Seeking authenticity in a professional world: personal narratives on collaborating with amateurs in contemporary Chinese choreographic practices

Abstract

By analysing personal narratives of nine Chinese choreographers, this study aims to investigate the meanings of collaborating with amateurs in choreographic practices as an aesthetic strategy to realize authenticity. The key question driving this research is: How might collaborating with amateurs serve as a strategy for nine Chinese choreographers to realize their choreographic pursuit towards authenticity? The study concludes that meanings nine Chinese choreographers make of collaborating with amateurs can be understood from the notion of ‘real people’, and this notion consequently signifies the untrained state of the body in context of choreography. The choreographic practices that the nine choreographers employ in their quest for authenticity challenge the existing notions of who is eligible to perform on stage professionally in the Chinese context, meaning that these practices express the agency of performing difference and alternative.