Constructions of the moving body: drawing and dancing

Abstract

ABSTRACTThis article explores the author’s practice-led approach to visualising movement through drawing. Haley approaches movement across the disciplines of fine arts and performance, with a focus on dance, drawing and diagramming. In this paper, the author explores the relation between drawing and movement through the lens of the diagram as a graphic archival form. The author proposes that the diagram – as an assemblage of information, rather than a representation of objects in space – is a material and conceptual model for ‘recording’ dance with potential for future animation. Haley’s research begins with recorded material of American choreographer Trisha Brown’s work Accumulation 1971, which is viewed while simultaneously drawing movement. In an iterative process of drawing after drawing, Haley extracts common points of connecting lines within diagrammatic structures. The structures are described by overlaying translucent layers of watercolour to form visualisations that document choreographed movement. Haley’s research creates diagrams for moving through three-dimensional space that aim to forge connections between drawn documentation and the transience of dance in performance.