Exploring the potential of hands in the context of dance and performance : thinking - making through hands
Pysyvä osoite
Verkkojulkaisu
Tiivistelmä
My primary research quest is rooted in the search for meaningful connections in between the moving body, the thinking mind, and the speaking mouth. As part of the performing body, the hand opens a threshold between movement, thought and language, inviting the performer to explore its potentials and beyond. In this thesis, I trace and explore the hand within the context of dance and performance, focusing on hand’s creative and performative presence. In the first chapter, I begin by warming up the reader to the world of hands through a movement score and a reflective text that shares why I am drawn to this topic. I then expand the perspective through Antonin Artaud’s notions on the intersections of body, thought, language, and movement, and reflect on how these ideas resonate with my artistic thinking and making. This chapter also includes reflections on Asian traditional dances, where ritual, theatre, and dance merge, offering a deeper understanding of the hand’s symbolic and expressive roles. The second chapter brings together brief analyses of selected films, dance pieces, and performances. I share my observations and reflections on the performative use of the hand; how it appears, how it is approached through different perspectives, and how these instances relate to my own practice and understanding of performative hand. The third chapter shifts into my personal artistic journey. Here, I focus on my solo performance project A Handmade Red Collage (2023) developed during my master’s studies. Themes such as the autonomy of the hand, its relation to objects, gestures, micro-gestures, semi- gestures, suspension, in-betweenness, expression and de-expression, the transformation of idioms into movement, thinking-making, bridging text, hands and language form the core of this chapter. In the fourth chapter, I introduce HANDBOOK, a collection of movement scores I have created throughout my artistic process, centered on the performative use of the hand. Throughout the thesis, I refer to specific scores from this guide, highlighting relevant sections that the reader can look at, try out, and engage with. In the fifth and final chapter, I share an afterword as a personal closing to the journey. The aim of this thesis is to deepen our understanding of the expressive and creative presence of the hand in the context of dance and performance. Alongside HANDBOOK, I hope it can serve as an inspiration for performers and others curious about bodily experimentation, especially through the powerful and playfull potentials of the hands.