Material of Movement and Thought

A Material of Movement and Thought: Reflections on the Dancer’s Practice and Corporeality Reflections on the Dancer’s Thought: Material of Movement and nna Petronella Foultier and Cecilia Roos (eds.) Foultier nna Petronella The articles in this volume have grown out of a research project entitled “From Movement out of Reflection in Becoming: The Dancer and the Creative Pro- Material of Movement and Thought: cess”, gathering both professional dancers and theoreticians, and funded by the Reflections on the Dancer’s Practice and Corporeality Swedish Research Council. The overall goal of the project was to approach an understanding and a conceptualization of the artistic process of the dancer, tak- ing the work in the creation of Ina Christel Johannessen’s choreographic piece Edited by NOW SHE KNOWS as a point of departure. Anna Petronella Foultier and Cecilia Roos The focus was both that of the dancer from within the process, and that of external observers. These viewpoints were not deadlocked but rather aimed at an interaction and a dialogue between the theoretical and the practical levels. The research methods grew out of an at times quite intimate teamwork where the participants’ different approaches came to cross and intersect. A number of issues were explored: How does the dancer work in the process where the dance takes shape? How does the understanding of a movement material shift through the actual performing of it? What is it to understand * or experience a movement from the perspective of the performer? What is it to understand or experience a movement from the perspective of the spectator? What kind of body is the dancing body and how can it create a variety of meanings? Through what concepts are we to think the dancer’s practice and corporeality? The anthology contains essays by Cecilia Roos, Anna Petronella Foultier, Chrysa Parkinson, Katarina Elam, Cecilia Sjöholm, and Iréne Hultman. FIREWORK EDITION BokenCoverNoFrame.indd 1 14-01-13 18.10.17 BokenNyFootnote2.indd 1 13-10-14 14.01.41 BokenNyFootnote2.indd 2 13-10-14 14.01.43 Material of Movement and Thought: Reflections on the Dancer’s Practice and Corporeality Edited by Anna Petronella Foultier and Cecilia Roos FIREWORK EDITION BokenNyFootnote2.indd 3 13-10-14 14.01.43 Drawings by Chrysa Parkinson Copyright © Katarina Elam, Anna Petronella Foultier Iréne Hultman, Chrysa Parkinson, Cecilia Roos, Cecilia Sjöholm Stockholm 2013 Firework Edition No. 123 ISBN 978 91 87066 42 4 BokenNyFootnote2.indd 4 13-10-14 14.01.44 Contents Preface Anna Petronella Foultier & Cecilia Roos................................................7 From Movement Out of Reflection in Becoming: The Dancer and the Creative Process Cecilia Roos........................................................................................11 Towards a Phenomenological Account of the Dancing Body: Merleau-Ponty and the Corporeal Schema Anna Petronella Foultier......................................................................51 “Authoring Experience”: A Dialogue on the Dancer’s Practice Chrysa Parkinson & Cecilia Roos.........................................................75 Becoming a Spectator of Dance through Increased Kinaesthetic Awareness and the Intensive Reading of Theoretical Texts Katarina Elam.................................................................................107 Whose Body? The Difference between Seeing and Experiencing Cecilia Sjöholm..................................................................................145 Embrace the Unknown Iréne Hultman..................................................................................167 References.......................................................................................175 Choreographical works....................................................................185 About the contributors....................................................................187 BokenNyFootnote2.indd 5 13-10-14 14.01.44 BokenNyFootnote2.indd 6 13-10-14 14.01.44 Preface Anna Petronella Foultier and Cecilia Roos The present anthology has its point of departure in a research project entitled “From Movement out of Reflection in Becoming: The Dancer and the Creative Process”, which received funding from the Swedish Research Council for a period of three years. The overall goal of the project was to approach an understanding and a conceptualization of the artistic process of the dancer, illustrated by the dancer’s work with a particular choreography. The focus was both that of the dancer from within the process, and that of external observers. These perspectives were not deadlocked but rather aimed at an interaction and a dialogue between the theoretical and the practical levels. At the outset, the research group consisted of Cecilia