Distance, Closeness and Touch in and as an Improvised Duet Dance

How to “Move a Bit Further Away” with a Partner

Bibliographic Data

ID11275479
AuthorsAlain Bovet (0000-0003-3937-3704, Ecole polytechnique fédérale de Lausanne, corresponding author)
Year2023
Volume46
Issue4
Pages807-835
Publication date2023-12-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueHuman Studies (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0163-8548 • E-ISSN: 1572-851X
PublisherSpringer Science and Business Media LLC (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1007/s10746-023-09679-1
OpenAlexW4383104039
LanguageEN
Citations received1
References cited32

The intelligibility of a performance of improvised dance does not reside in the rehearsed execution of a pre-existing script, nor does it result from a sustained verbal interaction between the dancers. Many aspects of the speechless performance obviously play an important role in the achieved intelligibility of the dance: a dancer is seen moving on and from a ground, on a stage, in a space delimited by walls, illuminated by spotlights, sounded by music, in front of an audience. And of course with other dancers, whose joint gestures and moves give shape to a choreography by providing pace, rhythm and sequences, thereby constituting a narrative or fragments thereof. This paper addresses the manufacture of this witnessable order, by presenting some results of an ethnographic inquiry. The investigation will be focused on how, in an improvised duet, each dancer interacts with the other, and more specifically how she or he positions her- or himself in relation to the other, from distance to proximity and touch. This work of distance management is the dance, whose choreographic accountability is produced and structured by dancers staying at a distance, getting closer and touching each other. The analysis shows that distance management is oriented to as relevant by the dancers and that it has consequences on their improvised duet. It is also what makes their performance analyzable by distant observers

Aesthetics · Art · Choreography · Closeness · Dance · Gesture · Literature · Narrative · Sociology · Visual arts · Communication · Computer Science · Hearing Impairment and Communication · Language, Discourse, Communication Strategies · Theatre and Performance Studies · Artificial Intelligence

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