Embracing a Precarious Life

Abstract

Abstract This article presents research focused on the precarious life of an independent dance artist in a European context. The aim of this study was to identify ways to understand and cope with the various unstable aspects of the lifestyle and profession of independent dance artists. Together with a group of fellow dance artists, I explored understandings of instability and stability and investigated how collective action might reinforce a sense of stability. I position this study in relation to current economic trends in which the individual is increasingly in focus, with few social security benefits, and the dancer is often faced with solitary living and working situations. I applied a performative, practice-led research methodology supported by feminist post-human theories. The findings led to discussions of the complexity and entanglement of stability and instability, which evolved into a joint phrasing of in/stability, in which I explored how the fluid practice of dance corresponds with not only a wider socio-political landscape but also an ever-changing world.