Work(s) and (non)production in contemporary movement practices

Abstract

This paper considers how the presentation of movement practices in performance contexts blurs the distinction between making and performance, raising questions about the nature of dance ‘works’. I examine the way that practice is foregrounded in the work of UK dance artists Katye Coe and Charlie Morrissey, and American choreographer Deborah Hay, troubling distinctions between the internal and external aspects of performance. In response to this, I examine the applicability of the work–concept (Goehr 1992), to current dance practices, suggesting that the concept is an open one and refers not solely to stable art objects, but also indicates open-ended entities, which are formed through a confluence of practice and performance.

Projects, Precarity, and the Ontology of Dance Works

“…The ontology of dance works has been addressed by a number of scholars working in dance studies and philosophy (Conroy 2013;Davies 2011;Louppe 2010;McFee 1992McFee , 2011Pakes 2013;Pouillaude 2017;Rubidge 2000). In order to explain the relationship between works and their performances, many analytic philosophers adopt the type-token schema, under which a work is an abstract type, made present via performance tokens, 2 a framework challenged by some scholars, including Bojana Cvejić(2016) and myself (Blades 2011). Laurence Louppe (2010) and Sarah Rubidge (2000) offer specific criteria by which an output can qualify as a dance work, with Louppe citing an authorial signature, context, and originality as central to the concept of the work (2010, 203) and Rubidge suggesting endurance, authorship, and consistent structural features across multiple instances as central (2000,206).…”

“…The association of dance as art, and the appropriateness of the concept of the work to dance, has been challenged by some recent literature (Cvejić 2015), and some practitioners prefer to adopt terms such as “performances,” “productions,” or “dances” (Blades 2016; Pakes 2015). However, in my interviews, the work-concept remained strong, functioning for many as an ideal form, on which they focus their ambitions, or which they critically interrogate through practice.…”