Accumulated response in live improvised dance performance

128 Pages·2017·5.55 MB·English

Edith Cowan University
Research Online
Theses: Doctorates and Masters Theses
1-1-2001
Accumulated response in live improvised dance performance
Joanna T. Pollitt
Edith Cowan University
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Recommended Citation
Pollitt, J. T. (2001). Accumulated response in live improvised dance performance. https://ro.ecu.edu.au/
theses/1038
This Thesis is posted at Research Online.
https://ro.ecu.edu.au/theses/1038
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ACCUMULATED RESPONSE
IN
LIVE IMPROVISED DANCE PERFORMANCE
By
Joanna Tollemache Pollitt, BA.
A Thesis Submitted in Partial Fulfilment of
the Requirements for the Award of
Master of Arts (Creative Arts)
at the Faculty of the
Western Australian Academy of Performing Arts,
Edith Cowan University.
Date of submission: December 12, 2001
USE OF THESIS

The Use of Thesis statement is not included in this version of the thesis.
ABSTRACT
The response project and accompanying thesis aim to affinn the role of the dancer as
an authority in revealing patterns and traces of accumulated lived experience,
knowledge and ideas through the practice and performance of dance improvisation.
The dancing body is investigated as a dynamical and complex system of research that
is embedded in a process of continual response to the present. These bodily
inscriptions and the process of active response fonn the seminal grounds for the
physical and energetic exchange of improvised dance in perfonnance.
Dance improvisation is inextricably linked with the dancer and as such the
practitioner bears within their work as many contradictions as has any individual
dance artist. An examination of the lineage of dance improvisation that has its roots
in postmodern dance reveals a paradoxical practice of maintaining a continuous
present while drawing on an accumulative past. Simultaneously in process and in
performance the dancer is in a permanent state of response - to the process itself, to
the environment and to humanness. A highly rigorous and complex creative practice,
improvisation in contemporary dance is grounded in the embodied knowledge of the
dancer. What then is the value of a dancer's accumulated experience in a culture that
embraces and promotes new technology-based work?
It can be said that no dance perfonnance whether choreographed or improvised can
ever guarantee sameness because it occurs in a state of 'aliveness'. Improvisation
most closely alludes to this 'aliveness' as it is intrinsically unstable and unrepeatable.
With its documentation stored in the body, improvisation leaves even less hard copy
historical evidence than the already ephemeral nature of choreographed dance work.
Dance improvisation, like all dance is not a fixed medium and I assert that it can
never be exactly reproduced by film, video, computer capture, notation or even
memory. These recording/recalling mechanisms capture parts of the dance but they
all taint the experience with their own subjectivity and limitations. I aim to support
that this physical documentation of improvisation, though not a reliable, tangible or
testable record of the event, is real and can be revealed in the improvising dancer.
ABSTRACT
The response project and accompanying thesis aim to affirm the role of the dancer as
an authority in revealing patterns and traces of accumulated lived experience,
knowledge and ideas through the practice and performance of dance improvisation.
The dancing body is investigated as a dynamical and complex system of research that
is embedded in a process of continual response to the present. These bodily
inscriptions and the process of active response form the seminal grounds for the
physical and energetic exchange of improvised dance in performance.
Dance improvisation is inextricably linked with the dancer and as such the
practitioner bears within their work as many contradictions as has any individual
dance artist. An examination of the lineage of dance improvisation that has its roots
in postmodern dance reveals a paradoxical practice of maintaining a continuous
present while drawing on an accumulative past. Simultaneously in process and in
performance the dancer is in a permanent state of response - to the process itself, to
the environment and to humanness. A highly rigorous and complex creative practice,
improvisation in contemporary dance is grounded in the embodied knowledge of the
dancer. What then is the value ofa dancer's accumulated experience in a culture that
embraces and promotes new technology-based work?
It can be said that no dance performance whether choreographed or improvised can
ever guarantee sameness because it occurs in a state of 'aliveness'. Improvisation
most closely alludes to this 'aliveness' as it is intrinsically unstable and unrepeatable.
With its documentation stored in the body, improvisation leaves even less hard copy
historical evidence than the already ephemeral nature of choreographed dance work
Dance improvisation, like all dance is not a fixed medium and I assert that it can
never be exactly reproduced by film, video, computer capture, notation or even
memory. These recording/recalling mechanisms capture parts of the dance but they
all taint the experience with their own subjectivity and limitations. I aim to support
that this physical documentation of improvisation, though not a reliable, tangible or
testable record of the event, is real and can be revealed in the improvising dancer.
The work aims to relocate and present dance improvisation as personal, articulate and
relevant contemporary arts practice that can offer a precise and non-linear insight into
the performer. In response to the glut of video-based, multi-media and new
technology inspired work, dance improvisation brings the dance back to the dancer
and predicts a trend of interest back to the live body. Humans are complex and it is
this complexity that I hope to reveal through dance improvisation, in the choices,
potential and responses of the performers.
COPYRIGHT AND ACCESS DECLARATION:
I certify that this thesis does not, to the best ofm y knowledge and belie/
(i) incorporate without acknowledgement any material previously submittedf or
a degree or a diploma in any institution of higher education;
(ii) contain any material previously published or written by another person except
where due reference is made in the text; or
(iii) contains any defa matory material.
Signed:
L:
Date: .... .ll ·. J. :J !. ?.. ............ .
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
I wish to express my sincere thanks to my Supervisor, Dr Maggi Phillips, for
her detailed and insighiful assistance in the preparation of this thesis.
Special thanks also to my husband, Franc Rasche/la, for his ongoing
support and valuable assistance in the preparation of the video as well as to
Jennifer Monson, Amanda Jones, Lindon Thompson, Nanette Hassall,
Reyes de Lara, Cath Stewart and Rod & Dee Pollitt.
I would especially like to thank all of the dancers and musicians, who
participated in the response project, particularly,
Bee Reid, Katie Moore, Angie Diaz & Phoebe Robinson.
CONTENTS
Title i
---------------------------
Abstract ii
Copyright and Access Declaration iv
Acknowledgments._ _____________________v
Contents vi
INTRODUCTION_ _________________ l
Photo: Jo Pollitt in prince (Franc Raschella) 5
PART ONE Lineage of Practice._ _______________6
CHAPTER 1: Lineage of Practice_ _______________7
Becoming - and becoming undone 7
Dance improvisation; unbalancing the border between modern and
postmodern dance practice. _________________8
CHAPTER 2: Perceptions, Hierarchies, & Structures 17
Choreography and 'instant composition' 20
Performing structures 24
CHAPTER 3: In Process: Improvisation As A Performance Practice 30
Philosophies of the present in process 30
"Front keeps changing" (Allen, p26) 33
Structuring process- a displaced democracy 38
CHAPTER 4: www.'live'dance: Dancing Bodies and Technology 45
The culture of the 'new': again 46
Lived experience and technology 53
CONCLUSION 57
PART TWO The response Project; Bodies of Research ________6 0
Photo: response project one (Franc Raschella)
------~70