Breaking the Self Amongst the Crowd

This twenty minute choreographic work proposed for performance at the Symposium is part of a practice as research (PaR) study that explores the experiential interrelationship between dance-making, performance and everyday life through a choreographic perspective. The study focuses on the relationship between the performer and spectator as the tool to characterise performance as a series of interactions between participants. The researcher uses PaR to identify methods and creative compositional approaches to dance-making that look at the liminal space between performance and everyday life. The choreographic work to be presented at the symposium, marks the initial stages to this study.This interdisciplinary project draws on three theoretical frameworks; phenomenological hermeneutics, cognitive body agency and performance studies. This initial choreographic work as part of the PhD research explores choreographic practices that question the relationship between performer and spectator. The researcher has been analysing the works of Slovenian performance group Via Negativa, renowned for their unconventional performative practices. From this analysis the researcher is currently exploring a range of choreographic/ performative practices that encourage the spectator to understand themselves as part of the spectacle and allow them to escape from the rigid confines of conventional spectatorship. The researcher is interested in performer and spectator responses to this experience, most importantly how British audiences respond to this type of experimental/ unconventional dance performance.