Practice as Research PhD projects

Daniel: Henry | UK, Bristol

"Dance, Performance and Technology: A Discourse in Seven Chapters and Seven Choreographic Works"

University of Bristol, Faculty of Arts Department of Drama: Theatre, Film, Television

Works Submitted in accordance with the requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy July 2004

Abstract:

Technology plays a significant role in influencing contemporary dance and new performance practices. It also helps determine how people gather new information and how they synthesize that information into coherent forms of knowledge. The range of current technological tools allows us not only to access new information but also to support and enhance the processes of dance creation and dissemination, thereby challenging our notions of bodies and the social, cultural and political contexts in which they are perceived. In this thesis, I attempt, as both an artist with an extensive professional background in dance and theatre, and as an academic working within an institutionalized framework, to accommodate and evaluate such work, to frame a different perspective on the situation. Since many of the issues that characterize contemporary dance and new performance practices do not often fall within strict disciplinary categories and/or conventions, my research argues for a transdisciplinary methodology. I base this argument on the notion that, in an information-oriented age, new kinds of knowledge appear at the intersections of disciplines rather than within them. A transdisciplinary approach to dance, therefore, includes an analysis on the intersection between various forms of knowledge within the discipline and the influence of dance on these forms of knowledge through its presentation of bodies in performance. As choreography is my primary field of expertise, I created seven works of varying lengths as part of the research. In seven chapters and seven choreographic works, this thesis, therefore, functions as a set of critical and discursive arguments regarding the relationships between contemporary dance, performance studies and new technologies. Finally, it is my intention that this model of practice-led research in dance instigate much-needed new growth in areas of performance practice.

Date of award: January 12, 2005.

Supervisor: Dr Günter Berghaus

Internal Examiner: Dr Simon Jones

External Examiner: Professor Janet Lansdale