Choreopower. Choreography and the Politics of Movement
The project investigates the multiple relationships of power and movement. The governing of movement has become one of the most powerful operations spanning across a variety of social, economical or ecological fields. Movements of migration, traffic in metropolises, the mobility and flexibility of workers, and the logistics of goods and information are considered as producing high values and at the same time a constant source of threat. How do the “techniques of power” (Foucault) operate in and by movement and how do they create their own regime of mobility?
Choreography and dance has developed a vast set of techniques to create and direct movement. Ranging from the disciplinary techniques of classical ballet to the experimental and individualistic practices of contemporary dance, choreography offers an extensive knowledge on the modulation of movement. By linking these choreographic techniques with the field of political research, this projects deepens the analysis of techniques of power active in the above-mentioned fields. By proposing the concept of “choreopower” the project elaborates on the idea of movement’s very own political force. The research deploys an interdisciplinary range of methods from the fields of dance studies, ethnography, political theory and philosophy.
Funded by the German Research Foundation (2016-2022)
Publications
„Welten liefern. Choreographische Kontrolle und Produktion im logistischen Kapitalismus“ [Deliver Worlds. Choreographic Control and Production in Logistical Capitalism], in: Miglė Bareikytė and Julia Bee (ed.): Liefern. Logistiken, Daten und Politiken [Delivery. Logistics, Data, Politics], Navigationen 2/2024, pages 27-46.
Link
„Macht bewegt sich, Macht bewegt“ [Power moves] in: Choreographie als Kulturtechnik [Choreography as Cultural Technique], ed. by Sabine Huschka and Gerald Siegmund, Berlin: Neofelis 2022, pages 115-138.
Link
„Operational Choreography. Dance and Logistical Capitalism“, in: Performance Philosophy, 7(1), Power and Powerlessness in Performance, ed. by Georg Döcker, Eve Katsouraki, and Gerald Siegmund, 2022, pages 97-113
Link, PDF
„Migration, Kontrolle und Choreomacht“ [Migration, Control and Choreopower] in: ARCH+ Europa: Infrastrukturen der Externalisierung [Europe: Infrastructures of Externalization], No. 239, 2020, pages 210-219.
Link
Events
The Neurodiversity of DanceChoreographies of Diversity and Normalization
The research project investigates the correlation between a politics of movement and neurodiversity on the basis of specific dance productions. Dance has a long history of using choreographic techniques to discipline and thus standardize movement. Especially in recent times, various dance companies working with dancers with so-called cognitive impairments (neurodiversities), exploring different forms of movement and movement production. The project observes the rehearsal processes of these performances in order to analyze movement in a neurodiverse way. The aim of the research project is to develop a neurodiverse concept of choreography that makes alternative forms of movement visible and questions existing processes of its normalization.
In addition to a detailed analysis of the rehearsal processes and performances, the project investigates the historical and social context of the investigated dance productions. Based on the conducted research on a choreographic politics, the productions will be situated in the history of dance projects working with neurodiverse dancers since the second half of the 20th century. Using my concept of “choreopower”, their relation to social contexts and norms will be examined: In what way are techniques used in dance determined by social conventions of “normal” movements? And to what extent does dance question these movements, making them visible? The aim of the research is to propose a form of critical movement studies that makes movement analysis productive in and beyond its original field of research on dance.
Funded by the German Research Foundation (2021-2022)
100 Movements
Teaching/Research ProjectA Movement
„Movement has an essential relation to the imperceptible; it is by nature imperceptible. Perception can grasp movement only as the displacement of a moving body or the development of a form. Movements, becomings, in other words, pure relations of speed and slowness, pure affects, are below and above the threshold of perception.“ (Deleuze and Guattari, A Thousand Plateaus, 280-281)
This is a research project on the question What is a movement?It uses videos, exactly 100 seconds long.Without editing.Only one rule structures the videos: Film one movement for the entire length of the video (100s). Just one.
First this rule seemed to be simple. After the experience of the first video it wasn’t anymore.Trying to film a movement immediately show how many movements surround us. We live in an “ecology of movement”, a word brimming with speeds and slownesses, with rhythms and momentum. And none of these movements can easily be separated: they condition each other, inflect each other, interfere or resonate with each other. Most of the time one cannot even say when one movement starts and another ends. Is movement even linked to displacement? Is it performed by onebody? Or by multiple bodies? (Is this still one movement?) What about the water in the sea? Does water move with the waves? And does it stop moving when the waves break ashore?And still, more than often we speak of a movement (a glass falls of the table, a train going from Berlin to Hamburg, the earth circling the sun). But what is “a movement”? One thing is certain: One movement – its trajectory, its start, its end, its speed and so on – is not simply “out there”. Movement needs to be produced. From the brimming world of movement, a movement must be synthesized.And while the project started with the question: What is a movement? it soon became interested in the question: How is movement synthesized? How does one movement emerge from a world of movements? How does the synthesis of movement work? What are the means of its synthesis? Which techniques exist to produce a movement? Time? Space? The unity of the moving object or body? Or the subject ‘performing’ this movement?
