Dance, Space and Subjectivity

UNIVERSITY COLLEGE CHICHESTER an accredited college of the UNIVERSITY OF SOUTHAMPTON DANCE, SPACE AND SUBJECTIVITY Valerie A. Briginshaw This thesis is submitted for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy by publication. DANCE DEPARTMENT, SCHOOL OF THE ARTS October 2001 This thesis has been completed as a requirement for a higher degree of the University of Southampton. WS 2205643 2 111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111 ..::r'.). NE '2...10 0 2. UNIVERSITY COLLEGE CmCHESTER an accredited college of the UNIVERSITY OF SOUTHAMPTON ABSTRACT DANCE Doctor of Philosophy DANCE, SPACE AND SUBJECTIVITY by Valerie A. Briginshaw This thesis has been completed as a requirement for a higher degree of the University of Southampton Thisthesis, by examining relationships between dancing bodies and space, argues that postmodern dance can challenge traditional representations of subjectivity and suggest alternatives. Through close readings of postmodern dances, informed by current critical theory, constructions of subjectivity are explored. The limits and extent of subjectivity are exposed when and where bodies meet space. Through a precise focus on this body/space interface, I reveal various ways in which dance can challenge, trouble and question fixed perceptions of subjectivity. The representation in dance of the constituents of difference that partly make up subjectivity, (such as gender, 'race', sexuality and ability), is a main focus in the exploration of body/space relationships presented in the thesis. Based on the premise that dance, space and subjectivity are constructions that can mutually inform and construct each other, this thesis offers frameworks for exploring space and subjectivity in dance. These explorations draw on a selective reading of pertinent poststructuralist theories which are all concerned with critiquing the premises of Western philosophy, which revolve around the concept of an ideal, rational, unified subject, which, in turn, relies on dualistic thinking that enforces a way of seeing things in terms of binary oppositions. Certain ideas are central to this project. They include the blurring of bodily and spatial boundaries, leading to a focus on inside/outside body/space interfaces, on in-between spaces ofhybridity and ambiguity, on folds and flows of bodies and space, on bodily and spatial excesses and on the disruption of the logic of visualization which privileges seeing things from one position. These key interrelated ideas are employed in order to identify and outline the possibilities for rethinking subjectivity in terms of notions of becoming, non-fixity and instability, that the postmodern dances discussed suggest. This thesis is organized in three parts: Constructions of space and subjectivity, Dancing in the 'in-between spaces' and Inside/Outside bodies and spaces. It concludes with a final chapter that shows how the concerns of all three parts can be seen to overlap. In the first part site-specific dances are examined. The focus is on the ways in which the actual spaces of their location are constructed, and in turn contribute to constructions of subjectivity. In Part IT there is a shift from these actual spaces to virtual or metaphorical spaces in the dances seen as 'in-between'. I argue that these are created as 'in-between' by the choreography and, in some cases, the filming, and that they suggest possibilities for rethinking and challenging constructions of subjectivity as fixed. In Part ITI the focus shifts to the dancing bodies, specifically tp the inside/outside spaces of their boundaries, which I argue can trouble and subvert traditional constructions of SUbjectivity and make room for subjectivities previously excluded from the mainstream. The final chapter ii demonstrates that these focuses are not mutually exclusive, but overlapping, and that they interconnect in various important and apparent ways. 111 STATEMENT OF AIMS PhD by publication For the past two decades I have been engaged in research that has taken as its focus the field of dance analysis, evidenced in my contributions to publications in the 1980s, including the book Dance Analysis: Theory and Practice. Since then I have become increasingly interested in contemporary critical theories; beginning with feminist theory, and more recently with postmodern, post-colonial, queer and postructuralist theories. Over the years my focus in dance analysis has been on those postmodem dances which lend themselves to analysis informed by contemporary critical theory of this kind. This current submission has grown out of these research interests. A book proposal was submitted to Macmillan Press Ltd. and after scrutiny by readers a contract was issued. This manuscript is now in the process of being published by Palgrave (formerly Macmillan Press Ltd). It therefore conforms to the publisher's house style and format. The original title stated in my PhD proposal - Choreographing Spaces OfDifference/Different Spaces - has been changed to Dance, Space and Subjectivity but