Abstract
I focus on the faculties of respectively polyvalence, flexibility, and adaptability as seen through the lens of contemporary dance. Drawing on my qualitative data, I conclude that a dance artist’s body ought to be polyvalent, flexible, and adaptable, but also their entire set of pragmatic transferable skills needs to be marked by polyvalence, flexibility, and adaptability in order to remain employable. I conclude that the fast, mobile, and flexible modi operandi bring about more adaptable pieces that do not necessarily require a theater space, but in line with the neoliberal logic they can be performed anywhere and anytime. In addition, I provide an in-depth discussion of how these three dimensions are reflected in dance performance, for which I carefully selected VOLCANO (2014) by Liz Kinoshita.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Notes
- 1.
Translated from the original Dutch.
- 2.
The presentation was held on February 4, 2013, as part of her final exam.
- 3.
The observations here are based on the live performance of VOLCANO presented on November 21, 2014 (Monty, Antwerp), April 22, 2015 (Vooruit, Ghent), and October 28, 2015 (CC Westrand, Dilbeek) in Belgium. My analysis of this performance in this book is reworked from an earlier and more restricted version published in Forum Modernes Theater by Narr Francke Attempto Verlag jointly written with Katharina Pewny (Van Assche and Pewny 2018, 117–132) and a book chapter published by Malta University Press on November 23, 2018 (Van Assche 2018).
References
Birtchnell, Thomas, and Monika Büscher. 2011. Stranded: An Eruption of Disruption. Mobilities 6 (1): 1–9.
Boltanski, Luc, and Ève Chiapello. 2005. The New Spirit of Capitalism. International Journal of Politics, Culture, and Society 18 (3–4): 161–188.
Bröckling, Ulrich. 2016. The Entrepreneurial Self: Fabricating a New Type of Subject. Los Angeles: Sage.
Di Stefano, John. 2002. Moving Images of Home. Art Journal 61 (4): 38–53.
Foster, Susan. 1997. Dancing Bodies. In Meaning in Motion: New Cultural Studies of Dance, ed. Jane Desmond, 235–258. Durham: Duke University Press.
Harvey, David. 2007. A Brief History of Neoliberalism. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Hesters, Delphine. 2004. De Choreografie Van De Danscarrière: Kwalitatief Onderzoek Naar De Carrières Van Hedendaagse Dansers in Vlaams-Brusselse Context. Unpublished master dissertation, University of Leuven.
Jackson, Shannon. 2011. Social Works: Performing Art, Supporting Publics. London: Routledge.
Kedhar, Anusha. 2014. Flexibility and Its Bodily Limits: Transnational South Asian Dancers in an Age of Neoliberalism. Dance Research Journal 46 (1): 23–40.
Kinoshita, Liz. 2014. Volcano Songbook. Caravan Productions/workspacebrussels/Pianofabriek/Vooruit.
Kunst, Bojana. 2015. Artist at Work: Proximity of Art and Capitalism. Winchester: Zero Books.
Laermans, Rudi. 2015. Moving Together: Making and Theorizing Contemporary Dance. Amsterdam: Valiz.
Malabou, Catherine, and Judith Butler. 2011. You Be My Body for Me: Body, Shape, and Plasticity in Hegel’s Phenomenology of Spirit. In A Companion to Hegel, ed. Stephen Houlgate and Michael Baur, 611–640. Chichester: Wiley Blackwell.
Martin, Randy. 1998. Critical Moves: Dance Studies in Theory and Politics. Durham: Duke University Press.
McRobbie, Angela. 2016. Be Creative: Making a Living in the New Culture Industries. Hoboken: Wiley.
Molz, Jennie Germann. 2006. Cosmopolitan Bodies: Fit to Travel and Travelling to Fit. Body & Society 12 (3): 1–21.
Monten, Joshua. 2008. Something Old, Something New, Something Borrowed… Eclecticism in Postmodern Dance. In The Body Eclectic: Evolving Practices in Dance Training, ed. Melanie Bales and Rebecca Nettl-Fiol, 52–67. Urbana: University of Illinois Press.
Morley, David. 2002. Home Territories: Media, Mobility and Identity. New York and London: Routledge.
Natalio, Rita. 2014. Talking About Volcanoes: Interview with Liz Kinoshita. Departures and Arrivals [DNA]. http://departuresandarrivals.eu/en/texts/interviews/talking-about-volcanos—interview-with-liz-kinoshita-203. Accessed 26 August 2015.
Parkinson, Chrysa, and Michael Helland. 2014. Curating Your Moves. Michael Helland in Conversation with Chrysa Parkinson. Stockholm: DOCH School of Dance and Circus, Stockholm University of the Arts. Sarma Archive. http://sarma.be/docs/3036. Accessed 11 December 2019.
Peeters, Diederik. 2011. Bespiegelingen Van Een Sprinkhaan. Etcetera - Tijdschrift Voor Podiumkunsten 125: 3–6.
Pewny, Katharina. 2011. Das Drama Des Prekären: Über Die Wiederkehr Der Ethik in Theater Und Performance. Theater. Bielefeld: Transcript Verlag.
Rosa, Hartmut. 2003. Social Acceleration: Ethical and Political Consequences of a Desynchronized High-Speed Society. Constellations: An international Journal of Critical and Democratic Theory 10 (1): 3–33.
Schaffer, Kareth. 2013. An Awkward Split: Calculating vs. Flexible Performativity Exemplified by ‘Walking in Circles’ and ‘Mudwrestling for Meg’. Paper Presented at Inter-University Center for Dance (HZT), Berlin.
Standing, Guy. 2014. A Precariat Charter: From Denizens to Citizens. London: Bloomsbury Academic.
Van Assche, Annelies. 2018. Precarity: A Concept Linking Performance Studies and Social Sciences. In Interdisciplinarity and the Performing Arts: Contemporary Perspectives, ed. Stefan Aquilina and Malaika Sarco-Thomas, 145–169. Valletta: Malta University Press.
Van Assche, Annelies, and Katharina Pewny. 2018. The Brussels Dance Swarm on the Move: Precarious Bodies (Not) at Home. Forum Modernes Theater 28 (2): 117–132.
Virno, Paolo. 2004. A Grammar of the Multitude. Los Angeles: Semiotext(e).
Wilkie, Fiona. 2015. Performance, Transport and Mobility: Making Passage. Houndmills: Palgrave.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2020 The Author(s)
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Van Assche, A. (2020). The Flexible. In: Labor and Aesthetics in European Contemporary Dance . Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-40693-6_8
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-40693-6_8
Published:
Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-030-40692-9
Online ISBN: 978-3-030-40693-6
eBook Packages: Literature, Cultural and Media StudiesLiterature, Cultural and Media Studies (R0)