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In/Tangible: The Duality of Video Documentation in Dance

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Abstract

Young Reed looks at digital modes of dance documentation and investigates some of the ways that video and computer applications challenge the notoriously ephemeral notion of dance performance. Within the field of dance, discussions about conserving the legacy of choreographic works have consistently been riddled with a number of philosophical issues relating to the tangibility of live performance. This chapter interrogates this issue through a discussion that illuminates documentation, and foregrounds the practical uses of video records within the wider topic of digital preservation. Specific examples are drawn from a case study that analyses the ways in which Synchronous Objects acted as a documentary tool in a restaging of William Forsythe’s One Flat Thing, reproduced (2000) at the Juilliard School in 2013.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    Norah Zuringa Shaw, “The Data,” Synchronous Objects March 2009, http://synchronousobjects.osu.edu.

  2. 2.

    William Forsythe , “The Dance,” Synchronous Objects March 2009, http://synchronousobjects.osu.edu.

  3. 3.

    Ibid.

  4. 4.

    Anonymous (Juilliard Dance Student) in discussion with the author, March 2013.

  5. 5.

    Anonymous (Juilliard Dance Student) in discussion with the author, March 2013.

  6. 6.

    Banu Ogan (Juilliard Faculty Member) in discussion with the author, March 2013.

  7. 7.

    Christopher Roman (Forsythe Company Dancer and Ballet Master) in discussion with the author, March 2013.

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Young Reed, H. (2018). In/Tangible: The Duality of Video Documentation in Dance. In: Whatley, S., Cisneros, R., Sabiescu, A. (eds) Digital Echoes. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-73817-8_12

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