In the body of the beholder: Insider dynamics and extended audiencing transform dance spectatorship in Sleep No More

Abstract

Drawing on statements from Maxine Doyle, associate artistic director and choreographer of Punchdrunk’s Sleep No More (SNM) as well as reflections of SNM performers and spectators, Julia M. Ritter considers how dance practices are deployed to affect experiences of immersive performance by engendering and complicating agentive action, engagement, and investment in dance spectatorship. Ritter identifies a confluence of extended postmodern dance practices and insider dynamics (including complicity, porosity, contagion and inclusion) in Doyle’s choreographic strategies that afford possibilities for spectator agency and engagement, transforming audience experiences of dance spectatorship. Ritter proposes the term extended audiencing to describe how spectators continue their experiences of post-performance through reflection in social media postings and the creation of cultural products alongside the theatrical event.