170501 UE Choreographies of the non-human (2020W)

CONTENT

This course will examine dance works engaging with media beyond the human body as cultural artefacts reflecting but also probing our relationships with - and the very definition of - the non-human. Despite a deeply anchored anthropocentrism, social, political and cultural life is mediated by non-human entities and influenced by their agency. Similarly, while our conception(s) of humanity also develop by juxtaposition to that which we consider non-human and while an association with the non-human participates in processes of othering, our bodies contain and expand through a host of organic and inorganic elements, developing relations of dependency with our environment. Against this background, in this course we will study different ways in which non-human entities are implicated in choreographic work. Underlining their active participation - and not only representation - we will focus on such topics as body extensions, equipment and props; the use of objects and their actions as choreographic models or scoring aids; the staging of non-human entities as performers; the development of multimedia assemblages (which may or may not also include human bodies) and environments or the development of choreographies exclusively in media other than the human body. We will identify these in selected case studies of Western theatrical dance, ranging from early 20th century works reinventing relationships both with nature and new technologies in the aftermath of the second industrial revolution to contemporary dance practices grappling with the non-human in a situation of ecological crisis. In studying these pieces, we will engage in comparative analyses seeking counterpoints and resonances between different historical moments. The course will accentuate non-human agency and its artistic, aesthetic, political, ethical effects as integral parts of 20th and early 21st century dance history, while also critically assessing the extent to which staging the non-human effectively challenges anthropocentrism. Considering dance works as territories in which relations with the non-human can be experimented and negotiated, it will ask how human (dancing) bodies and subjects are co-constituted though their (choreographic) relation with the non-human.

AIMS

By the end of the semester the students should
- be familiar with key works of 20th and 21st century dance history exemplifying different models of choreographic implication of non-human elements;
- be aware of historical variations in choreographic uses of non-human elements;
- have a critical understanding of relevant literature from Dance Studies, framed by wider readings;
- have an awareness of central arguments about the choreographic, aesthetic, artistic, and socio-political relevance of a focus on the non-human and be able to critically engage with them;
- be able to connect their reflections on the course’s case studies and theory with pertinent social and political contexts (both contemporary and historical);
- be capable of using relevant notions (e.g. agency, assemblage, anthropocentrism, object/thing) in discussion and writing and of applying them to the analysis of artistic works.

METHODS
- Lecture format.
- Collective work: in-class discussion of texts, video excerpts and/or other practice-based primary sources (images, libretti, scores), mind mapping.
- Work in small teams: preparation of oral presentations.
- Individual work: short written assignments.

A choreographer whose work touches upon the themes of the course will be invited towards the end of the semester for a practice/discussion session (tbc depending on covid-related situation).