Choreography as Concept, Dancing as Material

Abstract

This article approaches the conceptual-material bind in artistic process through the early work of Meg Stuart. It has been well-documented that the conceptual work in the recent dance avant-garde turns anew to the materiality of the form as a means to unhinge what we think we know about dance and choreography (Lepecki 2004, Cvejić 2015). 'Choreography as Concept, Dancing as Material' takes a new approach, considering the historical context including the mid-century emergence of conceptual art in artists' writing and practice, and Stuart as a pioneer of the most recent activity in this aesthetic lineage (Flynt 1963, Laermans and Stuart 2001). As a term, 'conceptual' dance is as contentious as 'contemporary' dance. While the term 'conceptual' emerged in visual art, according to Peter Osborne, "as both a critical-curatorial category and a form of practical artistic self-understanding," it has never been taken up so broadly or confidently in dance studies, dance as creative practice, or programming (Osborne 2002, p.18). Debates around the conceptual as it relates to dance, and the associated art historical and trans-disciplinary binary that sets concepts against materials, throws light on a much broader field of experimental practices. This article unpacks what conceptual meant when it emerged from the intermedial historical period in art between the early 1960s and early 1970s, how it has been used in relation to recent experimental dance, and the usefulness of these discourses in understanding current choreographic practices that interface with the visual arts, turning to Stuart's contribution to This Is the Show and the Show Is Many Things / Extra Muros (1994).

Notes

1 The exhibition included other choreographers, Donna Uchizono and Christine De Smedt, and artists Jan Erik Andersson, Wouter van Riessen, Kari Juutilainen, Daniel Faust, Amos Hetz, Damaged Goods, Meg Stuart, Louise Bourgeois, Henrietta Lehtonen, Claire Roudenko-Bertin, Anne Decock, Eran Schaerf, ManfreDu Schu, Jason Rhoades, Uri Tzaig, Fabrice Hybert, Suchan Kinoshita, Luc Tuymans, Maria Roosen and Mark Manders. Participants in Stuart’s work were Adrienne Altenhaus, Florence Augendre, Lieve Cuisinier, Igor De Baecke, Sigrid De Baecke, Marian De Coninck, Peter De Rouck, Christine De Smedt, Els de Wachter, Marc Dewit, Anna Drijbooms, Dulcinea Elens, David Freeman, Paul Gazzola, Lisa Gunstone, Leen Gyselinck, Kaat Gysen, David Hernandez, Jos Kuypers, Benôit Lachambre, Caro Lambert, Lawrence Malstaf, Lilia Mestre, Agnes Moors, Leen Ochelen, Fien Sulmont, Steffi Thuysbaert, Katrien van Aerschot, Hans Van Den Broeck, Paul Van Hool, Gerd Van Looy, Marianne Verschooris and Philippe Weiler.

2 Cvejić sets the time frame for the emergence of the practices often described as ‘conceptual’ at 1998– 2007 (2015: 1) but Lepecki refers to the tendency as emergent since ‘the early nineties’ (2004: 171).

3 The primarily European artists are listed by Cvejić as Le Roy, Burrows and Jan Ritsema, Boris Charmatz, Ezster Salamon, Mette Ingvartsen and Jefta van Dinther (Cvejić’s case studies) as well as Jérôme Bel, Christine de Smedt, Alice Chauchat, Mette Edvardsen, Vera Mantero, Juan Dominguez, Maria La Ribot, Antonia Baehr and Thomas Plischke (2015: 6).

4 I thank my Writing Dancing group, and particularly Lizzie Thomson, for helping me arrive at this language.

5 In 2015, a conference called POST-DANCE: Beyond the kinesthetic experience and back took place at MDT (previously Moderna Dansteatern) in Stockholm, Sweden. Co-convened by Danjel Andersson of MDT, André Lepecki and Gabriel Smeets (Cullberg Ballet), Andersson coined the term and suggests that it is the latest development in a genealogy connected to the second-wave New York-based activity (2017: 15).

6 The exhibition Traffic, curated by Nicolas Bourriaud in 1996 at CAPC musée d’Art contemporain de Bordeaux (CAPC Museum of Contemporary Art of Bordeaux), is considered by some to be the first relational aesthetics exhibition (and Bourriaud coined the term) but De Baere regards it as ‘the beginning of the end’ (De Baere and Esche 2017).

7 Newton was a participant in Choreography-Gallery-Practice (28 February–1 March 2019), as part of the ‘Precarious Movements: Choreography and the museum research’ project, the School of the Arts & Media, and Art and Design, University of New South Wales (UNSW), Sydney, Australia.