An Art in Sharing: Reflections on Somatic Attention and Queer Choreographies
Keywords:
ArrayAbstract
Looks at the ways in which the queer is performed, choreographed and received in contemporary art, particularly in relation to the ways in which connection functions in dancing and dance reception. Particular emphasis is given to the concept of intersubjectivity and its connective function, using theories taken from Hannah Arendt and Emmanuel Levinas. Examples of artworks by Forest V. Kapo, val smith are discussed. The concept of somatic attention is addressed, the ways in which somatics is a normative system that often generalises and promotes bodies that are homogenous, a-historical and so-called natural. Another central concept is kinaesthetic queerness and the role it might play in de-naturalising somatics and somatic attention. A brief history of how somatics came to the shores of Aotearoa New Zealand is included. A first-person account of the choreographic artwork Moving Backwards (2019) by Pauline Boudry and Renate Lorenz is included, exploring moving backwards as a way to physically perform resistance, challenge progress and encourage strange encounters that might be points of departure for the unexpected. The final section explores aspects of dancing and dance reception that are unchosen, employing theories of encounter gleaned from Levinas, arguing that his idea of appeal or call and response is an interesting model for the reception of dance.
References
Ahmed, Sara. 2006. “Toward a Queer Phenomenology.” GLQ: A Journal of Lesbian and Gay Studies 12: 543–574. https://doi.org/10.1215/10642684-2006-002 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1215/10642684-2006-002
Arendt, Hannah. 1958. The Human Condition. Translated by Margaret Canovan. Chicago, IL: The University of Chicago Press.
Boudry, Pauline, and Renate Lorenz. 2019. “Pauline Boudry/Renate Lorenz – La Biennale di Venezia 2019.” YouTube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tb7AouZtN7E. Accessed 29 February 2024.
Boudry, Pauline, and Renate Lorenz. 2019. Moving Backwards: Pauline Boudry/Renate Lorenz. Milan: Skira.
Bradford, Mark. 2008. “Lisa Tan Mark Bradford at Laxart.” YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rI6dIbI6iH0. Accessed 29 February 2024.
Braidotti, Rosi. 2013. The Posthuman. Cambridge: Polity.
Brodie, Julie A., and Elin E. Lobel. 2012. Dance and Somatics: Mind Body Principles of Teaching and Performance. Jefferson, NC; London: McFarland.
Buckland, Fiona. 2002. Impossible Dance: Club Culture and Queer World-Making. Middletown, CT: Wesleyan University Press.
Butler, Judith. 2015. Notes Toward a Performative Theory of Assembly. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press. https://doi.org/10.4159/9780674495548 DOI: https://doi.org/10.4159/9780674495548
Corber, Robert J., and Stephen Valocchi. 2003. Queer Studies: An Interdisciplinary Reader. Malden: Blackwell.
Croft, Clare (ed.). 2017. Queer Dance. Meanings and Makings. New York: Oxford University Press. https://doi.org/10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199377329.001.0001 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199377329.001.0001
Csordas, Thomas J. 1993. “Somatic Modes of Attention.” Cultural Anthropology 8(2): 135–156. https://doi.org/10.1525/can.1993.8.2.02a00010 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1525/can.1993.8.2.02a00010
Drury, Lindsey. 2022. “What’s in a Name? Somatics and the Historical Revisionism of Thomas Hanna.” Dance Research Journal 54(1): 6–29. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0149767722000043 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/S0149767722000043
Eaton, Jeremy. 2018. “Drag Family Values: Lineages of Drag Gesture.” Presented at “Minor Activisms 1” convened by Kim Donaldson & Katve-Kaisa Kontturi as part of Aesthetics, Politics and Histories: The Social Context of Art 2018 AAANZ Conference, RMIT School of Art, Naarm Melbourne, Australia.
Freeman, Elizabeth. 2000. “Packing History, Count(er)ing Generations.” New Literary History 31(4): 727–744. https://doi.org/10.1353/nlh.2000.0046 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1353/nlh.2000.0046
George, Doran. 2020. The Natural Body in Somatics Dance Training. New York: Oxford University Press. https://doi.org/10.1093/oso/9780197538739.001.0001 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1093/oso/9780197538739.001.0001
Ginot, Isabelle. 2010. “From Shusterman’s Somaesthetics to a Radical Epistemology of Somatics.” Dance Research Journal 42(1): 12–29. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0149767700000802 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/S0149767700000802
Halberstam, Jack. 2011. The Queer Art of Failure. Durham, NC: Duke University Press. https://doi.org/10.2307/j.ctv11sn283 DOI: https://doi.org/10.2307/j.ctv11sn283
Halberstam, Jack. 2020. Wild Things: The Disorder of Desire. Durham, NC: Duke University Press. https://doi.org/10.1215/9781478012627 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1215/9781478012627
Ihimaera, Witi. 1973. Tangi. Auckland: Penguin.
Johnson, Kerri L., et al. 2007. “Swagger, Sway, and Sexuality: Judging Sexual Orientation From Body Motion and Morphology.” Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 93(3): 321–334. https://doi.org/10.1037/0022-3514.93.3.321 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1037/0022-3514.93.3.321
Jones, Amelia. 1998. Body Art: Performing the Subject. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press.
Kapo, Forest V. 2019. “Poetic Body: Eclectic Ephemera. Vicky Kapo” in TE AO LIVE: Experimental Dance Aotearoa NZ in the Early 21st Century, edited by Alexa Wilson, 66–69. Auckland: Experimental Dance Week Aotearoa.
