum.

This thesis entitled Dance, Compose, Deconstruct, De-Compose is a practice-based research project in the field of Dance Studies. The notion of de-composition as it is explored in my practical work, 'Piece pieced in pieces', critiques the method of composition as it is outlined in the New South Wales, Board of Studies, Dance Stage 6 Syllabus. Dance, as it is framed in this syllabus, acts as a medium through which a choreographer represents a ‘concept/intent’ (NSW Board of Studies 2009, p.25). A successful work is therefore deemed as such when the elements of composition signify the choreographer’s intentions. As I depart from an essentially early 20th Century ‘modernist’ foundation in dance making, I will demonstrate how my understanding of de-composition falls into the philosophical paradigm of Neo-Dadaism. In doing so, I will prescribe a set of de-compositional strategies which will challenge the production and form of choreography, as well as the choreographer’s sense of authorship in a dance work.

This interdisciplinary series explores cultural formation and evolution by understanding matrices of performance discourse and religious, gender, racial, political and economic complexities. It welcomes proposals on drama, theatre, dance, music, theory and praxis related to Performance Studies from the South Asian region and beyond. It discusses the performance history, diverse practices, customs, and principles prevalent in urban and hinterland spaces. The primary aim of this series is to incorporate not just individual urban voices but to examine the marginalized vocabularies and understand their agency and “affect”-edness. It deals with aesthetic practices or practices that have a stated artistic goal and performances that may be non-artistic in their objectives. The series invites original monographs, edited books, and handbooks.

For inquiries and submission of proposals, authors can contact the Series Editor, Manujendra Kundu, via: [email protected]

Dances have been always noticed as an important cultural phenomenon over time. Ceremonial dances analysis and investigation which is presenting deep stories of history and myths can be effective to understand these dances better. Khorasan as an ancient land with magnificent geography is been full of vicissitudes in epochs, which today′s ceremonies have been deriving from those old histories. Fortunately, lots of researches have been done about Eastern Khorasan′s dances. However, we didn't conduct any comprehensive research yet about another common ceremonial dance called ʺWooden Horse Danceʺ which they are performing in different cities or even in other countries. This article with using different methods like: field observations, library researches and interviews with some of professional dancers, tries to achieve a comprehensive analysis and undertesting about the wooden horse dance concept and form in Khorasan area. After Mongol invasion to Khorasan, wooden horse dance formed, and it was used as a camouflage in practicing army motions and fake wars in front of opponents.

In her article "Towards a Framework of a Semiotics of Dance" Nicoleta Popa Blanariu constructs a framework of based on de Saussure's, Peirce's, and Barthes's thought. She applies Ferdinand de Saussure's concept of semiosis defined as a cultural system of conventions. In dance this occurs when choreographic signs are encoded, for example in magic, ritual, or religious expressions of movement. Further, Charles Sanders Peirce's concept of the role of "intelligent consciousness" is crucial for the engendering of signification and thus to dance. In dance, the choreographer "interprets" the world and by means of selection and interpretation, the choreographic sign reveals its object and this process is related to abstraction. In semiosis dance involves a process of "culturalization" (Barthes), whereby codes of dance represent the spontaneity of "natural" of movements and feelings within a repeatable system of expression. Last but not least, Edmund Husserl's notion that dance belongs to the domain of "pre-reflexivity" of signal and entails symbolic qualities derived from its embedding of cultural codes is employed by Popa Blanariu in her building a framework of the semiotics of dance.

El caso Caaporá, un proyecto de ballet moderno sobre leyendas guaraníes que ideó Ricardo Güiraldes junto con Alfredo González Garaño en 1915, ha ganado interés y cobrado mayor visibilidad en los últimos años. El proyecto, tanto por el argumento como por los diseños plásticos llamó la atención de una de las primeras figuras de Les Ballets Russes: Vaslav Nijinsky. En este artículo se reflexionará sobre Caaporá como problema de análisis histórico, con la intención de dar cuenta tanto de aquellos indicios del proyecto como de las nebulosas históricas que producen y reproducen esas huellas. Quizás esta aproximación nos permita interrogarnos sobre el carácter mítico y utópico de Caaporá en una desde ya inacabada Historia de la Danza en Argentina.

Revi sta Vari aci ones 3 Revi sta Vari aci ones La rel aci ón entre el bai l e fl amenco y l a emoci ón 7 Revi sta Vari aci ones Apuntes acerca del aprendi zaje del bai l e fl amenco 10 Revi sta Vari aci ones Apuntes acerca del aprendi zaje del bai l e fl amenco 'con El rEspEto y la tolErancia sE da la paz.'

