Meta: discourses from dancers inside action machines

The dancer’s perspective is crucial to developing the discourse surrounding studio based dance practice and processes, as it is within the act or context of dancing that the experience of dance resides. From the perspective of dancing I am seeking to examine and articulate how different forms of external frameworks and their application in studio-based dance settings construct opportunities to challenge how dancer’s bodies can be developed or altered through their engagement with specific practices and processes. Hence, meta: discourses from dancers inside action machines, seeks to examine studio-based processes in dance from a dancer’s perspective. More specifically, I aim to examine the application of external frameworks such as equipment, scores, task-based processes, exercises, and digital technologies within studio-based dance practices and the effect these practices, protocols and strategies have on dancers’ bodies. \n \nThe work of Jennifer Roche, Michael Huxley, and Bud Blumenthal are some examples of the discourse surrounding the work of dancers that is beginning to form, as the role of dancers within contemporary choreographic practices comes under increasing focus. (Roche 2015, Huxley 2015, Blumenthal 2012) Given the complexity of dance as an ecosystem of thought, movement and practice, and given the wide range of individual practices, both dancer-ly and choreographic, that sit within this field, the role and practice of the dancer requires extensive examination. Examination of dancers’ work should take into account numerous perspectives and methodological viewpoints if we are to generate a deep understanding and articulation of how the processes of the dancer function within contemporary dance practice...