Marking the moment: Documenting dance in coloured water, flesh, sand and charcoal

Abstract

This article discusses interdisciplinary methods for recalling and documenting the somatic knowledges derived from movement (such as dance movement). The article explores the research-as-practice interdisciplinary activity of Concrete-Water-Flesh at Deptford, a set of three structured improvisational dance scores carried out on the sand by the River Thames at Deptford, United Kingdom in 2020 and 2021. During Concrete-Water-Flesh at Deptford, I, Helen Kindred and some fellow dancers (forming DancingStrong Movement Lab Company) moved across the sand at the river’s edge, while fine artists (including Andrew Hinton, Mary Rodriguez and Nina Anderson) moved across paper, drawing us using elements from the shore (the sandy sludge, charcoal from burnt beach debris, and water). In the moment of dance, the marks of our movements (such as on sand or on paper) offered a documentation of the somatic experience of Concrete-Water-Flesh at Deptford. I suggest the collaboration of Concrete-Water-Flesh at Deptford raises possibilities for, and further questions about, documenting and languaging the embodied.