An Enactivist Model of Improvisational Dance

An Enactivist Model of Improvisational Danc

The female bouffon

This thesis was submitted for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy and awarded by Brunel University, 09/12/2010.This dissertation examines the notion of the female in performance, the latter term applying to occasions that are outside as well as within theatrical venues. I attempt to address the complex and mutually entailed interrelation between the 'normative' as it has, and continues to, govern female behaviour, and those manifestations deemed transgressive of these in some respect. I seek to postulate a conception of the performing female as a phenomenon which owes its force to the presence of both polarities. My preferred term for such a figure is the female bouffon, and after a preliminary definition of associated terms, I discuss the carnivalesque, socially licenced occasions of 'misrule' in pre-modern societies, where norms were temporarily suspended to permit women to 'make a spectacle of themselves'. Some contemporary parallels are furnished. I then address the larger and more discursive issues of the reflexive and self-applied norms of proper female conduct as offered and justified by industrial, scientifically authorized societies. From the above, I turn to the extraordinary creative ferment of the turn of the twentieth century, which witnessed the rebellious re-institution of older performance genres as well as the invention of new ones. I then discuss the associated theatrical theorizing that accompanied this era. After a detailed examination of the work of two contemporary practitioners, who, I consider, gather together past and present themes of bouffonerie in a compelling way, I give examples of my own performance practice, and some analysis of its reciprocal relation with an audience. I conclude with some speculative thoughts as to the future of the bouffonesque female performer

The instrument in space: The embodiment of music in the machine age

This thesis was submitted for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy and awarded by Brunel University.The body exists in space and time. It moves through cultural spaces and temporal rhythms. In the combination of instantiated actions and environmental conditions a context is created, this through embodiment. In this thesis I will attempt to link definitions of embodiment with the process of creating and performing new sound theatre works that involve live interaction with media technology. I will also examine terms such as inscription or incorporation and their application to processes of learning and memory within a particular context of inter-disciplinary skills. Finally, in the light of this genre, I will approach the problematic of analytical procedures that change the very parameters of embodied knowledge. The term sound theatre could be defined as a shift of play between music, image and text, incorporating elements such as gesture, choreography, audio and visual technology into a compositional dialogue. However this approach demands a re-examination of the spatial and temporal aspects involved in such inter-activity and their consequent relation to the performer. Taking the starting-point of sound and movement within the body of the performer, my research involves investigations into medial extensions of embodiment that have developed through a discourse with machines. This project takes an essentially practical basis for its research in the form of collaborations with musicians and practitioners of media technology towards a creative product. The result is a series of written compositions, each of which examines a different aspect of sound theatre. The valuable exchange that takes place during such a situation of experimentation becomes equally as important as the final product, providing much of the material framework for issues such as terminology and analytical procedures that concern my investigation

Embodied Nostalgia: Early Twentieth Century Social Dance and U.S. Musical Theatre

In this dissertation, I claim the collective emotional connections and historical explorations characteristic of musical theatre constitute a nostalgic impulse dramaturgically inherent in the form. In my intervention in the link between nostalgia and musical theatre, I look to an area underrepresented in musical theatre scholarship: social dance. Through case studies that focus specifically on how social dance in musical theatre brings forth the dancer on stage as a site of embodied history, cultural memory, and nostalgia, I ask what social dance is doing in musical theatre and how the dancing body functions as a catalyst for nostalgic thinking for the audience. I argue that U.S. social dance styles of the first half of the twentieth century, when performed in musicals produced after that time, create a spectrum of nostalgic impulses and embodied meanings. By comparing the historical context of the musical and the time of its original production, I provide a framework for how “embodied nostalgia”—the physicalization of community memories, longings, and historical meaning—within social dance in musical theatre elucidates racial, cultural, and political consciousness. I group social dances that occurred between 1910-1945 into three chapters: early ragtime dances, Charleston styles, and swing dances. I examine the changes in the social dance in the move to the stage and analyze what gets lost (or gained) by the theatricalization. As all the social dances in this project are from the African American milieu, I keep the African American legacy of social dance and jazz music at the center of the conversation. In chapter one, I investigate ragtime dances that provide the roots of influence for the social dances. I examine how the Slow Drag in The Color Purple characterizes how African Americans attempted to keep some physicality of their home and culture. I then problematize the intersection between the different worlds of race and ethnicities in Ragtime and trace how a rupture of the collective parts of the Cakewalk allows for a consideration of the social dance’s history. In Shuffle Along, Or The Making of the Musical Sensation of 1921 and All That Followed I analyze how the embodied nostalgia in the dance styles is used to stake a claim for continued diversity and representation in musical theatre. In chapter two, I explore the transition into the social dances of the 1920s and how the dramatic structure of the musical offers differing perspectives on the era. I trace how the choreography in Thoroughly Modern Millie embodies the new rhythms of the 1920s and then investigate how nostalgia for the indulgences of the 1920s in The Wild Party is dismantled and exposes, through movement and music, the cultural theft at work then and now. I turn to The Drowsy Chaperone to investigate the dramaturgical and choreographic strategies that use parody and a cultivation of nostalgia to trouble one’s relationship to musical theatre. Finally, in chapter three, I trace how swing dances in Wonderful Town, Steel Pier, and Allegiance are used to signal historical idioms, economic survival, cultural identity, and vitalize communities that had been suppressed, deprived, or constricted. I recover, interpret, and champion the study of dancing bodies and social dance choreography in musical theatre as a way to comprehend the essential impact the body has on nostalgic thinking and what that recognition means in the grand scheme of understanding popular performance as a gauge of cultural and social politics. By approaching musical theatre through this lens of social dance and its embodied nostalgia I develop a method to describing, discussing, and critically evaluating dance in musicals

