Relay: Choreography and Corporeality

Abstract

In this introduction to the collection, the notion of the relay is introduced, as it arises within Deleuze and Foucault ’s thought. The figure of the relay shakes up the notion of theory and practice , opening up both terms to a sense of an encounter between bodies. This may be fleshed out in terms of an encounter between the reader and the text; between the audience and a dance work, and between dance works and practices found in multiple locations. The unevenness that underlies these encounters challenges thinking about dance in theoretical terms. For example, ‘the same’ concept —of choreography for example—can be mobilised along different theoretical pathways, according to different social, political, and epistemological concerns. This serves the argument that theory is itself marked, subject to material and corporeal forces, and is itself open to the different milieus that give voice to theory. It thus expresses the founding claim of the relay that theory (as concept) is inextricably linked to practice . The relay sets theory in motion. Theory avails itself of concepts along the way, concepts which are themselves marked through a series of unfolding events and interactions. The concept is thus indebted to practice. Hierarchical conceptions of theory and practice are only able to conceive of practice in terms of illustration, exemplification, and instantiation. They confine practice to a supporting role. The notion of the relay activates practice , so that it can advance theory . This is why the relay does not signal a retreat into localism. The relay calls for a re-evaluation of the singular case, which may well find itself linked to a theoretical articulation, not as instantiation, but as a provocateur of its future theoretical self.

… from the moment a theory moves into its proper domain, it begins to encounter obstacles, walls, and blockages which require its relay by another type of discourse … Practice is a set of relays from one theoretical point to another, and theory is a relay from one practice to another. No theory can develop without eventually encountering a wall, and practice is necessary for piercing this wall. (Foucault , “Intellectuals and Power, A Conversation between Michel Foucault and Gilles Deleuze ,” 206).