The videos stem from the collective research on movement in the frame of several seminars held at the Institut for Applied Theatre Studies at the Justus-Liebig-University, Giessen and elsewhere. They were filmed by students and myself. They are tools of teaching as well as of research. Each of the contributions follows the question of movement in manifold ways. And while the rule always was “Film one movement!”, you can already state: none of the videos shows only one movement. Yet all of them show one movement at least 100 seconds long.
Gerko Egert
100 Movements on Research Catalogue
Touch in Contemporary Dance
(PhD, 2010-2014)
In my PhD research I developed new perspectives on a key phenomenon in the performance of dance: touch. In contemporary dance, touch takes place in manifold ways: stroking, caressing, hitting, lifting, holding, etc. All these different modes of touch demonstrate that touch cannot be reduced to the mere contact between two bodies. It creates an interplay of movements and multiple relations of proximity. Through this process-oriented notion of touch I reevaluate key concepts such as the body, rhythm, emotional expression, subjectivity and audience perception. I therefore propose that movement, experience and affect as central concepts for an analysis of touch. By closely analyzing eight performances by European and American choreographers such as Meg Stuart/Philipp Gehmacher, Jared Gradinger/Angela Schubot or Xavier Le Roy I investigate their usage of touch.
With my research I bring affect theory to the field of dance and performance studies. In recent years there has been a growing interest in the concepts of affect, relation and motion in the humanities. At the same time a discourse on touch became prominent in the field of philosophy, based mainly on the deconstructive writings of Jacques Derrida (On Touching, Jean Luc-Nancy, 2005) and Jean-Luc Nancy (Noli me tangere, 2008) as well as Erin Manning (Politics of Touch, 2007). The aim of my research is to bring together close descriptions and analyses of these dance performances with theoretical investigations into the question of touch across the fields of performance and dance studies, philosophy and cultural theory. The guiding question is therefore twofold: What do these concepts provide for the analysis and conceptualization of contemporary dance performances? How does the focus on dance and movement advance the discourse on touch, especially the notion of the touching body?
Publications
Moving Relation. Touch in Contemporary Dance. Translated by Rett Rossi. London and New York: Routledge 2020.
www.routledge.com, Introduction
Berührungen. Bewegung, Relation und Affekt im zeitgenössichen Tanz. Bielefeld: Transcript 2016.
www.transcript-verlag.de, Introduction (German)
„Gewaltsame Improvisationen. Die prekäre Politik der Berührung“ [Violent Improvisation. The Precarious Politics of Touch] in: Tangieren. Praktiken und Arrangements des Berührens in den performativen Künsten ed. by Sandra Fluhrer und Alexander Waszynski, Baden-Baden: Rombach, pp. 265–281.
„Körperbeben. Die Rhythmen der Berührung in what they are instead of“, in: Interval(le)s, No. 7, Réinventer le rythme / Den Rhythmus neu denken, ed. by Vera Viehöver and Bruno Dupont, 2015, p. 76–95.
„The Fault Lines: The Future (Im-)Perfect of Melancholia and Movement“, in: Melancholy and Politics, ed. by: Vassilis Noulas, Adam Czirak, Natascha Siouzouli, Magazine for Live Arts Research, Athen, November 2013, pages 16–21. (English translation by Christoph Nöthlings)
„The Fault Lines (Τα Ρήγματα): Μελαγχολία και κίνηση σε ατελή χρόνο τετελεσμένου μέλλοντος“, in: Μελαγχολία και Πολιτική, ed. by: Vassilis Noulas, Adam Czirak, Natascha Siouzouli, Περιοδική έκδοση για τις παραστατικές τέχνες, Athen, November 2013, pages 16-21. (Greek translation by: Manolis Tsipos and Natascha Siouzouli)
„Movements of Touch in MAYBE FOREVER“, in: Touching and Being Touched. Kinesthesia and Empathy in Dance and Movement ed. by: Gabriele Brandstetter, Gerko Egert and Sabine Zubarik. Berlin and Boston: De Gruyter 2013, pages 63–82.