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City Research Online City, University of London Institutional Repository Citation: Pakes, A. (2001). Dance interpretation and the cultural institution: exploring the condition(s) of british and french contemporary dance in the 1990s. (Unpublished Doctoral thesis, City University London) This is the accepted version of the paper. This version of the publication may differ from the final published version. Permanent repository link: https://openaccess.city.ac.uk/id/eprint/11878/ Link to published version: Copyright: City Research Online aims to make research outputs of City, University of London available to a wider audience. Copyright and Moral Rights remain with the author(s) and/or copyright holders. URLs from City Research Online may be freely distributed and linked to. Reuse: Copies of full items can be used for personal research or study, educational, or not-for-profit purposes without prior permission or charge. Provided that the authors, title and full bibliographic details are credited, a hyperlink and/or URL is given for the original metadata page and the content is not changed in any way. City Research Online: http://openaccess.city.ac.uk/ [email protected] Dance Interpretation and the Cultural Institution Exploring the condition(s) of British and French contemporary dance in the 1990s Thesis submitted in accordancewith the requirementsof Laban Centre London and City Universityfor the degree of Doctor of Philosophy April 2001 by Anna Pakes TABLE OF CONTENTS Dedication and Acknowledgements 4 Declaration 5 Abstract 6 0. INTRODUCTION 7 0.1 Core Issues and Theoretical Approaches 8 0.2 A Political Economy of the "Danceworld" 15 21 0.3 Reading closely particular dance "texts" PART I 25 CHAPTER 1: DANCE AS LANGUAGE, TEXT AND WRITING 26 1.1 Art as Language; Art versus Language 27 1.2 Institutional and Semiological Theories of Art and Dance 37 1.3 Art and Language as "Forms of Life": the Ethnographic Approach 50 CHAPTER 2: THE PHENOMENOLOGY AND HERMENEUTICS OF DANCE 62 2.1 Phenomenology and Dance 63 2.2 Reader-Response Criticism and Dance Reception 75 2.3 The HermeneuticTurn 86 PART II 104 CHAPTER3: POLITICALECONOMY OF THE DANCEWORLD 105 3.1 The Scope of State Action and the Emergenceof State Arts Administration 106 3.2 State Intervention in the Arts: Strategies and Shifting Rationales 115 3.3 Sub-NationalGovernment and Cultural Decentralisation 127 3.4 ContemporaryDance and the Cultural Institution 136 3.5 Enduring Tensions and Structural Problems of the Contemporary Dance Sphere 148 CHAPTER 4: KIM BRANDSTRUP / ARC DANCE COMPANY: CRIME FICTIONS 155 4.1 Dance, Narrative and Accessibility: Arc and the Cultural Institution 156 4.2 Viewing Crime Fictions 163 2 4.3 Solving the Dance Riddle; Suspending Preconceptions and Disbelief 173 CHAPTER 5: RUSSELL MALIPHANT: UNSPOKEN 178 5.1 Verbally Framing what cannot be Spoken 179 5.2 Viewing Unspoken 184 5.3 Reading the Dancing Body's Effort 194 CHAPTER 6: DANIEL LARRIEU / CCN DE TOURS: MOBILE OU LE 199 MIROIR DU CHATEAU 6.1 "Un createur tres particulier [... ] et en meme temps tres typique" 200 6.2 Watching Mobile 208 6.3 Threshold to "un univers tout en douceur abstraite" or to "I'ennui d'une histoire qui s'eternise"? 216 CHAPTER 7: HERVE ROBBE / LE MARIETTA SECRET: ID. 221 7.1 "L'un des parcours les plus etonnants de ce groupe des emancipes" 222 7.2 Viewing Id. 229 7.3 Performance Prerogatives and Critical Response 238 8. CONCLUSION 242 MAIN BIBLIOGRAPHY & REFERENCE LIST (CHAPTERS 0-3) 251 BIBLIOGRAPHY& REFERENCELIST FOR CASE STUDIES (CHAPTERS4-7) 270 3 DEDICATION & ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS This thesis is dedicated to David Steele, whose intelligence, skill and generosity as a dance artist, an educator and (above all) a friend are a continuing source of inspiration. I would also like to thank the many people who have contributed in various invaluable ways to the completion of this study. In particular, the choreographers Kim Brandstrup, Russell Maliphant, Daniel Larrieu and Herve Robbe, having agreed to the analysis of their work in Chapters 4 to 7, were generous in giving up time to be interviewed as well as supplying video and textual material. The staffs of The British Library, Goldsmiths College Library, Laban Centre Library, the Arts Council Library and French Ministry of Culture Libraries were helpful and efficient in locating other source material. Jean- Christophe Terol furnished many of the French dance books that were difficult to find elsewhere and also provided invaluable practical assistance and support as a friend and dance colleague. I would also like to express my gratitude to: Peter Gregson and Kim Renfrew for their help in formulating the initial idea; the late Peter Brinson, whose encouragement and supervision in the early stages set me on the right road; colleagues and students at Laban Centre London who helped to keep the ideas alive even when there was no time to write; Ulla and Gerard Pakes who I will never be able to thank enough for their love, generosity and unstinting support; and Nick Redfern whose intelligence, patience, humour and tenderness have kept me going for longer than it has taken to complete this study. Finally, my supervisor Paul Filmer has encouraged, stimulated and helped to transform my thought process throughout. His knowledge, academic probity and intellectual creativity (as well as patience and good humour) have supported me greatly and remain a touchstone for my ongoing reflection and research. 