Table Of ContentIMPROVISED DANCE
This book elucidates the technical aspects of improvised dance performance and
reframes the notion of labour in the practice from one that is either based on
compositionally formal logic or a mysterious impulse, to one that addresses the
(in)corporeal dimensions of practice.
Mobilising the languages and conceptual frameworks of theories of affect,
embodied cognition, somatics, and dance, this book illustrates the work of spe-
cialist improvisers who occupy divergent positions within the complex field of
improvised dance. It offers an alternative narrative of the history and current prac-
tice of Western improvised dance centred on the epistemology of its (in)corporeal
knowledges, which are elusive yet vital to the refinement of expertise.
Written for both a disciplinary-specific and interdisciplinary audience, this
book will interest dance scholars, students, and practising artists.
Nalina Wait is a dance artist and pracademic currently lecturing at the Aus-
tralian College of Physical Education. She is of Irish settler descent and lives on
Gadigal Country in Eora, Sydney. Her interests are the practice and performance
of dance improvisation, somatics, and the cultivation of somatic intelligence.
IMPROVISED DANCE
(In)Corporeal Knowledges
Nalina Wait
Designed cover image: Nalina Wait in Sue Healey’s The Curiosities,
2009. Photo by Heidrun Löhr.
First published 2023
by Routledge
4 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN
and by Routledge
605 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10158
Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business
© 2023 Nalina Wait
The right of Nalina Wait to be identified as author of this work has
been asserted in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the Copyright,
Designs and Patents Act 1988.
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced
or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other
means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and
recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without
permission in writing from the publishers.
Trademark notice: Product or corporate names may be trademarks
or registered trademarks, and are used only for identification and
explanation without intent to infringe.
British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Wait, Nalina, author.
Title: Improvised dance : (in)corporeal knowledges / Nalina Wait.
Description: First Edition. | New York : Routledge, 2023. | Includes
bibliographical references and index.
Identifiers: LCCN 2022053067 (print) | LCCN 2022053068 (ebook) |
ISBN 9781032438276 (Hardcover) | ISBN 9781032438283 (Paperback) |
ISBN 9781003369011 (eBook)
Subjects: LCSH: Improvisation in dance.
Classification: LCC GV1781.2 .W35 2023 (print) |
LCC GV1781.2 (ebook) |
DDC 792.8--dc23/eng/20230109
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2022053067
LC ebook record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2022053068
ISBN: 978-1-032-43827-6 (hbk)
ISBN: 978-1-032-43828-3 (pbk)
ISBN: 978-1-003-36901-1 (ebk)
DOI: 10.4324/9781003369011
Typeset in Bembo
by KnowledgeWorks Global Ltd.
For Mary and George, and Lizzie.
CONTENTS
List of Figures x
Credit List xi
Acknowledgements xii
1 Western Improvised Dance: Practices, Pedagogies,
and Language 1
Introduction 1
What is improvised performance in contemporary dance? 2
The rise of improvisation 4
An overview of improvisation theory 6
Theorising forces through a lineage of practice 7
Documenting corporeal knowledges 10
Asserting improvisational (in)corporeal knowledges 12
Dancing subject-object 16
Philosophical interiority via affect theory 19
Contingency methods 20
2 Dewey and the Pre-History of Western Improvisation 39
Introduction 39
H’Doubler, Dewey, and alternative science at Columbia 42
H’Doubler’s Deweyan approach to dance pedagogy 43
Natural movement 44
Feeling tones of physical origin 46
Affective phase of movement 48
Dewey and Ethics 50
viii Contents
Alternative sciences, institutional recognition, and divergence 51
Halprin 53
3 Embodied Consciousness 64
Introduction 64
Embodied consciousness 66
Thinking-through-the-body 69
The body’s mind 77
Conclusion 83
4 Resonance of Affect and Immanent Evaluation 90
Introduction 90
Affect and improvisation 93
Training and habit 100
Style and tone 102
Immanent evaluation 106
Science, affect, and sympathetic resonance 108
Conclusion 110
5 The Aesthetics of an Ethics of Being 116
Introduction 116
Spinoza’s Ethics 120
Eva Karczag: moving and allowing one’s self to be moved 126
Ethical actions 133
6 Cultivating Movement Systems 142
Introduction 142
The “Forsythe aesthetic” 145
Post-control choreography 148
Riley Watts: pattern-seeking 153
Complex relational situation 157
Nicole Peisl: polarities supporting a field of tension 159
Circulation of affective forces 163
7 Prohibitive and Emancipative Self-Surveillance 170
Introduction 170
Self-observation 172
Ideokinesis 174
Emancipative and prohibitive self-surveillance 175
Contents ix
Anatomical truth 179
Dissolving binaries to innovate improvisation 184
Listening to body-mind and composing improvisation 186
Authentic Movement 190
Conclusion 194
Glossary 202
Index 216
