The Birth of Gesture. ‘I’m not dancing alone’

Abstract

As an anthropologist and dancer, I ask how gesture emerges within a dance production process. The reflection is based on the performance ‘Shadow Dance’, created in Scotland in 2017 together with 10 other artists. The three dimensions of time, collective and space each show an aspect of the creation of gesture. First, it emerges in resonance with past and future events, drawing on the memory of past dance performances and the projection/visualization of the coming show. Secondly, it embodies other (invisible) bodies, which left traces on the dancing body. I argue that a soloist never dances alone but with the shadow of other bodies (s)he danced with. Third, gesture resonates with the environment in which it was created: in this case, with the books, shelves, and carpets of the seven stories Duncan Rice Library of Aberdeen. The paper invites readers to reflect on the body as a living archive, in dialogue with the work of photographers – characters in the play – who captured traces of the event. The notion of archive is discussed through the lens of Andre Lepecki, Erin Manning, Susan Sontag and Diana Taylor. This experimental autoethnographical photo-essay emphasizes how choreographic creation offers a space for theoretical reflections. Research within choreographic processes generates knowledge, contributing to the theories of creativity, gesture and body.