4 DECLARATION I grant powers to the UniversityLibrarian to allow this thesis to be copied in whole or in part without further referenceto me. This permissioncovers only single copies made for study purposes,subject to normal conditionsof acknowledgement. 5 ABSTRACT This study examines what is intended and understood as the meaning of contemporary dance in its sociocultural context, in which the role of the state is a significant factor. It investigates the extent to which the structures and practices of public arts funding influence the production and reception of contemporary dance, focusing on British and French dance in the 1990s. By focusing on specific works in critically reflexive terms, it seeks to offer a basis for future ethnographic study of dance practices and dance audiences. The thesis employs a critical hermeneutic method, offering a philosophical reflection on dance as well as exploring the mutual implication of artistic practice, aesthetic response and their socio-political and economic contexts. The philosophical grounding of the investigation is explored in detail, in order to support a reflexive engagement of methodological issues of broader relevance to the discipline of dance studies. The relation between verbal language and dance is critically examined: drawing from Saussure and Wittgenstein, the argument is made for the contextual determination of meaning in both these "forms of life". A discussion of aesthetic and anthropological theories which recognise the mutual implication of artwork and context is followed by a reflection on the methods of dance analysis that most effectively explore the extent and character of that implication. Phenomenological and hermeneutic approaches are discussed, including methods derived and adapted from the study of literature which focus analytic attention on the reception rather than production of texts. An emphasis on spectatorship and dance interpretation seeks to redress what is argued as an imbalance in dance studies, namely the privileging of the perspectives of choreographing and performing subjects in dance analysis. The empirical investigation explores the structure and development, since 1945, of what is termed the "cultural institution", namely the set of conventions and practices which both enable and constrain the production and reception of contemporary dance art. It is argued that the state, through intervention via policy formulation and subsidy distribution, has played a key role in setting parameters within the "danceworld", a subsidiary of the broader cultural institution and the environment which contexts contemporary dance performance. An overview of the politico-economic conditions of dance in the 1990s is presented, and four case studies then extend this discussion by exploring how those conditions are actualised on individual sites of dance production and reception. Four works are examined in detail (Kim Brandstrup's Crime Fictions, Russell Maliphant's Unspoken, Daniel Larrieu's Mobile and Herve Robbe's ld. ), in terms of their institutional context and the viewing experiences to which they give rise, arguing for a connection between the types of aesthetic response articulated and the institutional conditions in which the works are performed and received. The thesis argues against a determinist relation between the politico-economic context and the aesthetics of dance, proposing instead that these two dimensions of contemporary dance practice need to be examined conjointly. It seeks to demonstrate that this is crucial, if the current condition of contemporary dance in Britain and France is to be both understood and critically appraised. 6 0. INTRODUCTION 0.1 Core Issues and Theoretical Approaches The central question of this study can be defined as follows: in what ways, and to what extent, do the structures and practices of public arts funding impact on the production and reception of contemporary dance in Britain and France? The study seeks to locate and reflect upon concerns arising out of my own involvement in dance training, production and spectatorship in the