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Projects, Precarity, and the Ontology of Dance Works

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  23 April 2019

Hetty Blades
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Abstract

Project-based work is common within “precarious” working contexts. Within contemporary dance, short-term funding opportunities often result in the production of “sharings,” works in progress, and one-off performance events. This paper considers the relationship between the outputs of projects and the ontology of choreographic “works.” Drawing on Frédéric Pouillaude's conception of choreographic works as both public and resistant, I examine entities produced through projects, which, borrowing a term from choreographer Hamish MacPherson, I label “work-sketches.” Furthermore, I reflect on the correlation between “immaterial labor” and the concept of the choreographic work, thinking through the commodity form of work-sketches and probing the relationship between socioeconomic contexts and dance work ontology.

Keywords

ontologywork-sketchesprojectsprecarityimmaterial labor
Type
Articles
Information
Dance Research Journal , Volume 51 , Special Issue 1: Work With(Out) Boundaries: Precarity and Dance , April 2019 , pp. 66 - 78
Copyright
Copyright © Dance Studies Association 2019 

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