Unworking Choreography

The Notion of the Work in Dance

Frédéric Pouillaude

Oxford Studies in Dance Theory

Presents Frédéric Pouillaude's genre-shaping text on the philosophy of dance and space for the first time in English
Analyzes the roles of dance as space versus dance as art
Approaches both the philosophy and ethnography of dance studies

Unworking Choreography

The Notion of the Work in Dance

Frédéric Pouillaude

Oxford Studies in Dance Theory

Description

There is no archive or museum of human movement, no place where choreographies can be collected and conserved in pristine form. The central consequence of this is the incapacity of philosophy and aesthetics to think of dance as a positive and empirical art. In the eyes of philosophers, dance refers to a space other than art, considered both more frivolous and more fundamental than the artwork without ever quite attaining the status of a work. Unworking Choreography develops this idea and postulates an unworking as evidenced by a conspicuous absence of references to actual choreographic works within philosophical accounts of dance; the late development and partial dominance of the notion of the work in dance in contrast to other art forms such as painting, music, and theatre; the difficulties in identifying dance works given a lack of scores and an apparent resistance within the art form to the possibility of notation; and the questioning of ends of dance in contemporary practice and the relativisation of the very idea that dance artistic or choreographic processes aim at work production.

Unworking Choreography

The Notion of the Work in Dance

Frédéric Pouillaude

Oxford Studies in Dance Theory

Preface to the English edition

Translator's Preface

Introduction and acknowledgements

PART 1: PHILOSOPHY OF DANCE AND THE ABSENTING OF WORKS

Chapter 1: On Transcendental Absenting
Chapter 2: A Time with No Outside (Valéry and Jouissance)
Chapter 3: A Space with No Place (Straus and Ecstasy)
Chapter 4: The Absence of the Work: Presence, Expenditure, Auto-affection

PART 2: THE WORK (1): THE STAGE AND SIGNIFICATION

Chapter 1: Mallarmé: Deciphering the Stage
Chapter 2: Spectacle, Ritual, Divertissement (Genesis and Structure of the
Choreographic Stage, I)
Chapter 3: Presence, Ideality, Signification (Genesis and Structure of the
Choreographic Stage, II)
Chapter 4: Artaud: Presence and Ritual

PART 3: THE WORK (2): IMMANENCE AND IDEALITY

Chapter 1: Writing That Says Nothing
Chapter 2: Identity: Two Regimes
Chapter 3: Oral Identities: Passing Dance on, Making Versions
Chapter 4: The Supporting Trace: Images and Scores

PART 4: A TECHNIQUE WITH NO OBJECT

Chapter 1: What is a Dance Technique?
Chapter 2: Technique or Language: An Analogical Impasse
Chapter 3: Lack of Tools as Loss of Memory
Chapter 4: Intending the Unintentional, Repeating the Unrepeatable

Conclusion (1): Reflect and Repeat

Section 1: Stage and Contemporaneity
Section 2: The Reflexive Labour of Performance
Section 3: The Memorial Labour of the Work

Conclusion (2): Gesture and Trace

Appendix of illustrations

Bibliography and References

Unworking Choreography

The Notion of the Work in Dance

Frédéric Pouillaude

Oxford Studies in Dance Theory

Author Information

Frédéric Pouillaude is Lecturer in Aesthetics and Philosophy of Art at the University of Paris-Sorbonne and Junior Member of the Institut Universitaire de France. This book was originally published in French as Le Désoeuvrement Chorégraphique. Étude sur la Notion d'Oeuvre en Danse (Vrin, 2009).

Unworking Choreography

The Notion of the Work in Dance

Frédéric Pouillaude

Oxford Studies in Dance Theory

Reviews and Awards

"Ecumenical yet provocative, studied yet playful, a contemporary classic that stands out for balancing the reality of dance against philosophy's struggle to theorize it...Essential reading."--Dominic McIver Lopies, Distinguished University Scholar and Professor of Philosophy, The University of British Columbia

"Pouillaude moves dance studies forward toward new ways of theorizing how choreographic works exist without allowing us to neglect the precise historical forms in which they do indeed remain."--Carrie Noland, Professor of French, University of California - Irvine