1.Dance and/as poiesis, poetry, poetics.- 2.Resisting from within: Dance canons and their deterritorialisation.- 3.Reduction, repetition, returns: The trouble of minimalism.- 4.Rhythm as friendship: Movement, music and Matteo.- 5.Duets and (self-)portraits: Choreographing the im/personal.- 6.Choreographies of plurality: Rethinking collaboration and collectivity.- 7.Towards a politics of poetry, gesture and laughter.
The first monograph on the work of British choreographer Jonathan Burrows, this book examines his artistic practice and poetics as articulated through his choreographic works, his writings and his contributions to current performance debates. It considers the contexts, principles and modalities of his choreography, from his early pieces in the 1980s to his latest collaborative projects, providing detailed analyses of his dances and reflecting on his unique choreomusical partnership with composer Matteo Fargion.
Known for its emphasis on gesture and humour, and characterised by compositional clarity and rhythmical patterns, Burrows artistic work takes the language of choreography to its limits and engages in a paradoxical, and hence transformative, relationship with dances historical and normative structures. Exploring the ways in which Burrows and Fargions poetics articulates movement, performative presence and the collaborative process in a minor register, this study conceptualises the work as a politically compelling practice that destabilises major traditions from a minoritarian position.
Daniela Perazzo Domm is Senior Lecturer in Dance Studies at Kingston University London, UK, where her specialist areas include dance theory and performance philosophy.