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An Experiential Poetics of Deborah Hay's

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SOMATIC ANACRUSIS: AN EXPERIENTIAL POETICS OF DEBORAH HAY’S CHOREOGRAPHY AND PRACTICE IN THE SOLO AT ONCE P. MEGAN ANDREWS A DISSERTATION SUBMITTED TO THE FACULTY OF GRADUATE STUDIES IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY JOINT GRADUATE PROGRAM IN COMMUNICATION AND CULTURE (A PARTNERSHIP BETWEEN YORK UNIVERSITY & RYERSON UNIVERSITY) YORK UNIVERSITY TORONTO, ONTARIO July 2016 © P. MEGAN ANDREWS, 2016 ii Abstract This project is a kind of doingmovingthinking: a close study of iconic American dancer/choreographer Deborah Hay’s choreography and practice through my particular dancing experience of her solo At Once. The resulting experiential poetics illuminates both the implicit critique of an instrumental/rational paradigm and also the ethical implications of the particular relationality enacted in Hay’s work. I characterize Hay’s work as a radical communication practice, one that moves language through the body in a dynamic torqueing process that both gathers toward and unravels from the edges of meaningfulness in a process of perception. I work at the interdisciplinary intersection of dance, performance, somatics and cultural studies, and my thinking draws substantially on Maurice Merleau-Ponty’s phenomenological philosophy and language. Aspiring to a balanced integration of moving and writing, of practice and theory, I follow a performance studies approach, attempting, as characterized by performance scholar Dwight Conquergood: “to live betwixt and between theory and theatricality, paradigms and practices, critical reflection and creative accomplishment” (318). Through personal daily practice and performance of Hay’s work allied with close description, I apply my devised method of emergent choreographic analysis to Hay’s choreography and practice. This analysis, conducted from inside the practice of the work, reveals how Hay’s complex and distinctly linguistic choreography operates as a constructed situation for the practice of perception and that, in performance, this practice moves language through the body in a dynamic torqueing process that engenders a unique lived experience of paradoxical simultaneity. I coin the term somatic anacrusis to articulate this underlying processual phenomenon. Reconsidering the dimension of relationality in Hay’s work, I re-frame somatic iii anacrusis as a pre-relational pre-disposing, a kind of suspended or “unconsummated relationality”. Feminist philosopher Luce Irigaray’s thinking helps illuminate the ethical implications of Hay’s work as a practice of perception that opens a new way toward the other. I conclude by appropriating Hay’s own rhetorical interrogative strategy “what if…?” What if somatic anacrusis offers a possible answer to Irigaray’s call for a new way to approach the other that respects fundamental difference and yet allows encounter? iv Dedication To my daughter Qwynn Jones Cunningham, who has been dancing with me throughout this journey. May you always dance joyously and lightly along your own path ahead. With gratitude and love. v Acknowledgments The kindness and generosity of so many people lie behind this project. I have been the grateful beneficiary of professional and personal support, intellectual and creative stimulation, and steadfast friendship in the process of completing this work. I would like to thank: Dr. Steven Bailey, my supervisor, for his endless patience over many years, for having faith in me, and for believing in my work on dance in the context of communication and cultural studies. I couldn’t have found a more generous, positive and supportive supervisor; Dr. Laura Levin, who invited me into her performance studies reading group and who, as a committee member, helped me think in new ways about dance and performance; and Dr. Danielle Robinson, who graciously joined my committee in the latter stages and who gently pushed me to see a bigger picture. I am very thankful for early support from Dr. Suzanne Jaeger, whose thoughtful responses and confidence in my work were essential. I would also like to acknowledge and thank Dr. Selma Odom, a long-time mentor, who indirectly catalyzed my interest in Deborah Hay. Of course, without Hay’s stimulating and challenging dancemaking, this project would not exist. I extend my thanks to her, an important and inspiring artist who continues to open up new possibilities in dance and choreographic practice. Three of the most creative, intelligent and generous women I know – Natalya Androsova, Angela Joosse and Izabella Pruska-Oldenhof – have been companion artist-scholars and very dear friends on this journey. Thank you to them for their rich friendship. I must also mention several other extraordinary women who helped me carve out