Contemporary dance in the age of cultural relativism

1. Contemporary dance in the age of cultural relativism By Niels Lehmann Head of the Institute of Aesthetic Studies, University of Aarhus

2. Difficulties of orientation 1 • Globalisation: Visibilization of ’the other’ and, by consequence, of yourself as an observer • Contingency (it could have been otherwise) • Relativity of observations • Unsustainability of ethnocentrism • Loss of the authority of tradition

3. Difficulties of orientation 2 • Death of linear history: Exposure of narratives as (repressive) constructions • In casu the well-known matrix: • classical ballet • modern dance • post-modern dance • New dance?

4. Cunningham’s claims(according to Banes) • ”1) any material can be material for a dance; 2) any procedure can be a valid compositional method; 3) any part or parts of the body can be used […]; 4) music, costume, decor, lighting, and dancing have their own separate logics and identities; 5) any dancer in the company may be a soloist; 6) any space might be danced in; 7) dancing can be about anything […].”

5. Commonplace action Forti Cool, objective investigation Rainer Sacred solemnity Hay Mathematical control Brown Virtuosity for the audience Childs Explicit theatricality Monk Warm, subjective expression King Ironic platitudes Gordon Improvisation Paxton Playing with the spectators Dunn The broad scope of postmodernism

6. ”After” linear history • Narration as construction • Asynchronous syncronicity • Anything goes • The past as a reservoir of possibilities

7. King’s trans-avantgardist parody of lineary history • ”Dancing was about Moving until moving got in the Way. The Abstract Expressionists expressed Everything. Now there is nothing left to express: not even Alienation and Meaning-in-Life … That’s why THE MOST PERFERCTLY IMAGINABLE DANCE would take place in some sealed-off, empty, white-walled room with Nothing in it … I think the dance, though, would have no movement because the movement would get in the way of its being Original. I mean movement was invented a long Time ago already. […]”

8. Avantgardist expectations • Arts councils: What’s new? • Reason for funding experimental art! • Critics: What’s new? • Reason for recommending contemporary art (and sell some papers)! • Historians: What’s new? • Reason for studying a topic (and stand a chance of getting the Nobel prize)! • Audience: What’s new? • Reason for spending money on a production!

9. Classicism/Romanticism Postmodernism The true Perspectives >< The beautiful Tastes The good Politics Oneness Multiplicity

10. Classicism/Romanticism Avantgardism Postmodernism The true State of insight Perspectives The beautiful Better standards Tastes The good Moral improvement Politics Oneness Newness Multiplicity

11. Distinction No indication without a distinction System/environment Equals/equals not self reference vs. external reference Initial/inaugural difference Operative closure Systems relative to the initial distinction Recursive manoeuvres to sustain the system Constructivism as a possible solution Unmarked space Indicated Not-indicated System Environment Self reference External reference

12. From deconstruction to constructivism • Everything depends on an ’original’ difference, but rather than dissimination the result is a variety of systems based on different distinctions • In principle, every system is deconstructible, but not everything gets deconstructed • The job isn’t so much to demonstrate the deconstructibility; the suggestion is, on the contrary, that we begin to investigate the forms of order which the various distinctions make possible.

13. Deborah Hay Observer as participant Life as dance Blurring subject and object Duration instead of metre No virtuosity Flow David Gordon Parody also of peers Metafictionality and wit The spectacular Style-oriented Behaviour instead of choreography Examples of systems within postmodern dance aesthetics Togetherness Cleavages Deconstruction Sublimity

14. Key gains from constructivism • 1) Overcoming disorientation by way of thinking in terms of relative order • 2) Giving direction to the production of choreography by investigating the order established by particular distinctions and by considering your own distinctions – in particular your preferred initial distinction • 3) Living up to avantgardist demands by working with relative newness – relative, that is, to initial distinctions