Docudancing Griefscapes Choreographic Strategies for Embodying Traumatic Contexts in the Trilogy Life & Death
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Docudancing Griefscapes Choreographic strategies for embodying traumatic contexts in the trilogy Life & Death PER ROAR | THORSNES 44 ACTA SCENICA Docudancing Griefscapes Choreographic strategies for embodying traumatic contexts in the trilogy Life & Death PER ROAR | THORSNES PER ROAR | THORSNES Docudancing Griefscapes Choreographic strategies for embodying traumatic contexts in the trilogy Life & Death DOCTORAL DISSERTATION Acta Scenica 44 2015 ISBN (print): 978-952-6670-64-5 ISBN (pdf): 978-952-6670-65-2 ISSN (print): 1238-5913 ISSN (pdf): 2242-6485 PUBLISHER: University of the Arts Helsinki, Theatre Academy, Performing Arts Research Centre © 2015 University of the Arts Helsinki, Theatre Academy, Performing Arts Research Centre and Per Roar Thorsnes GRAPHIC DESIGN BOND Creative Agency www.bond.fi COVER PHOTO Knut Bry LAYOUT Annika Marjamäki, Edita Prima Ltd PRINTED BY Edita Prima Ltd, Helsinki 2015 PAPER Scandia 2000 Natural 240 g / m2 & Scandia 2000 Natural 115 g / m2 FONTS Benton Modern Two & Monosten Docudancing Griefscapes Choreographic strategies for embodying traumatic contexts in the trilogy Life & Death PER ROAR | THORSNES 44 ACTA SCENICA DOCUDANCING GRIEFSCAPES 7 Abstract Docudancing Griefscapes – choreographic strategies for embodying traumatic contexts in the trilogy Life & Death – is a self-reflexive artistic research project on develop- ing choreography based on contextual background research and ethnographic fieldwork. From the viewpoint of the choreographer-researcher, I explored this strategy through constructing and embodying three contexts of traumatic griev- ing: (1) my private grieving, related to the sudden death of a close friend, (2) our mortality, related to facing our finitude, and (3) communal grieving, related to the aftermath of the Bosnian War (1992-1995), whose traumatic events ruptured a whole society’s existence. This process resulted in the performance trilogy Life & Death with the performances (1) A Song to Martin (2003), (2) A Rehearsal for Mortals (2005), and (3) An Unfinished Story (2006).1 From this process emerged and evolved an artistic strategy I coined docudancing. The term refers to a cho- reographic approach to address socio-political contexts through drawing on ethnographic fieldwork and utilizing documentary material, both in the creative processes as well as in the performances. Out of this effort also arose the term griefscape, which is used here to denote the affective and entangled - though often ephemeral and invisible – impact that traumatic contexts of grieving can have in circumscribing our lives by being present through what is absent. I launched the concept of the kaleidoscopic optic to describe the project’s transdisciplinary research perspectives, which combine inputs from fields of ethnography and artistic research, choreography and somatics, and trauma and performance studies. This outlook led to the project’s choreosomatic approach to movements in which the body is viewed as a somatic subject rather than an aesthetical object, as well as situating the project’s expanded notion of what choreography and dancing entail. The focus of this enquiry is therefore on the moves creat- 1 The trilogy is video documented and accessible online at https://vimeo.com/album/3155472 with the password: docudancing. PER ROAR | THORSNES 8 ed and reiterated through what is re-sited and recited, and what is practised and performed in this project. In line with this aesth|ethical thinking, I conclude by pointing to the politics of choreography, and the political responsibility that comes with a choreographic intervention. KEYWORDS: 1. Choreography, artistic research, choreographic research, choreographic pro- cess, Margareth H´Doubler, André Lepecki, transdisciplinary research, aesth| ethical thinking, docudancing; 2. Trauma, mortality, traumatic grieving, loss, death, dying, mortality, griefscape, communal grieving, the return of the real; 3. Autoetnography, ethnographic, fieldwork, performance studies, the artist as ethnographer, Hal Foster; 4. somatics, embodying, choreo-somatic, body prac- tices; 5. Socio-political context, contextual approach, Martin Hoftun, Wadham College, funeral industry, funeral directors, the Bosnian War, Srebrenica, the Siege of Sarajevo; Per Roar, Per Roar Thorsnes. DOCUDANCING GRIEFSCAPES 9 PER ROAR | THORSNES 10 Contents Abstract 7 Figures 12 Abbreviations 14 Acknowledgements 16 First Part – Framework 22 1. Facing the end – through a contextual approach to choreography 23 1.1. Introducing the artistic research project 24 1.2. My research position 37 1.3. Strategy and methods 53 Second Part – Optics 76 My kaleidoscopic optic and choreographic outlook 77 2. Ethnography