On Site: Methods for Site-Specific Performance Creation by Stephan Koplowitz

Abstract

Reviewed by: On Site: Methods for Site-Specific Performance Creation by Stephan Koplowitz KT Shorb They/Them On Site: Methods for Site-Specific Performance Creation. Stephan Koplowitz. New York: Oxford University Press, 2022; pp. xvii + 303. Written by veteran site-specific dancer and choreographer Stephan Koplowitz, On Site: Methods for Site-Specific Performance Creation is part of a proliferation of books published in the last five years on live performance created site-specifically. With COVID-19 shutting down traditional theatres and recital halls, many artists and organizations pivoted to site-specific performance to keep artists and audiences safe while addressing a hunger for live and in-person cultural experiences. During quarantine, we saw a wide range of approaches to site-specificity, with varied levels of success. While the desire to maintain some kind of normalcy by continuing the ritual of in-person attendance has shown audiences to be exceedingly patient with technical and creative glitches, the ability to work adeptly with "site" has revealed itself to be a unique creative muscle—one that requires cultivation. Despite most traditional venues reopening, site-specific work addresses more needs now than ever. For many performing artists, to work "on site" is no longer an idiosyncratic approach limited to a select experimental few. It is now a skill required of every director, choreographer, and performance artist. On Site is a timely and detailed manual to guide those seeking to hone such a skill. A practical handbook for artists, On Site draws heavily from Koplowitz's three-decade long career as a choreographer, director, and producer. In addition, it includes information Koplowitz drew from his interviews with twenty-four artists, producers, and writers of site-specific work, including: Joanna Haigood, Debby Kajiyama, Noémie Lafrance, José Ome Navarrete Mazatl, Jennifer Monson, and Amara Tabor-Smith. Their words and documentation of their creative work appear in the book seamlessly alongside the author's. Koplowitz makes an argument for the heightened need for well-considered site-specific work in our current sociohistorical moment. He also notes that the history of site-specific work has been dominated by white practitioners and explicitly states one goal of the book is to provide tools for practitioners to diversify the field. Structured in six parts, On Site follows a loose production calendar, starting with conceptual definitions of "site-specific" through developing an idea, securing a site, preproduction, content generation, rehearsal, and concluding with performance and postproduction. Two parts explicate business considerations for producer-artists. Sections covering the actual genesis and process of creating content for site work are practice-as-research case studies from Koplowitz's most well-known works. Unlike a few other books that provide exercises for developing work (Phil Smith's Making Site-Specific Theatre and Performance and Mike Pearson's Site-Specific Performance, for example), Koplowitz instead offers examples with reflections and questions for artists to contemplate in relation to their own creative processes. A chapter on collaboration incorporates the voices of his interviewees and explores multiple modes of engaging with designers and design elements. Several chapters address various "challenges" that include performer and audience safety as well as ways to expand accessibility for collaborators and audiences who are both disabled and nondisabled. On Site is a strongly written, well-organized reference manual for the early to mid-career creator-producer. Koplowitz's clarity of prose interwoven with other well-respected artists' observations and advice makes On Site well poised to become a foundational practical text for future site-specific choreographers and directors. It offers concise information on potential pitfalls and ethical considerations for the artist. In addition, Koplowitz includes many philosophical and thoughtful asides on important contemporary subjects such as land use in colonized Indigenous territory, capacious notions of accessibility, and reflections on the democratizing and politically engaged effects of site work. Parts I and II offer introductory information on site work that could be useful in studio and criticism classes wishing to impart some basic concepts to students. Parts III and VI cover business and documentation issues valuable to all independent artists, not only those creating site-specific work. These parts could be assigned in arts management courses. Parts IV and V are useful to...