Choreographing Collapsing Bodies

Abstract

Choreographing Collapsing Bodies examines the choreographic in the arrangement of different material bodies, agencies and affects. This artistic research investigates the affective power of everyday objects and their role in performance, focusing on chairs and tables as co-performers. The main question of this written thesis revolves around the methods of choreographing a performance that encompasses different material agencies and modes of expression. This research interest is informed by my experience of living in an environment marked by frequent seismic activity. This intimate awareness of unpredictable earth movements influences a choreographic approach that reflects on precarity in performance practice. I explore the subtle perception of things as a way of building my relationship with objects and allowing their vibrancy to guide my action through stillness, precarious formations, collapse, irregular rhythms, images of hybrid bodies, multiple affects and material expressions. I research choreographic methods including score-based improvisation and instant composition to create a performance situation which allows for the affective exchange between different material bodies and provides the space for chance happenings.

The thesis is structured into three main chapters. Each chapter delves into my artistic journey and the theoretical framework that underpins the exploration.

In the first chapter, I revisit three selected experiences from my embodied archive, exploring how my bodily knowledge nourishes the question of how to create choreography with everyday objects.

In the second chapter, I elaborate on the choreographic thinking behind “collapsing bodies,” beginning with the presentation of pluralistic and indeterminate definitions of choreography. I then reflect on “collapsing bodies” through my situated knowledge, influenced by my precarious living conditions, and my artistic practices with everyday objects in two of my performance projects Still Changning and Relaxing on a Shaky Ground.

The third chapter examines the performativity of the objects in choreography. I explore the notion of intermateriality, introduced by Daniela Hahn in Things that Dance (2019), reflecting on chance encounters and intermaterial dialogues in the creative process. This chapter also investigates my choreographic practice through the lens of assemblage and thing-power from Jane Bennett’s theory in Vibrant Matter: A Political Ecology of Things (2010).

In summary, Choreographing Collapsing Bodies is an artistic and theoretical exploration that examines choreography through the performativity of everyday objects, a subtle perception of things, an entangled dynamic between stillness and movement, score and chance, and the exploration of memory and dreaming. This thesis attempts to contribute to the fields of choreography, performance art and movement practice with my embodied knowledge and theoretical insights.