Yes? No! Maybe... Seductive Ambiguity in Dance

Claid, Emilyn (2006) Yes? No! Maybe... Seductive Ambiguity in Dance. Routledge, UK. ISBN 978-0415372473

Abstract / Summary

This book provides an experiential account of developments in British contemporary dance practice over the past 50 years. Using the radical shifts of new dance practice in the 1970s as a hinge, it looks back to ballet and forward to independent dance, the legacy of new dance. The writing follows the author’s personal history and embodied experience as she subjects her different practices to critical, contextual and theoretical analysis. The shifting dynamic between performers and spectators is investigated through feminist, psychoanalytical, post-structuralist and queer theoretical perspectives. The book demonstrates the potential for a writing model located between professional practice, lived experience and practice-based, academic research. It tests possibilities for dance performers to theorise practice as it moves between spectatorial, autobiographical, academic, contemplative and experiential voices, and interweaves the words of other artists. From her perspective as spectator, the author analyses the performances of British and international artists, drawing on the work of artists including: Yvonne Rainer, Bill T. Jones, Mark Morris, Shobana Jeyasingh, Siobhan Davies, Lloyd Newson, Javier de Frutos, Wendy Houstoun and Fin Walker. The book addresses questions including: How and why have the relations of engagement between performers and spectators changed in dance theatre performance over the past 50 years? What is performing presence? How does ambiguity of meaning move between performers and spectators in postmodern dance performance? What have been the consequences for female bodies in dance? How do object/subject identity politics play on the bodies of performers in dance theatre performance?

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