Moving across page, stage, canvas: theatrical dance as a form of intermedial translation

This thesis examines two works of contemporary dance, Marie Chouinard’s Jérôme Bosch: Le Jardin des Délices (2016) and Mathieu Geffré’s choreography for the ESD company Froth on the Daydream (2018), as examples of intermedial translations into dance. In doing so, it proposes a conceptualization of translation through the lens of theatrical dance. In the last decade, the concepts of multimodality and intermediality have prompted a revision of inherited notions of text, language, and translation. This has led translation scholars to stretch their definition of translation so as to include text produced in and through other media, including dance. A number of articles and book chapters from the fields of Dance, Literary, Intermedial and Translation Studies have been published that make the case for the usefulness of the concept of translation for interpreting dance performances. Building on these works, this thesis reverses the question and asks how theatrical dance can help us understand intermedial translation. It does so by mapping the “implicative complex” (Tyulenev, 2010: 241-242) of dance, such as creativity, ephemerality, and the dramaturgy of bodies, onto the realm of translation. The theoretical framework is tested on two very different case studies: Chouinard’s choreography is based on Hieronymus Bosch’s painting The Garden of Earthly Delights, while Geffré’s on Boris Vian’s novel L’Écume de Jours. The methodology combines live attendance at the performances with footage analysis and ethnographic methods such as semi-structured interviews and participant observations. The first case-study focuses on issues of agency in translation, while the second looks at the way in which intermedial translations constitute “performative acts of memory” (Plate and Smelik, 2013: 2), comparing Geffré’s choreography with previous intermedial translations of Vian’s novel into film, opera, and graphic novel. Translation emerges as a creative and corporeal (and therefore political) practice deeply intertwined with issues of memory and struggles for representation. The analysis of the case-studies, together with the theoretical work that precedes it, contributes towards a redefinition of translation within the field of Translation Studies.Esta tese analisa duas obras de dança contemporânea como exemplos de traduções intermediais: Jérôme Bosch: Le Jardin des Délices (2016) de Marie Chouinard e a coreografia Froth on the Daydream (2018) de Mathieu Geffré para a companhia ESD. Propõe-se aqui uma conceptualização da tradução através das lentes da dança teatral. Na última década, os conceitos de multimodalidade e intermedialidade levaram a uma revisão das noções herdadas de texto, linguagem e tradução. Como consequência, várias investigadoras da área de tradução ampliaram a própria definição de “tradução”, incluindo textos produzidos por outras meios, como, por exemplo, a dança. Ao mesmo tempo, numerosos trabalhos foram publicados nas áreas dos Estudos de Dança, de Literatura, de Intermedialidade e de Tradução, apontando para a utilidade do conceito de tradução na interpretação de apresentações de dança. Baseando-se neste corpus teórico, a tese inverte a questão e pergunta como é que a dança teatral nos pode ajudar a entender a tradução intermedial. Isto é feito mapeando o “implicative complex” (Tyulenev, 2010: 241-242) da dança, como a criatividade, a efemeridade e a dramaturgia dos corpos, no domínio da tradução. O quadro teórico assim construído é testado em dois casos de estudo muito diferentes: a coreografia de Chouinard, baseada na pintura O Jardim das Delícias de Hieronymus Bosch e a coreografia de Geffré, criada a partir do romance de Boris Vian, A Espuma dos Dias. A metodologia combina a visão ao vivo das performances e a análise de filmagens com métodos etnográficos, entre os quais entrevistas semiestruturadas e observação de participantes. Se, por um lado, o primeiro caso de estudo se concentra em questões de agenciamento na tradução, por outro, o segundo examina como as traduções intermediais constituem "atos performativos de memória" (Plate e Smelik, 2013: 2, tradução minha), comparando a coreografia de Geffré com outras traduções intermediais do livro de Vian para cinema, ópera e romance gráfico. A tradução surge como uma prática criativa e corporal (e, portanto, política) profundamente entrelaçada com questões de memória e a luta pela representação. A análise dos casos de estudo, juntamente com o enquadramento teórico, contribui para uma redefinição da tradução no âmbito dos Estudos de Tradução

Digital Theatre: A "Live" and Mediated Art Form Expanding Perceptions of Body, Place, and Community

This work discusses Digital Theatre, a type of performance which utilizes both "live" actors and co-present audiences along with digital media to create a hybrid art form revitalizing theatre for contemporary audiences. This work surveys a wide range of digital performances (with "live" and digital elements, limited interactivity/participation and spoken words) and identifies the group collectively as Digital Theatre, an art form with the flexibility and reach of digital data and the sense of community found in "live" theatre. I offer performance examples from Mark Reaney, David Saltz, Troika Ranch, Gertrude Stein Repertory Theatre, Flying Karamazov Brothers, Talking Birds, Yacov Sharir, Studio Z, George Coates Performance Group, and ArtGrid. (The technologies utilized in performances include: video-conferencing, media projection, MIDI control, motion capture, VR animation, and AI). Rather than looking at these productions as isolated events, I identify them as a movement and link the use of digital techniques to continuing theatrical tradition of utilizing new technologies on the stage. The work ties many of the aesthetic choices explored in theatrical past by the likes of Piscator, Svoboda, Craig, and in Bauhaus and Futurist movements. While it retains the essential qualities of public human connection and imaginative thought central to theatre, Digital Theatre can cause theatrical roles to merge as it extends the performer's body, expands our concept of place, and creates new models of global community