‘Moving Sites’: Transformation and Re-location in Site-specific Dance Performance

Abstract

This article explores the concepts of mobility, transformation and re-location in relation to sitespecific dance performance.Processes and practices of mobility are explored through a consideration of the triadic relationship between performer, audience and site encountered within the author's site-specific dance work The Library Dances (2006).Through the discussion of a creative process, the article explores how the mobile, experiential interplay between performer, audience and site aimed to explore and challenge notions of 'located-ness', fixity and 'place identity'.'We are here...Here we are...Here is where?....Where are we?' 1 The Library Dances project began with a questioning of my motivations and experiences as an audience member attending site-specific performance events.What intrigues me is the promise of the unknown and the revelation of new-found realities in familiar/un-familiar places.This process, in effect mobilises my perceptions of the site, its location and identity and my own 'position' within the performance-site world.In this sense, the site is metaphorically freed from its everyday, normative meanings and associations and its identity becomes mobilized through 1 Soundscore excerpt The Library Dances, 2006. the individual's processes of experiencing and perceiving the site in a different manner.The sitespecific event therefore holds the potential to both locate and re-locate the individual, drawing their attention to the site whilst simultaneously challenging pre-conceived notions of the site as the real world is shifted momentarily 'out of focus'.The creative potential afforded to the individual within this moment of shift and its ability to problematise notions of located-ness formed the basis for The Library Dances project.The performance was created and performed in Leeds Central Library in September 2006 2 , performed by five dancers, the work engaged eight audience members at a time in a promenade journey through the site where they encountered performance in key locations.The library building dates back to 1883; it is centrally located and represents a prominent architectural feature in the city of Leeds.It houses a range of books and reference materials over four floors and is a very open site, holding regular workshops and classes, art exhibitions, talks and reading groups.As such, the library attracts a wide range of users, staff and visitors all of whom experience and interact with the site in a variety of ways.A conceptual framework informed by environmental psychology 3 , phenomenology 4 and human geography 5 helped to shape the creative process.This conceptual and theoretical material enabled me to expand my thinking as a choreographer engaging with space and place; it facilitated the development of a creative process that aimed to challenge the audience to experience the site anew.This paper shares a particular creative process and illustrates how this process developed,