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Articulating Alternatives: val smith’s Queer Choreographies

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Choreographing Intersubjectivity in Performance Art

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Abstract

Argues somatic attention is hetero-normative or structured by certain beliefs, contrasting with ideas of kinaesthetic queerness. Wynne-Jones examines ways of constructively misbehaving or moving otherwise with the aid of selected performances from Auckland-based-artist val smith, together with examples by Mark Bradford and Pablo Bronstein. Sara Ahmed’s ideas of queer spatiality help to draw attention to queer ways of inhabiting the world. Focussing on the pride/shame dichotomy; affect theory and psychological approaches are used to argue that smith’s queer choreographies shift shame by creatively performing it and de-linking shame from subjects. “Articulating alternatives: queer choreographies” concludes with a discussion of smith’s performances as they use attuning and costume to explore ideas of transitioning, transformation and queer failure as theorised by Judith Halberstam.

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Correspondence to Victoria Wynne-Jones .

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Wynne-Jones, V. (2021). Articulating Alternatives: val smith’s Queer Choreographies. In: Choreographing Intersubjectivity in Performance Art. New World Choreographies. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-40585-4_6

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