the content remains largely as indicated in the proposal. The work is the result of sustained research carried out solely by myself, part-time, over a period of five years. Early versions of between a third and half of the material have been published elsewhere as chapters in other volumes, journal articles or conference papers as indicated in the Acknowledgements section. Nevertheless, as discussed in the Introduction, the material has been extensively reworked to articulate key arguments that cohere around a set of interrelated ideas about bodies, space and subjectivity. These are developed and employed in close readings of selected examples of postmodern dance. One main aim in all this is to call into question traditional notions of subjectivity and to suggest more interesting alternatives. Through an investigation of body/space relationships in postmodern dance informed by feminist, poststructuralist, post-colonial and queer theories, the research aims to examine the role of space in the construction of subjectivity, to expose the power differentials at work in this construction process and to suggest ways of reading 'against the grain' to rethink subjectivity. Although there has been an explosion of interest in the subjects of bodies and space, and bodily and spatial metaphors in current cultural theory, the debates and issues that have emerged have not, to date, been examined in the field of dance in.any detail. Since dance is an obvious medium for the exploration and imagination of body/space relations, another aim of the research is to demonstrate the contribution of informed readings of dances to these broader cultural debates, and therefore to put dance as a subject centre stage. iv CONTENTS List of illustrations VI Acknowledgements Vlll Chapter 1 Introduction p.l PART I CONSTRUCTIONS OF SPACE AND SUBJECTMTY p.32 Chapter 2 Travel metaphors in dance - gendered constructions of travel, spaces and subjects p. 33 Chapter 3 Transforming city spaces and subjects p. 55 Chapter 4 Coastal constructions in Lea Anderson's Out on the Windy Beach p.76 PART II DANCING IN THE 'IN-BETWEEN SPACES' p. 97 Chapter 5 Desire spatialized differently in dances that can be read as lesbian p. 98 Chapter 6 Hybridity and nomadic subjectivity in Shobana Jeyasingh's Duets with Automobiles p.125 Chapter 7 Crossing the (black) Atlantic: spatial and temporal displacements in Meredith Monk's Ellis Island and Jonzi D's Aeroplane Man p.145 PART III INSIDE/OUTSIDE BODIES AND SPACES p.177 Chapter 8 Fleshy corporealities in Trisha Brown's Ifyou couldn't see me, Lea Anderson's Joan and Yolande Snaith'sBlindFaith p.178 Chapter 9 Camivalesque subversions in Mark Morris's Dogtown, Liz Aggiss' s Grotesque Dancer and Emilyn Claid'sAcross Your Heart p.2l0 v Chapter 10 Architectural spaces in the choreography of William Forsythe and De Keersmaeker's Rosas Danst Rosas p.239 Illustrations - Plates p.272 Appendix - Dance videos mentioned in the text - notes on availability p.280 Endnotes p.283 Bibliography p.290 vi List of Dlustrations Cover illustration Film still of Martine Berghuijs and Pepe Smit in Reservaat courtesy of Cinenova Film & Video Distribution. Plate 1 Film still of Roxanne Huilmand in Muurwerk courtesy of argos international film distributors.p.272 Plate 2 Photograph of Yolande Snaith in Step in Time Girls by Ross MacGibbon reproduced with his permission.p.272 Plate 3 Photograph of Out on the Windy Beach by the author. p.273 Plate 4 Photograph ofEmilyn Claid in the 'Watch me Witch You' section from Virginia Minx at Play by Eleni Leoussi reproduced with her permission.p.273 Plate 5 Photograph of Sarah Spanton in Homeward Bound by Michelle Atherton reproduced with her permission.p.274 Plate 6 Still from Duets with Automobiles from the series 'Dance for the Camera' courtesy of Arts CounciIIBBC.p.274 Plate 7 Photograph of Ellis Island by Bob Rosen reproduced with his permission. p.275 Plate 8 Photograph of Trisha Brown in If You Couldn't See Me by Joanne Savio reproduced with her permission.p.275 Plate 9 Photograph of The Anatomy Lesson ofDr. Tulp (1632) by Rembrandt courtesy ofMauritshuis, The Hague p.276 Plate 10 Still from Joan courtesy ofMJW Productions p.276 vii Plate 11 Photograph of Andreas Vesalius's illustration - The Fifth Plate of the Muscles from the Second Book of the Fabrica reproduced with permission of Dover Publications Inc.p.277 Plate 12 Still from Blind Faith courtesy of Yolande Snaith Theatredance p.277 Plate 13 Photograph of Liz Aggiss in Grotesque Dancer reproduced with permission of Divas p.278 Plate 14 Photograph of CandoCo Dance Company in Across Your Heart by Chris Nash reproduced with his permission p.278 Plate 15 Photograph of Rosas Danst Rosas by Herman Sorgeloos reproduced with his permission p.279 Plate 16 Photograph of Enemy in the Figure by Dominik Mentzos reproduced with his permission p.279 viii Acknowledgements I would like to acknowledge and thank the following people for their invaluable help, advice, guidance and support in the writing ofthis book.

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