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Investigating Dance Improvisation: From Spontaneity to Agency

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  13 August 2020

Susanne Ravn
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Abstract

This article argues that the performance of a dance entails varying degrees of openness and spontaneity and that, on these terms, any dance can be considered improvised. The first part substantiates this claim, whereupon the second part deals with the contingent question as to how dancers then handle openness and spontaneity differently in improvisation practices. To answer this question, the article turns to enactive and phenomenological clarifications of agency—our capacity to perform acts—and by analyzing the improvisation of Danish performer Kitt Johnson, indicates how this clarification can help us understand the different ways agency is exercised when improvising.

Keywords

agencyenactivismimprovisationinteractorsphenomenologysense of agencyspontaneity
Type
Articles
Information
Dance Research Journal , Volume 52 , Issue 2 , August 2020 , pp. 75 - 87
Copyright
Copyright © 2020 Dance Studies Association

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References

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