Site Dance

Abstract

Abstract In recent years, site-specific dance has grown in popularity. In the wake of groundbreaking work by choreographers who left traditional performance spaces for other venues, more and more performances are cropping up, on skyscrapers, in alleyways, on trains, on the decks of aircraft carriers, and in myriad other unexpected locations worldwide. In this anthology of site-specific dance, the editors explore the work that choreographers create for non-traditional performance spaces and the thinking behind their creative choices. Combining interviews with and essays by practitioners of site dance, they look at the challenges and rewards of embracing alternative spaces. Examination of the work of artists such as Meredith Monk, Joanna Haigood, Stephan Koplowitz, Heidi Duckler, Ann Carlson, and Eiko Otake provides insights into why choreographers leave the theater to embrace the challenges of unconventional venues. The book also includes more than 80 photographs of site-specific performances, revealing how the arts, and movement in particular, can become part of and speak to our everyday lives.