Jasmin Vardimon's Dance Theatre: Movement, memory and metaphor [Kietas viršelis]

This title is a unique insight into a current choreographer’s devising and training processes, from an unusually immediate and intimate perspective. It fits well into our recent publishing not only on dance and choreography (Burrows, Forsythe, Contemporary Choreography), but also on physical theatre (Frantic Assembly), and bucks a trend by examining a dance practitioner adopting theatrical techniques, as opposed to the other way around. It is a collaborative approach to reflecting on a world-renowned practitioner’s work and process, which combines the contributions not only of an academic and practitioner, but also the artist herself.

The authors examine Vardimon’s working processes – and those of her company – with regard to the development of specific productions. This keeps the focus on the techniques, strategies and creative activities necessitated by each project without attempting to concoct a prescriptive and presumptuous ‘blueprint’. They cover the following main concerns:

• Questioning the social, political and psychological content of Vardimon’s work

• How a balance is sustained between accessibility of content and complexity of concepts

• The inherent messiness of an editing process that inevitably leaves many valuable pieces of performance material behind

• The initial ‘triggers’ that lead to research, expansion, and eventually to the performance itself

• Drawing on text to enhance and shape a piece of dance work

• The contribution of a company’s different voices and viewpoints to the development of a production