Video Dance: Hybrid Sites and Fluid Bodies.

'Video dance', it is argued, embodies a creative investigation of dance and television, and can be identified by cutting edge imagery and innovative filming techniques. Although video dance is an area that has little tradition within dance scholarship, it has inspired a diverse spectrum of reactions that ranges from critics who decry the manipulation of the dancing body by the televisual apparatus, through to practitioners who champion its creative potential. The thesis traces the experimental territory that video dance occupies, pursuing the implications this has for choreographic practices, the spectatorship experience, the performing body and for television as a context for dance. The thesis proposes that video dance can be conceptualised as a 'hybrid site', where a dialectical contest ensues in which the televisual apparatus acts upon the dancing body, and postmodern stage dance practices are relocated to the television context, so that boundaries are challenged and displaced. Dance studies and television theory illustrate how conventions from each discipline are employed and abandoned, in this new interdisciplinary field. In addition to dance and television, video dance traverses other theoretical frameworks and aesthetic sites. This interdisciplinarity highlights the 'fluid' character of the video dance body: video dance shares similarities with the bold commercial images of television advertising and music video; it constructs a technologically enhanced body; and its disruption of aesthetic boundaries offers comparison with the avant-garde. in order to examine the multiplicity of discourses that inscribe the video dance genre, the thesis draws on consumer theory, writings on 'mechanical' and 'new digital' technologies, and Kristeva's concept of 'revolution in poetic language' as frameworks of analysis. The validity of this inter-discursive methodology is that it reveals the potential of video dance to traverse and disrupt symbolic boundaries, and explains the impact this has on dance theory and practice

Christopher J. Smith, Dancing Revolution: Bodies, Space and Sound in American Cultural History. (2019)

no abstract --- JSTOR link to article (restricted access) https://www.jstor.org/stable/2697026

Video Dance: Hybrid Sites and Fluid Bodies.

'Video dance', it is argued, embodies a creative investigation of dance and television, and can be identified by cutting edge imagery and innovative filming techniques. Although video dance is an area that has little tradition within dance scholarship, it has inspired a diverse spectrum of reactions that ranges from critics who decry the manipulation of the dancing body by the televisual apparatus, through to practitioners who champion its creative potential. The thesis traces the experimental territory that video dance occupies, pursuing the implications this has for choreographic practices, the spectatorship experience, the performing body and for television as a context for dance. The thesis proposes that video dance can be conceptualised as a 'hybrid site', where a dialectical contest ensues in which the televisual apparatus acts upon the dancing body, and postmodern stage dance practices are relocated to the television context, so that boundaries are challenged and displaced. Dance studies and television theory illustrate how conventions from each discipline are employed and abandoned, in this new interdisciplinary field. In addition to dance and television, video dance traverses other theoretical frameworks and aesthetic sites. This interdisciplinarity highlights the 'fluid' character of the video dance body: video dance shares similarities with the bold commercial images of television advertising and music video; it constructs a technologically enhanced body; and its disruption of aesthetic boundaries offers comparison with the avant-garde. in order to examine the multiplicity of discourses that inscribe the video dance genre, the thesis draws on consumer theory, writings on 'mechanical' and 'new digital' technologies, and Kristeva's concept of 'revolution in poetic language' as frameworks of analysis. The validity of this inter-discursive methodology is that it reveals the potential of video dance to traverse and disrupt symbolic boundaries, and explains the impact this has on dance theory and practice

On Watching Screendance

In this provocation, I ask what is it to watch screendance, what is at stake, and what comes into play? I suggest that in identifying works as examples of “dance on screen”, we enter into a complex history of aesthetic innovations, marketing criteria, funding systems, and intellectual debates. I compare the viewing practices of film, television and the internet, and consider how different screen formats shape experiences of teaching and research. I reflect upon the ethics of participation in online debates, and suggest that the modes and stakes of watching are as important as the dance itself

Faces, Close-ups and Choreography: A Deleuzian Critique of So You Think You Can Dance

In everyday life the face occupies a central position within human expression and social interaction: its features are perceived to present a unique identity, and we breathe, consume and communicate through our faces. In this article, we explore two ideas as a means to examine the “screendance face.” First we introduce the notion of “facial choreography” to reflect on how the screen apparatus produces representations of dancing faces informed by aesthetic and social values. Secondly, we develop the concept of a “choreographic interface,” which we conceive as an intertextual site of meaning whereby a dancing face both references and enters into a dynamic exchange with other faces. While these two concepts could be applied to any screendance face, to elucidate these ideas in motion, we turn to a specific screendance case study: an audition clip from So You Think You Can Dance, which features Brian Henry, a 22-year old African American man from Brooklyn, New York, who specializes in krumping

Dance and the Hollywood Musical

This material focuses on the role of dance in the classic Hollywood musical. It contains: Teacher Notes; 3 and a half hours of materials for independent learning which include a set of audio podcasts (with dowloadable transcriptions and audio files), critical questions with feedback and links to video clips; recommended readings.