El coreógrafo francés Jérôme Bel utiliza de una manera particular los recursos usualmente conocidos que componen un montaje de danza, para producir espectáculos que se cuestionen sobre la concepción misma de este tipo de piezas con el fin de generar un discurso de crítica a la representación teatral. Es así como la construcción de la negación, que se presenta en el concepto de teatro posdramático, es el componente principal para generar dicha crítica, la cual se manifiesta mediante la noción de ausencia que se presenta en varios de sus elementos como son el cuerpo, el espacio y el tiempo. De este modo es que Bel lleva al extremo dichos factores hasta alcanzar la situación límite a la que llegan todos los sistemas formales: la autorreferencia; lo que origina que la danza se convierta en una entidad autorreproductora que se expresa sobre sí misma, como una especie de metadanza. De esta manera, Bel crea una nueva forma de trabajo coreográfico en donde la audiencia colabora en la autorreproducción de la danza, ya que contribuye a que emerja la sensación de infinito: dos espejos que se encuentran frente a frente y que son obligados a reflejarse mutuamente durante el desarrollo del montaje.
Palabras clave: Jérôme Bel, No Danza, teatro posdramático, ausencia, metadanza

French choreographer Jérôme Bel uses in a particular way the usually known resources that are part of a dance performance, to produce shows that question the very conception of this type of pieces in order to create a critical discourse to the theatrical representation in their shows. This is how the construction of negation, which is presented in the concept of postdramatic theater, is the main component to create such criticism, which is manifested by the notion of absence that occurs in several of its elements such as body, space and time. In this way, Bel takes these factors to extremes until arriving at the limit situation reached by all the formal systems: self-reference, which causes that dance becomes a self-reproducing entity that expresses itself, as a kind of metadance. In this way, Bel creates a new mode of choreographic work where the audience collaborates in the self-reproduction of the dance, since it contributes to the emergence of the sensation of infinity: two mirrors that meet face to face and that are forced to reflect each other throughout the development of the show.
Keywords: Jérôme Bel, non-dance, postdramatic theatre, absence, metadance

En aquest llibre s'aborda l'estudi d'una de les metàfores subjacents més potents de la dansa festiva: l'alteritat, un concepte que fa dialogar festivament els uns amb els altres. Des de l'època medieval, a les terres valencianes cristal·litza un conjunt d'imatges d'alteritat simbòlica que s'acomoda en els entremesos, les danses, els espectacles i les representacions de la festa popular. S'hi construeix un relat que ens permet resseguir l'evolució de les interrelacions entre diferents identitats al llarg dels segles. Apareixen, així, els personatges més diversos de l'imaginari col·lectiu en algunes danses i performances de caire corèutic com ara els salvatges, els dimonis, els turcs, els moros, els folls, els reis efímers, els gegants i els nanos, els gitanos, els indis i un llarg etcètera.

Poza zasadą sprawności subwersywne działania teatralne osób o sprawności nienormatywnej/hybrydycznej Jeżeli sprawność jest przede wszystkim czymś, co należy zdobywać, można zaryzykować twierdzenie, iż nikt z nas nie rodzi się sprawny, lecz nim się staje. Analizując dokonania takich grup teatralnych jak DV8 Physical Theatre, The Gimp Project oraz działania artystyczne performerki Lisy Bufano staram się ukazać sposób, w jaki na gruncie teatru tańca opozycja sprawny/niesprawny może zostać przekroczona, a w końcu całkowicie przezwyciężona. Porzucenie jednego, hegemonicznego i normatywnego modelu sprawności pozwala tym samym utworzyć przestrzeń dla wielu różnorodnych form wyrazu, spośród których żadna nie jest w stanie zająć centralnego miejsca, przyjmując postać obowiązującej normy. Pojawienie się w teatrze tańca osób o nienormatywnej/hybrydycznej sprawności jest nie tylko przeżyciem o charakterze estetycznym, lecz w głównej mierze projektem politycznym, zmierzającym do zredefiniowania słownika dotyczącego osób niepełnosprawnych i podważenia dotychczasowego porządku.

Les habitus perceptifs apportés par les nouveaux médias transforment la conception, la percpeption et l'usage de l'espace scénique. La caractéristique isomorphique du code numérique et sa non résistance à la transformation permettent d'avancer que le numérique généré de nouvelles perceptions de l'espace et du temps, mais q'il constitue aussi un nouvel état de la matière. Ceci n'est pas sans créer des nouveaux potentiels expressifs et de nouvelles dynamiques scéniques.
De multiples exemples d'usage scénique des images sont utilisés pour énumérer les principaux usages des images sur scène.

This conversation paper examines the visual, sonic and corporeal entanglements that inform the work of the Vietnamese-American-Japanese artist Jun Nguyen-Hatsushiba. It explores the corporeal and aural qualities that are central to an understanding and sensorial experience of the artist's installations and visual practice. In paying attention to breath, sound and motion in visual art production, Jun Nguyen-Hatsushiba's works reveal how corporeality and sonicity can dismantle the ocular-centrism of visual art. The discussions between Jun and Prarthana map the varied traumatic histories of racial colonialism, war and forced migration that haunt Vietnam's present, and bring to the surface the artist's aesthetic and political concerns around art, performance and cultural memory.