Living Transformative Lives
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Living Transformative Lives Finnish Freelance Dance Artists Brought into Dialogue with Merleau-Ponty’s Phenomenology Leena Rouhiainen Doctoral Dissertation ACTA SCENICA 13 Näyttämötaide ja tutkimus Teatterikorkeakoulu - Scenkonst och forskning - Teaterhögskolan - Scenic art and research - Theatre Academy Leena Rouhiainen Living Transformative Lives Finnish Freelance Dance Artists Brought into Dialogue with Merleau-Ponty’s Phenomenology Doctoral dissertation Theatre Academy, Department of Dance and Theatre Pedagogy Publisher: Theatre Academy © Theatre Academy and Leena Rouhiainen Cover: Jussi Konttinen Lay-out: Tanja Nisula ISBN: 952-9765-32-0 ISSN: 1238-5913 Printed in Edita, Helsinki 2003 Contents Acknowledgements 7 Preamble 9 PART ONE – METHODOLOGY, METHODS, AND PROCEDURES 13 1 On the Process, Purpose, and Objectives of the Investigation 16 2 The Methodological Context 21 2.1 The Nature and Research Interest of the Investigation 25 2.2 The Validity of the Research 28 3 Interviews as Research Material 33 3.1 The Interviewees 34 3.2 Conducting and Recording the Interviews 39 3.3 Transcribing the Recordings 45 4 The Methodological Principles Directing the Analysis of the Interview Material 46 4.1 A Hermeneutical and Existential Phenomenological Approach 49 4.2 The Hermeneutical Dialogue 54 4.3 Language as a Source of Meaning 61 4.4 Implications of the Methodological Principles for the Analysis 68 5 The Methods and Procedures of Analyzing the Interview Material 71 5.1 The Descriptive Reading 73 5.2 The Interpretative Phenomenological - Theoretical Reading 78 PART TWO – THE PHENOMENOLOGICAL FRAMEWORK 83 6 Merleau-Ponty’s Phenomenological Project 86 6.1 The Basic Tenets and Approach of Merleau-Ponty’s Phenomenology 86 The source and method of philosophizing 90 Implications of the method for the research 97 6.2 The Body as Subject 99 A bodily reflexivity and intentionality 102 The body schema 105 The flesh and its chiasms 114 6.3 An Embodied Co-existence 123 6.4 Historicity and the Structures of Culture 129 7 An Overview of Phenomenological Studies of Dance 137 7.1 A Phenomenology of Dance 139 7.2 An Aesthetics of Dance and the Lived Body 143 7.3 On the Sublime Vision and Gesture of Dance 147 7.4 On the Construction of the Dancing Subject 150 8 The Bodily and Linguistic Nature of Dance 155 PART THREE – THE INTERVIEWS IN DIALOGUE WITH MERLEAU-PONTY’S PHENOMENOLOGY AND OTHER THEORETICAL SOURCES 159 9 Representing the Heritage of Contemporary Dance 162 9.1 Participating in a Communal Story 162 Meanings and values related to modern and contemporary dance 167 9.2 A Local Sphere of Artistic Activity 172 The concrete cooperation of an artworld 176 The sub-fields of artistic production 181 10 The Freelance Field of Dance in Helsinki 186 10.1 The Richness of the Field 188 Modern dance in Finland 189 Modern dance expands and turns contemporary 190 A spectrum of styles 192 10.2 The Constraints of the Field 193 From bodily investigation towards commodity production 193 The pressures of maintaining a position in the field 197 The lack of economic support and spectators 202 Discontent with criticism 205 10.3 Individual Struggles in the Field 209 Questioning withdrawing from the field 211 Finding work abroad 215 Coming to terms with the field artistically 217 11 The Artistic Roles of a Freelance Dance Artist 224 11.1 On Being a Dance Teacher 232 11.2 On Being a Dancer 237 11.3 The Responsibilities of a Choreographer 250 11.4 The Relationship between the Choreographer and the Dancer 261 12 Dance Work as a Mode of Involvement with the Surrounding World 274 12.1 Socio-cultural Inscription and Self-formation 280 Carrying culturally-determined values of work 280 Dance work and self-realization 282 12.2 Laboring with the Body 290 Paying attention to the otherness of one’s own body 290 An unending source of labor 293 A bodily-oriented mode of life 295 13 Embodying Dance 302 13.1 Training for dance 302 13.2 Making Dance One’s Own 315 13.3 Searching for Motion and Expression 320 An Integrated Motional Style of Being 327 Performing and dancing 338 The pleasant and unpleasant experiences and expectations related to dancing 345 14 Identifying Oneself as a Freelance Dance Artist 351 14.1 A Dancer’s Body as a Locus of Transformation 357 14.2 Compassionate, Skillful, and Personally-Oriented Dance Artists 363 14.3 On a Freelance Dance Artist’s Relation to Others 368 14.4 On Being a Freelance Dance Artist 375 15 In Conclusion 383 References 386 Appendices 400 Acknowledgements During my doctoral work I have been supported by many people without whom this research project would never have been undertaken or completed. I am grateful for their participation, encouragement, and help. My sincere thanks goes to all of the dance artists who shared their experiences and views in the interviews conducted for this research. Their lively descriptions, candid accounts, and sometimes even enthusiastic attitude