and Artistic Research 79 My understanding of artistic research as a research practice 80 3. Choreography and Somatics 99 3.1. Contextualizing my outlook on choreography 99 3.2. Situating my approach to the body 132 4. Trauma and Performance 159 4.1. Trauma and the traumatic 160 4.2. Performance and the performative 192 DOCUDANCING GRIEFSCAPES 11 Third Part – Process 218 Embodying the real 219 5. A Song to Martin – a strategy emerges 225 5.1 The context of my private grieving: “Martin is dead” 227 5.2 From Ethnography to Performance 246 6. A Rehearsal for Mortals – a strategy evolves 273 The context of mortality: “our memento mori” – embodied 275 7. An Unfinished Story – a strategy is challenged 307 7.1 The context of communal grieving: “An open grave” – the aftermath of the Bosnian War 311 7.2 Fieldwork experiences 339 7.3 Explorative processing 359 Fourth Part – Reflections 394 8. Tracing Life & Death – recounting insights, choreographing a future 395 8.1. Challenged by the return of the real 396 8.2. Docudancing griefscape and the politics of choreographing 419 Concluding thoughts: There is no outside 448 References 455 Appendices 499 PER ROAR | THORSNES 12 Figures Figure 1. The undertakers Stein W. Westad and Jan Erik Larsen from Jølstad Funeral Agency took part in A Rehearsal to Mortals. (Per Roar is a stand-in for Larsen in this photo), at Dansens Hus in Oslo, September 2006. Photo: Knut Bry. 20 Figure 2. A structural model of the post-reflection perspective. 34 Figure 3. The choreographer-researcher as ethnographer 60 Figure 4. The choreographic process 62 Figure 5. The choreographic process from the dual viewpoint of the choreographer-researcher 63 Figure 6. The optic scope of the artist-researcher: to balance socio-political and aesthetic concerns 64 Figure 7. The core mesh of making choreography 66 Figure 8. The optic scope of the artistic research project Docudancing Griefscapes 67 Figure 9. Macro-perspective on choreography as a contextually situated and embedded practice. 70 Figure 10. “Martin is dead” – the place where the airplane hit the mountain wall in Nepal, Himalayas, 31 July 1992. Photo: Erik Hoftun. 74 Figure 11. My kaleidoscopic optic 77 Figure 12. “Memento Mori.” Cremation at Østre Crematorium in Oslo, December 2004, captured on video and used in A Rehearsal for Mortals. Video: Leif Gaute Staurland /Photo: Knut Bry. 216 Figure 13. Conceptual model of the contextual approach to choreography with its three sub-contexts of grieving 222 Figure 14. Oxford on wheels. To the left, Martin and I attempt to enter the Radcliffe Camera despite its steep staircase and the local protest, to the right; we relax in the Quad of Wadham College. Retrieved from a feature on Martin’s life in Oxford by Tove Gravdal (1988). Photo: John Myhre / Aftenposten / NTB scanpix 231 Figure 15. Exploring the debris: the orthopaedic corset and I in A Song to Martin at Dansens Hus in Oslo, September 2006. Photo: Knut Bry. 252 Figure 16. “Silent transport” – from fieldwork with Jølstad Funeral Agency in Oslo, December 2004. 278 DOCUDANCING GRIEFSCAPES 13 Figure 17. Mind-map from the process of constructing A Rehearsal Mortals, logbook entry 16 January 2005. 298 Figure 18. The final scene of A Rehearsal for Mortals at Dansens Hus in Oslo, September 2006. Photo: Knut Bry 305 Figure 19. Example of the first drawing task in Belgrade, December 2005. 361 Figure 20. Example of the second drawing task in Belgrade, December 2005. 362 Figure 21. Left, Peder’s floor plan, and right, his physical rendition of it in Belgrade, December 2005. 363 Figure 22. Opening scene of An Unfinished Story at Vijećnica in Sarajevo, June 2006. Photo: Foco Fuoxos 364 Figure 23. “Avoidance.” From left to right: Kristianne Mo, Marija Opsenica, Peder Horgen and Terje Tjøme Mossige in Vijećnica, Sarajevo, June 2006. Photo: Foco Fuoxos. 377 Figure 24. Approaching the end of An Unfinished Story in Vijećnica, Sarajevo 2006. Photo: Foco Fuoxos. 386 Figure 25. “An open grave” – Mourners waiting in Potočari-Srebrenica Memorial Cemetery, 11 July 2004. 392 Figure 26. A systemic model of the griefscape behind A Rehearsal for Mortals 423 Figure 27. From the forest close to Potočari where we witnessed a newly uncovered mass grave in July 2005, cf. Chapter 7.2. The image was used as a backdrop for An Unfinished Story outside Bosnia-Herzegovina. 433 Figure 28. From A Rehearsal for Mortals, Kristianne Mo capturing her own gaze. 452 Figure 29. The choreographic shorthand used to develop A Rehearsal for Mortals, winter 2005. 506 Figure 30: Mind-map of the managerial scope of producing A Rehearsal for Mortals, logbook entry 3 March 2005. 507 The figures without specified credits are provided by the choreographer-researcher. PER ROAR | THORSNES 14 Abbreviations APA American Psychiatric Association BDP Balkan Dance Platform BKC Bosnian Cultural Centre in