The Touch of Reading: Dance Documentation and Audience Participation

research question(s): When looking at scores and choreographic objects addressed to the audience, what are the languages that are used? This research focuses on multimodal writing, which addresses the differences of knowledge between readers, and stimulates alterity. In the performance of readership (where spectators are readers of a common thing) how does the movement of reading lead to a specific form of participation, not necessarily visible or obvious? This research relates to the notion of the spectator as a co-creator, implicated, a ‘partner in crime’. How to incorporate the audience’s experience to the work?

This research investigates how do we move when we read in relation to the content of dance documentation and to the collective contexts of performance. I observe the impact of documents addressed to the audience on the spectators’ qualities of participation. What role can the artefacts of choreography play in the encounter between spectators during the choreographic event? For a conscious encounter in the acts of thinking with others and of welcoming differences.

To study spectatorial exchanges, I observe relational models within the performative context of magic close up shows and within the context of performances of readership (where spectators read the same material). These observations in practice lead to the performance Papier Multiforme et Papier Comestible.  I engage conversations with contemporary artists on the topics of documentation, audience participation, and reading: Anouk Llaurens, Mette Edvardsen, Alice Pons and Olivia Reschofsky.