Re: a little off-topic - seeking to locate dance videos of sitespecific performances

From: Susan Leslie Mann (smann@towson.edu)
Date: 01/12/00


Meredith Monk's "Quarry" comes to mind.  It might help list users if you
explain what you are looking for in terms of "site-specific work".  Is it
movement in a non-proscenium space -- or does it need to be movement that is
"driven" by the chosen site?

Susan Mann, smann@towson.edu (Baltimore, MD  U.S.A.)

Raewyn Whyte wrote:

> Dear List members
>
> I am hoping that some of you may be able to help me, and would greatly
> appreciate any pointers you can provide.
>
> I teach in the contemporary dance degree program at UNITEC Institute of
> Technology in Auckland, New Zealand.
>
> For a paper I teach each year in Dance Studies,  I need to locate (for
> purchase) video of site specific performances, but I have experienced great
> difficulty  in identifying sources of such videos/films.
>
> In part this is a cataloguing issue -- the category "site-specific
> performance" may not have been  used by the indexers, or may not exist as a
> category in a given collection.  And in part it's an issue of practice -
> dance video makers are more interested in a creating videodance  than in
> documenting/creatively filming/collaborating on filming site-specific
> events (which are of course difficult to film.)
>
> So I wonder if you can help me?
>
> I need to draw a line between "environmental performance" [which is
> performance presented out-of -doors or in some non-conventional environment
> or other public place, but which stages the event in that environment
> without specifically engaging with that environment] and "site-specific
> performance" in which the intention of the performance is to transform the
> understanding of the site (and its history and/or everyday significance)
> with which the performance engages.   To complicate matters, it isn't
> always obvious where the boundary falls -- eg Anna Halprin's dance rituals
> (for example) are more often environmental performances but are also at
> times site specific.
>
> Anyway, I would be very grateful for your assistance, or for pointers to
> other contacts of whom I can inquire.
>
> Thanks you for your time
> -Raewyn Whyte
>
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--
Susan Leslie Mann, Dance



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