towards the dissertation made me believe that I was investigating a valuable issue and gave me strength to continue with what seemed like and endless task at certain moments. Constructing a research report is most often a solitary venture. The fact that I could share my thoughts and converse with my advisors on a quite regular basis was of heightened impor- tance to me. The feedback they gave on the different versions of the report helped me under- stand problematic conceptions and to structure the dissertation. I express my appreciation especially to Professor Arto Haapala. His expertise in phenomenology and aesthetics has been invaluable. He patiently and discriminatingly commented on many phases of the work and made me feel confident with writing about phenomenology. I am also indebted to Dr. Soili Hämäläinen for generously supporting my project and Professor Pentti Paavolainen for the discussions we had concerning it. An important contribution to this doctoral thesis has been given by my colleagues and friends. Their keen interest in my work, critical questions, and warm support have both challenged my thinking and carried me further. I thank Dr. Soili Hämäläinen, Ed.L. Eeva Anttila, Teija Löytönen (MA in Education), Dr. Paula Salosaari, Dr. Soile Rusanen, Linda Gold (MA in Dance), Dr. Pia Houni, and Dr. Riitta Pasanen-Willberg for all the conversations I had with them about my research. I am also indebted to Professor Susan W. Stinson’s and Dr. Maija Lehtovaara’s lectures and commentary. Dr. Jaana Parviainen kindly read some early analyses of the interview material and suggested some revisions. In our discussions Professor Wolfgang Welsch encouraged me to trust my way of thinking and Professor Marja Sorsa, in turn, advised me about academic conventions. Neil Urquhart proofread the final document, suggesting corrections to my English. I also thank Associate Professor Susan Kozel and Professor Juha Varto in their role of external examiners of the dissertation. Professor Kozel made a very discerning reading of the research report and thus helped me further and complete it. Professor Varto made me comprehend the overall character of the dissertation in more detail. While working on this research, I was a research student of The Doctoral Study Program of Performing Arts in Finland led by Professors Kari Kurkela and Pentti Paavolainen and a researcher of the Finnish Academy in the project Making a Difference in Dance led by Dr. Soili Hämäläinen. I thank these two institutions for offering me an environment to present, discuss, and advance my research. I also thank The Academy of Finland, The Ministry of Education, and the Theatre Academy for financial assistance. Finally I would like to thank my family for its encouragement and trust in this project in 7 addition to the support they gave me in everyday life while I was immersed in work. I dedicate this work to all the dance artists I know and especially to those who contributed to the investigation. 8 This book, once begun, is not a certain set of ideas; it constitutes for me an open situation, for which I could not possibly provide any complex formula, and in which I struggle blindly on until, miraculously thoughts and words become organized by themselves. (Merleau-Ponty, 1995/1962, 369) Preamble The subject of this research is phenomenology and being a contemporary freelance dance artist. More particularly it analyzes and interprets interview material produced by four Finnish freelance dance artists mainly on the premise of Maurice Merleau-Ponty’s pheno- menology. However, the research also enters into dialogue with previous pheno- menological studies of dance while considering them an additional source of inter- pretation. In addressing the interview material through this phenomenological framework, the dissertation attempts to illuminate the life-world of freelance dance artists and to delineate some of those constitutive structures through which being a freelance dance artist, in recent years, has been realized in Finland. It, thus, both searches for the premises according to which being a freelance dance artist has become possible, as well as sheds light on the experiences and practices of the lives of freelance dance artists. Even if much of the analysis found in this dissertation attempts to generalize issues, relies on transnational concepts of phenomenology, and relates to international studies of western theatrical dance, the point of departure is still the local experiences and opinions of Finnish dance artists. Therefore, to some degree, this dissertation offers a situation- or context- specific account of the meanings and values related to the practices of contemporary dance. So far no other doctoral level research contemplating the lives or works of Finnish dance artists has been compiled. Consequently, in addition to supplementing the emergent tradition of phenomenological research on dance, this dissertation also fills a gap in research into Finnish dance art and dance artists.