Roos, dancer and professor of interpretation at The University of Dance and Circus in Stockholm (DOCH), Katarina Elam, PhD in aesthetics and lecturer at University College West, Anna Petronella Foultier, PhD candidate in philosophy at Stockholm University, and Cecilia Sjöholm, professor of aesthetics at Södertörn University. Towards the end of the project, Chrysa Parkinson, dancer and professor of dance at DOCH, and Iréne Hultman, a dancer and choreographer, became involved and contrib- uted to this anthology.1 The project took its starting point in the work in the creation of Ina Christel Johannessen’s dance piece NOW SHE KNOWS, where Cecilia Roos, was one of the dancers. Periodically, the other research- ers observed the rehearsals of this piece, following Cecilia’s artistic process. The research methods grew out of the teamwork, inspired by the preparation of Johannessen’s choreography and by discussions of dance theoretical and philosophical texts. Early on, the need arose to have an exchange also in movement, so the group started to devote a part of the regular meetings to physical exercise and studying aspects of the choreography. 1 A Swedish anthology with articles by Cecilia Roos, Katarina Elam and Anna Petro- nella Foultier was published in the beginning of 013, Ord i tankar och rörelse, Stockholm: DOCH, 013. For a more detailed account of the research process, see Cecilia Roos’ article in the present volume, pp. 11 f. 7 BokenNyFootnote2.indd 7 13-10-14 14.01.45 A number of issues were explored: How does the dancer work in the process where the dance – either improvised or written – takes shape? How does the understanding of a movement material shift through the actual performing of it?3 What is it to understand or experience a movement from the perspective of the performer? What is it to understand or experience a movement from the perspective of the spectator? What kind of body is the dancing body and how can it create a variety of meanings? Through what concepts are we to think the dancer’s practice and corporeality? In the beginning of the project, conceptualization of the dancer’s creative process seemed essential so we searched for texts that could provide or help develop an adequate terminology. As time went by, we came to realize that there were different ways to articulate this process, and that we could have recourse to a great variety of language forms in approaching the questions that appeared. Moreover, the very gap between the perceived and the verbally articulated is a multilayered and ambiguous space that is crucial for the working process, both with movement and with thought. The articles in this volume reflect our different perspectives on the questions at issue, but also cross and intersect with one another, being the outcome of an at times quite intimate exchange of experiences and ideas. Acknowledgements This project would not have been possible without the financial sup- port from the Swedish Research Council, and the generosity of Ina Christel Johannessen who let us take part in her creation of a choreographic piece, attend the rehearsals and have access to the material un- der development. We also would like to express our gratitude to all the dancers in NOW SHE KNOWS, for allowing us to follow their artistic processes, as well as to DOCH, The University of Dance and Circus in Stockholm, for administration and access to dance studios and seminar rooms. Finally, we are highly indebted to Dr. Jon Buscall for transform- ing the articles in the present volume into readable English. The articles In “From Movement Out of Reflection in Becoming: The Dancer and 3 On the notion of movement material in contemporary dance, see Chrysa Parkinson’s note below, pp. 78-79. 8 BokenNyFootnote2.indd 8 13-10-14 14.01.45 the Creative Process”, the dancer’s process with a movement material is researched by Cecilia Roos from within the creation of the dance piece NOW SHE KNOWS. To begin with, the author gives the background to the project with the same name and how its methodology evolved. She also discusses dancers’ experience of problem solving in interpretation processes, and in what way it can be conceptualized. Next, Roos describes what goes on in producing and rehearsing the movement material of NOW SHE KNOWS, investigating how the movement material evolves in different ways depending on the approach and methods used, and how this affects the development of the methods itself. Anna Petronella Foultier’s article “Towards a Phenomenologi- cal Account of the Dancing Body: Merleau-Ponty and the Corporeal Schema” discusses the dancing body from a phenomenological perspective, against the background of the philosophical understanding of the lived body in tradition. Foultier argues

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