The Persistence of Dance
Choreography as Concept and Material in Contemporary Art
Exploring museum-based choreography as a contemporary art medium
Description
There is a category of choreographic practice with a lineage stretching back to mid-20th century North America that has re-emerged since the early 1990s: dance as a contemporary art medium. Such work belongs as much to the gallery as does video art or sculpture and is distinct from both performance art and its history as well as from theater-based dance.
The Persistence of Dance: Choreography as Concept and Material in Contemporary Art clarifies the continuities and differences between the second-wave dance avant-garde in the 1950s‒1970s and the third-wave starting in the 1990s. Through close readings of key artists such as Maria Hassabi, Sarah Michelson, Boris Charmatz, Meg Stuart, Philipp Gehmacher, Adam Linder, Agatha Gothe-Snape, Shelley Lasica and Latai Taumoepeau, The Persistence of Dance traces the relationship between the third-wave and gallery-based work. Looking at these artists highlights how the discussions and practices associated with “conceptual dance” resonate with the categories of conceptual and post-conceptual art as well as with the critical work on the function of visual art categories. Brannigan concludes that within the current post-disciplinary context, there is a persistence of dance and that a model of post-dance exists that encompasses dance as a contemporary art medium.
Erin Brannigan is Associate Professor of Theatre and Performance Studies at the University of New South Wales. Her book Choreography, Visual Art and Experimental Composition 1950s-1970s received the Selma-Jeanne Cohen Dance Prize.
Reviews
“An expansive and brilliant assessment of how choreography operates as material in visual cultures, placing dance at the center. Brannigan has crafted a wondrous overview of the terms of dance as a contemporary art medium, moving with the dancers who enliven its operations. A necessary offering for all thinking about how dancing gathers artistic practice in relationship to philosophy, art theory, and urgent questions of labor and property as aspects of performance.”
- Thomas F. DeFrantz, Northwestern University
“An invaluable resource for dance artists and scholars, opening new perspectives on dance in the gallery, and asking how the art form might find balance between its own needs and the wish for interdisciplinary validation.”
- Jonathan Burrows, choreographer
“Erin Brannigan’s The Persistence of Dance brings her razor-sharp attention to contemporary avant-garde dance. This field-defining book illuminates what has been called the ‘choreographic turn’ in contemporary art, highlighting the persistent contribution of dance to contemporary practice.”
- Susan Best, Griffith University
“A precious tool for understanding the presence of dance and choreography in galleries and museums that began at the turn of the 20th century and continues to this day. Erin Brannigan offers a fascinating and original historical framing of this vast field, privileging the artists' intentions and perspectives.”
- Susanne Franco, University of Venice