Choreography as Meshwork: The Production of Motion and the Vernacular

Abstract

Despite its best endeavours to weave together different contexts of dance culture, multi- or transculturalist choreography often betrays its own agenda, by preserving the power of the modern subject as author who desires the Other as material for her/his product. Discussing Western ethnocentric ethics of ‘generosity’ in relation to Jerome Bel ’s work, I examine the possibility of an alternative conception of choreographic practice based on Tim Ingold ’s concept of meshwork. The notion of meshwork represents an interactive practice that moves between plural contexts without a single dominant value. The notion of choreography as meshwork will be explored through a number of recent Japanese choreographic projects, which have contact with vernacular dance practice such as folk ritual or daily entertainment outside of the art world. In these exemplars, instead of assimilation (and subjection) of the vernacular into another broader context, collaboration of agencies brings about motions and changes within the ecosystem of these dances. A reconception of choreography in these terms is able to question the globally prevailing notion of dance as autonomous Art, detached from other social activities and framed within the art world, which is rooted in modern Western history.