The Impact of Multi Arts Practice and Technology on Contemporary Dance
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WHY DANCE: The impact of multi arts practice and technology on contemporary dance. Anny Mokotow Submitted in total fulfilment of the requirements of the degree of Master of Creative Arts (by thesis only) March 2007 School of Creative Arts The University of Melbourne Abstract This thesis investigates the influence of hybrid theatre practices, media and technology on contemporary dance performance and questions if dance is endangered by developments in hybrid cultures. Through a consideration of dance genealogies, the thesis suggests that notions of identity play a significant role in power structures within interdisciplinary relationships. Contemporary dance has gone through many changes in the last century. In particular, contemporary aspects of performance have demonstrated that the body is not the only site for dance. Why dance, is a culmination of questions that surfaced during the course of my own practice. It refers to questions that many dancers have asked themselves in the years following the arrival of postmodernism, when notions of body identity confronted conceptual possibilities in the terrain of interdisciplinary and mediated spaces. Incorporating my own experience as a practitioner and observer with theoretical perspectives in the field, I have attempted to give voice to some of the ambiguities and paradoxes that inhabit dance and its hybrid postmodern affiliates. I make use of various genealogies that have led to hybrid and interdisciplinary interactions as a means to define relationships of power that exist within interdisciplinarity. The use of case studies and examples of performances from Europe and Australia provide material through which to examine performance methodologies that have arisen out of interdisciplinary practice. My reading and suggestions express the concern that disciplines outside of the body may have become more important as defining element in dance. Through an examination of new ways that dancers now speak through media other than their bodies, the thesis examines what affects this has on the discipline of dance and questions if notions of disciplinarity are still relevant. While it has become necessary to reconstruct, reinterpret and demystify the body, the outcome suggests that autonomy rests with recognition of the body as the site for further development within negotiated spaces. ii Declaration This is to certify that: The thesis comprises only my original work except where indicated in the preface; Due acknowledgement has been made in the text to all other material used; The thesis is 35,000 words in length, inclusive of footnotes, but exclusive of tables, maps appendices and bibliography. Anny Mokotow, March 2007 iii Acknowledgments This thesis is an acknowledgment of all the dancers and choreographers who continue to challenge the possibilities that the dancing body provides. I would like to thank Peter Eckersall for his patient support, guidance and supervision, Jeroen Fabius for his helpful comments and advice and Denise Varney for her willing support. I would also like to acknowledge the following people who in various ways have been instrumental in guiding me to the completion of this thesis: Nicoline Nagtzaam, Sue Goldman, John Cummings, Yoni Pryor, Mikala Dwyer, John Meade, Dave Snell, Krisztina de Chatel, Wies Bloemen, Isabelle Laval, Romek and Rivke Mokotow, Eric den Hartog, Sanjo and Kai. iv Table of Contents Abstract ........................................................................................................................................ ii Declaration.................................................................................................................................. iii Acknowledgments...................................................................................................................... iv Table of Contents ........................................................................................................................ v Introduction: Is dance endangered by developments in hybrid cultures? ........................... 1 Motivation .............................................................................................................................. 1 Aims....................................................................................................................................... 2 Rationale................................................................................................................................ 2 Methodology........................................................................................................................... 4 Structure................................................................................................................................. 6 Ultimately................................................................................................................................ 7 Chapter 1: The ambiguous role of the dancing body and the drive to interdisciplinary practice......................................................................................................................................... 8 Genealogy and power............................................................................................................ 8 Ambiguity in interdisciplinary practice .................................................................................. 10 Inscription and institutions....................................................................................................14 Regaining power: postmodernism ....................................................................................... 16 Writing out the ephemeral.................................................................................................... 19 Accessibility and communication ......................................................................................... 22 Mediatisation/new ways of seeing ....................................................................................... 23 Closing remarks ................................................................................................................... 25 Chapter 2: Moving towards new disciplines: signposting bodies....................................... 27 Towards a different dance.................................................................................................... 28 The development of tanztheater and the emergence of gesture as a representation of dance ............................ 29 v American pedestrian gesture and the body as object in Rainer, Childs, King… ................. 35 Incorporating text in dance: speaking bodies....................................................................... 40 Dance/film: dynamics and corporeal tension ....................................................................... 42 Closing tensions................................................................................................................... 45 Chapter 3: Wolf.......................................................................................................................... 47 Background to Wolf..............................................................................................................47 Les Ballets C de La B...........................................................................................................48 Intertextuality and notions of hybridity: aesthetic and dramaturgical features ..................... 49 Intertextuality and notions of hybridity: Europe under globalisation..................................... 52 Intertextuality and notions of hybridity: in post postmodern theatre..................................... 55 Concluding remarks ............................................................................................................. 57 Chapter 4: Dance and Technology: Power and identity in technological and virtual spaces ........................................................................................................................................ 59 The role of technology in dance and dance in technology................................................... 60 Enacting relationships of power ........................................................................................... 61 Technology as a lived experience: the dancer removed ..................................................... 66 Closing tensions: negotiations in shared space................................................................... 70 Conclusion................................................................................................................................. 72 Towards a negotiated sense of dance ................................................................................. 72 Bibliography............................................................................................................................... 76 vi Introduction Is dance endangered by developments in hybrid cultures? This thesis investigates the influence of hybrid theatre practices and visual disciplines, including digital media, on the development of contemporary dance performance. A major objective will be to examine what happens to dance when combined with other media and, further, to establish if dance, as an autonomous contemporary arts practice, is endangered by developments in hybrid cultures. Consequently, this thesis presents the changing face of contemporary dance performance. Motivation My passion for dance drove my dancing, as it now drives my viewing.