This book contains readings of American, British and European postmodern dances informed by feminist, postcolonialist, queer, and poststructuralist theories. It explores the roles dance and space play in constructing subjectivity. By focusing on site-specific dance, the mutual construction of bodies and spaces, body-space interfaces and ''in-between spaces,'' the dances and dance films are read ''against the grain'' to reveal their potential for troubling conventional notions of subjectivity associated with a white, Western, heterosexual able-bodied, male norm.
Author(s): Valerie Briginshaw
Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan
Year: 2001
Language: English
Pages: 254
Cover......Page 1
Contents......Page 8
List of Illustrations......Page 12
Preface......Page 14
Acknowledgements......Page 17
1 Introduction......Page 20
Where bodies meet space......Page 21
Currency of ideas about space......Page 24
Questions of subjectivity......Page 25
Reading dances......Page 26
Bounded bodies......Page 28
In-between spaces......Page 33
Inside/outside interfaces......Page 36
PART I Constructions of Space and Subjectivity......Page 44
Introduction......Page 46
Metaphors of travel in postmodern discourse......Page 47
Travel and gender......Page 48
Space, power and gender......Page 49
Suggestions of travel in the dances......Page 51
Gendering of travel, space and subjects in the dance films......Page 54
Reappropriating travel metaphors for new subjectivities......Page 59
Conclusion......Page 61
Introduction......Page 62
Sixties precedents......Page 63
Muurwerk and Step in Time Girls......Page 68
Constructed spaces......Page 69
Mutual definition of bodies and cities......Page 70
Conclusion......Page 75
Introduction......Page 78
Eroticized bodies and spaces......Page 82
Bodies and boundaries......Page 84
Seaside surrealism......Page 87
Conclusion......Page 92
PART II Dancing in the 'In-Between Spaces'......Page 94
Introduction......Page 96
Lesbian desire refigured......Page 97
The performance of gender and sexuality......Page 99
The Dances – Reservaat (1988), Between/Outside (1999), Virginia Minx at Play (1993) and Homeward Bound (1997)......Page 100
Surfaces in contact......Page 102
Becoming/transformations in Reservaat and Homeward Bound......Page 104
Machinic assemblages in Between/Outside and Reservaat......Page 107
Polymorphous perversity and multiplicities in Virginia Minx at Play......Page 111
In-between spaces – spatial locations and private/public boundaries......Page 113
Conclusion......Page 114
Introduction......Page 116
Hybrid spaces between East and West......Page 118
Female solidarity and nomadic subjectivity......Page 121
Dancers and buildings and the spaces in between......Page 123
Mutual construction of bodies and spaces......Page 125
Nomadic subjects in cities......Page 127
Conclusion......Page 128
Introduction......Page 131
Meredith Monk and Jonzi D......Page 133
The constructed nature of identity......Page 136
Technologies of power – subjectification, normalization and examination......Page 142
The role of language in operations of power......Page 149
Spatial containment, borders and territorialization......Page 151
Conclusion......Page 153
PART III Inside/Outside Bodies and Spaces......Page 156
Introduction......Page 158
The theories of Deleuze, Bordo and Kristeva......Page 160
The dances......Page 163
Flesh......Page 165
Fluids......Page 172
Folds......Page 174
Conclusion......Page 180
Introduction......Page 181
The dances......Page 183
Grotesque challenges to boundaries......Page 185
Excessive overflows......Page 190
Carnivalesque parody......Page 194
Grotesque and carnivalesque interactivity with the world......Page 197
Conclusion......Page 200
Introduction......Page 202
The choreographers and dances......Page 205
Disrupting the single viewpoint of perspective......Page 208
Challenging notions of a separated self......Page 211
The role of the visual in the construction of bounded and gendered subjectivity......Page 214
Vision and reason – the dominance and construction of the eye/'I'......Page 217
The ideological nature of visualization......Page 219
Conclusion......Page 223
Appendix......Page 226
Notes......Page 228
Bibliography......Page 232
B......Page 242
C......Page 244
E......Page 245
G......Page 246
I......Page 247
L......Page 248
O......Page 249
R......Page 250
S......Page 251
U......Page 252
Y......Page 253