Kapo, Forest V. 2019. John Doe. 5 February 2019 at the Basement (Studio) Tāmaki Makaurau Auckland as part of the festival Experimental Dance Week Aotearoa. https://forestvkapo.com/2021/06/21/john-doe-2019/. Accessed 29 February 2024.
Kapo, Forest V. 2022. Personal communication with the author, Naarm Melbourne. 28 June 2022.
Lepecki, André. 2006. Exhausting Dance: Performance and the Politics of Movement. New York, NY: Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9780203012871 DOI: https://doi.org/10.4324/9780203012871
Lepecki, André. 2019. “Infinite Retrogression: Backwardforward Motions for Another Life.” In Moving Backward: Pauline Boudry/Renate Lorenz, edited by Pauline Boudry and Renate Lorenz, 82–87. Milan: Skira.
Levinas, Emmanuel. 1969. Totality and Infinity: An Essay on Exteriority. Translated by Alphonso Lingis. Pittsburgh, PA: Duquesne University Press.
Levinas, Emmanuel. 1989. “Substitution.” In The Levinas Reader. Translated by Alphonso Lingis. Edited by Seàn Hand, 88–126. Oxford: Blackwell.
Lord, Catherine, and Richard Meyer. 2013. Art & Queer Culture. London and New York: Phaidon.
Love, Heather. 2007. Feeling Backward: Loss and the Politics of Queer History. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
Mason, Will. 2018. “‘Swagger’: Urban Youth Culture, Consumption and Social Positioning.” Sociology 52(6): 1117–1133. https://doi.org/10.1177/0038038517698638 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1177/0038038517698638
Matthews, Luke. 2019. “Heiner Gobbel’s Stifters Dinge and the Arendtian Public Sphere.” Performance Philosophy 5(1): 109–127. https://doi.org/10.21476/PP.2019.51271 DOI: https://doi.org/10.21476/PP.2019.51271
Molloy, Felicity. 2014. “Deep Curiosity About Movement: Refinement and Efficiency and Experiential Nuances Expressivity.” DANZ Dance Aotearoa New Zealand. https://danz.org.nz/deep%20curiosity%20about%20movement. Accessed 29 February 2024.
moore, madison, and McKenzie Wark. 2022. “Black Rave.” E-flux 132(12). https://www.e-flux.com/journal/132/ Accessed 29 February 2024.
Munt, Sally R. 2000. “Shame/Pride Dichotomies in Queer as Folk.” Textual Practice 14(3): 531–546. https://doi.org/10.1080/095023600750040694 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/095023600750040694
Nathanson, Donald L. 1997. “Shame and the Affect Theory of Silvan Tomkins.” In The Widening Scope of Shame, edited by Melvin. R. Lansky and Andrew P. Morrison, 107–138. Hillsdale: Analytic Press.
Rothfield, Philipa. 2010. “Differentiating Phenomenology and Dance”. In The Routledge Dance Studies Reader, edited by Alexandra Carter and Janet O’Shea, 303–318. Abingdon; New York, NY: Routledge.
Russell, Legacy. 2020. Glitch Feminism: A Manifesto. London and New York: Verso.
Sedgwick, Eve Kosofsky. 1993. Tendencies. Durham, NC: Duke University Press.
Sedgwick, Eve Kosofsky. 2008. Epistemology of the Closet. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press.
Sjöholm, Cecilia. 2015. Doing Aesthetics with Arendt: How to See Things. New York: Columbia University Press. https://doi.org/10.7312/columbia/9780231173087.001.0001 DOI: https://doi.org/10.7312/columbia/9780231173087.001.0001
smith, val. 2015. “Gutter Matters Pecha Kucha Styles.” valvalvalsmithsmithsmith. https://valvalvalsmithsmithsmith.blogspot.co.nz/2015/04/gutter-matters-for-dunedin-fringe.html. Accessed 29 February 2024.
smith, val. 2016. “Mapping a Politics of Queer Pride and Shame.” valvalvalsmithsmithsmith. https://valvalvalsmithsmithsmith.blogspot.com/2016/07/mapping-politics-of-queer-pride-and.html. Accessed 11 October 2016.
smith, val. 2023. Personal communication with the author, Tāmaki Makaurau Auckland. 25 October 2023.
Wynne-Jones, Victoria. 2021. Choreographing Intersubjectivity in Performance Art. Cham: Palgrave Macmillan. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-40585-4 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-40585-4
Published
Issue
Section
License
Copyright (c) 2024 Victoria Wynne-Jones
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.
Authors who publish with this journal agree to the following terms:
- Authors retain copyright and grant the journal right of first publication with the work simultaneously licensed under a Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike License that allows others to share the work with an acknowledgement of the work's authorship and initial publication in this journal, provided it is for non-commercial uses; and that lets others excerpt, translate, and build upon your work non-commercially, as long as they credit you and license their new creations under the identical terms.
- Authors are able to enter into separate, additional contractual arrangements for the non-exclusive distribution of the journal's published version of the work (e.g., post it to an institutional repository or publish it in a book), with an acknowledgement of its initial publication in this journal.
- Authors are permitted and encouraged to post their work online (e.g., in institutional repositories or on their website) prior to and during the submission process, as it can lead to productive exchanges, as well as earlier and greater citation of published work (See The Effect of Open Access).