the time for my research and writing: Amanda Hancox, Sarah Lochhead, Laura Matthews and, especially, Brittany Duggan. vi I am forever grateful to my husband Ken Cunningham and my daughter Qwynn Cunningham, who have endured many long years of my being preoccupied by this project and who generously gave me the support I needed to do this work. They have my deepest love and thanks. And finally, to my parents who started me on this path with dance lessons at age three, and who stimulated my interest in words and language, and in art and education. They continue to provide inspiration in the curiosity, courage and tenacity they bring to their own pursuits. Their enthusiastic support and encouragement were essential in helping me realize this project. Thank you to them both. vii TABLE OF CONTENTS Abstract ii Dedication iv Acknowledgments v Table of Contents vii Chapter 1: Introduction 1 Context 3 Hay’s Dances 13 Basis of the Research 15 Chapter Outline 18 Thinking (through) Dancing 21 Dancing & Writing Alongside Hay 24 Practicing, Performing, Writing: Iteration, Adaptation, Perpetuation 29 Return to/of the Avant-Garde 35 Chapter 2: Review of the Literature on Hay 37 INTRODUCTION TO HAY 37 MAJOR ANALYSES OF HAY’S WORK 41 THEMES and CRITIQUES 53 Hay’s Spirituality 53 Hay’s Feminism 60 Hay’s Politics and Ethics 62 Hay’s Self-Mythologizing 65 Hay and Community Practice 67 Hay and Therapy/Healing 68 CONCLUSION 69 Chapter 3: Method and Theoretical Framework 75 METHOD: APPROACHES, STRATEGIES, PROCESS 75 Introduction: Researching Somatic Experience 76 Laban Movement Analysis as Method 82 Auto-Ethnographic and Phenomenological Strategies 87 My Process 91 SCOPE AND BOUNDARIES OF MY INQUIRY 99 On Daily Repetition A-New 101 On Descriptive Writing 103 CONCLUSION TO METHOD 107 THEORETICAL FRAMWORK FOR ANALYSIS 109 viii Introduction 110 Improvisational Dance Practice as Comparative Context 111 Intention, Attention, Action 114 A Phenomenological Framework for Movement Research: Merleau-Ponty and Laban 116 Primordial Contact and Perception 126 Intertwining and Flesh 128 Intentionality 130 Attention 131 Motility or Action 132 Situations, Structures, Horizon and Écart 134 CONCLUSION TO THEORY 137 Chapter 4: Hay’s Choreography and Practice: A Constructed Situation for the Practice of Perception 141 INTRODUCTION 141 HAY’S CHOREOGRAPHY: A LINGUISTIC BRAID OF SCORE, QUESTIONS AND TOOLS 145 ON HAY’S USE OF LANGUAGE 146 EMERGENT CHOREOGRAPHIC ANALYSIS OF HAY’S AT ONCE 148 THE SCORE: CHOREOGRAPHING INTENTION THROUGH AMBIGUOUS ASSERTIONS 153 Function of the Score: Choreographing Intention 155 Discussion and Analysis of the Score: A Well-Worn Path 157 THE QUESTIONS: CHOREOGRAPHING ATTENTION THROUGH RHETORICAL INTERROGATIVES 168 Function of the Questions: Choreographing Attention 170 Discussion and Analysis of the Questions: Play in the Body, The Body in Play 172 THE TOOLS: CHOREOGRAPHING ACTION THROUGH ENIGMATIC IMPERATIVES 179 Function of the Tools: Choreographing Action 181 Discussion and Analysis of the Tools: Perceiving is Moving, Moving is Perceiving 183 CONCLUSION: HAY’S CHOREOGRAPHY AS THE CONSTRUCTED SITUATION OF A DESTRUCTURING STRUCTURE FOR THE PRACTICE OF PERCEPTION 195 Chapter 5: Moving, Beyond Meaningfulness: Practicing Performing Somatic Anacrusis 201 INTRODUCTION 201 Theoretical Recapitulation 203 PRACTICING PERFORMING 206 ix Experiences of I-World: “absencingpresencing” 207 Experiences of Body-Space: “yieldingexpanding” 215 Experiences of Movement-Time: “thresholding” 220 SOMATIC ANACRUSIS 228 RELATED CONCEPTS 231 Nancy Stark Smith’s “Gap” and Ann Cooper Albright’s “Dwelling in Possibility” 232 Hubert Godard’s Gestural Anacrusis 235 Erin Manning’s Preacceleration and Interval 238 RETURNING TO INTENTION, ATTENTION AND ACTION 244 Coagulating and Constellating: Hay’s “infinite moments of indeterminate specificity” 246 Compositional Responsibility 250 CONCLUSION: BEYOND IMPROVISATION, AT THE CUTTING EDGE OF CHOREOGRAPHY 254 Chapter 6: Moving Toward Otherness: What if …? 259 Shifting the Frame of Reference: Rethinking Relationality 260 Textual Performances and/of Performing Bodies 262 Practicing as Training as Pre-disposing 270 Performing as Doing as Pre-Relational 275 Considering Relational Aesthetics 278 Irigaray and Hay: Staging Encounters between One and the Other 282 Irigaray’s Call for a Culture of Perception and a New Way of Speaking Together 283 Hay’s Choreography and Practice: Toward Otherness, Toward A Theatre of Love? 287 Chapter 7: Conclusion 292 Summary of the Research 293 Contributions 296 Openings 297 Thinking (through) Dancing 298 Practicing, Performing, Writing: Iteration, Adaptation, Perpetuation 299 Endnotes 301 Works Cited 317 1 Chapter 1: Introduction But our tradition is not dedicated to the cultivation of sensible perception. We are accustomed to
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