“[So] What Do Dancers Know, [Anyway]?”: Voicing the Dancer’s Perspective through Emergent Choreographic Analysis

Abstract

[So] what do dancers know, [anyway]? Part manifesto, part essay, this article presents a woven, multi-level text discussion of my dancer/scholar standpoint and practice-as-research approach to articulating the dancer’s perspective. My recent research develops an emergent choreographic analysis of iconic American dance artist Deborah Hay’s choreography and practice, from my first-person experience as practitioner/performer in her solo “At Once” (2009). Writing as closely as possible to the dancing experience from within the practice, and using phenomenological, critical-poetic and performative writing strategies, this approach involves an iterative practicing, performing, and writing process that echoes the principles of adaptation underlying Hay’s own project. Reflecting Robin Nelson’s proposal that, in PaR, theory is imbricated within practice but must be articulated in complementary writing, I draw on Linda Hutcheon’s definition and principles of adaptation as a tool to amplify the resonances between Hay’s work, my artistic research itself, and the framework for its articulation. I ultimately position my research and writing not as a separate analytical reflection but as a critical-creative adaptation of Hay’s choreographic work.