Introduction

Abstract

In this collection, ten individuals from three continents have contributed their scholarly research and dramaturgical practice in a series of reflections on dance dramaturgy. They discuss complex dramaturgical approaches and they make proposals that refresh and advance the field while drawing upon professional experience, theory, and the work of international dance artists. As editors, we were aware that the contributors would be writing into an existing — and often circular — discourse, but we did not predict the degree to which they would challenge and break through its limitations. Following their lead, this introduction sets out to discuss and potentially reset tropes that have shaped the subject of dramaturgical agency in dance. In parallel with changing notions of choreography, that is, from codifiable structures to the complex dynamics of interaction between shifting body-minds, materials, and ideas, this discussion starts with the dramaturg as an agent and then evolves into reflections upon dramaturgical agency. Then it suggests that dramaturgical agency is located both in the possibilities that arise between collaborators and in the dancers’ enactment of task-based improvisation systems.