Multiplicity, embodiment and the contemporary dancer: Moving identities

Abstract

In recent years, the practice of contemporary dancers has altered significantly in the transition from canonical choreographic vocabularies to a proliferation of choreographic signatures within mainstream and independent dance. Dancers are often required to collaborate creatively on the formation of choreographic material, thus engaging conceptually with emerging cultural paradigms. This book explores the co-creative practice of contemporary dancers solely from the point of view of the dancer. It reveals multiple dancing perspectives, drawn from interviews, current writing and evocative accounts from inside the choreographic process, illuminating the myriad ways that dancers contribute to the production of contemporary dance culture. A key insight of this book is that the dancer's signature way of being is a ‘moving identity’, which incorporates the past dance experience, anatomical structures and conditioned human movement of the dancer as a self-in-process. The moving identity is the movement signature that the dancer forms throughout a career path.