Collaborative Performance-Making in Context

Abstract

‘Collaboration in the arts’, according to historian Charles Green (2001: x), became ‘a crucial element in the transition from modernist to postmodernist art’ and it continues to be a key component of creative processes in Western arts contexts. Although performative art forms can be seen to have an inherent collaborative aspect, it is only recently that an emphasis has been placed on problematizing processes of co-labouring in the disciplines of the performing arts. The recognition and exploration of creativity as ‘social’ and frequently ‘an explicitly collaborative endeavour’ has opened new avenues for research across diverse disciplines in the early twenty-first century (Littleton and Miell, 2004: 1). With specific reference to the performing arts, Kathryn Syssoyeva (2013: 2) similarly suggests that scholarly interest in ‘collective creation’ has only recently gathered pace. This collection of writing contributes to this growing area of scholarly interest in its examination of the role and place of collaboration in contemporary performance-making. Critically evaluating issues around the politics and ethics of collaborative work, it foregrounds the notion of creativity in performance as ‘social’, presenting an analysis of both the social and cultural conditions and the artistic processes that shape contemporary collaboration.