Choreographing an Archive of Relations: Singularities and the Common Shared in Dance explores choreographic methods and processes for the use of archives in dance. How can choreography exist as a singularity, as an object that makes visible historical dance archives, modalities of observation, and archives of tasks and situations? What if choreography is not about inventing new material, but about a process of composing, working with, and making visible existing materials and relations?
The research has produced new choreographic works understood as singularities through the use of existing material. I am drawn to the agency that material can have in shaping the work. An artistic creative process is always a site of references and influences, and I see the act of naming these references as something that neither diminishes nor undermines the autonomy or integrity of the artwork. Instead, it can contribute to establishing a broader field of knowledge within dance and choreography, and challenge the historically fetishized idea of the original, genius masterpiece, where its influences cannot be articulated, discussed, or traced.
The research has developed along two axes. The first axis I identify is the intersubjectivity inherent in choreographic processes. More precisely, I investigate how to create a productive learning situation in my work where what we produce emerges between me, as choreographer, and the performer/dancer/collaborator, and how the place, context, and situation function as co-creative materials in the artistic work. The second axis in my research, intertextuality, reflects my interest in existing materials, found dance historical archives, found forms of composition and modalities of observation, and in understanding and approaching these as something commonly shared within dance.
ARTIST TALK presents choreographers, dance artists, and others who, through their artistic practice, communicate, perform, and explore various forms of and approaches to choreography and performance.